iPhone App Review: We Rule

If you have ever played Farmville on Facebook, then you should be familiar with how the game play works. The game is developed by Ngmoco and New Toy. In We Rule (iTunes | free), you are the ruler of the kingdom. The premise is simple. You plant crops, wait for them to grow and then sell them for a nice profit. The first crop at your disposal is corn. It takes only 45 seconds to harvest. As time progresses and the higher up you level, more crops are available and the payout is even larger. Keep an eye on the time it takes. If it says it takes 2 hours and 30 seconds, then it will take just that. Don’t worry though. The game does come with push notification. You’re given a friendly reminder that your crop is ready to harvest.  If the pesky, almost annoying push notifications bother you, you can turn them off in the settings panel on your phone (settings>notifications>we rule) or you can do it from right in the game.

The game does require an internet connection and a plus+ account. It’s free and very easy to set up. Having friends on your account is beneficial to you and to them. That is, if you both play the game. Adding friends is just as easy. You’re taken to the “map screen” of the kingdom. Click on the plus+ button at top. This takes you to your plus+ account page. You can check out leader boards, awards, game you recently played, and your plus+ friends. To add friends, select the icon right next to the ‘house’. Click the plus sign and type in your friend’s name. If you don’t have friends that do play the game, I suggest scouring the iTunes app store We Rule review page and/or other review sites about the game. Many people post their online game handle wanting you to add them. And yes, I did it too. After adding a friend, their kingdom will now be on the map screen for you. You can visit their kingdom, view it and even visit different shops the have. (I’ll cover that in just a bit)

You can also build shops within your kingdom to gain more revenue and XP points. Just like the crops, more shops are available for you as you level up. Leveling up does go pretty quickly the first few levels. After that, it does take some time to advance. Each shop offers different gold and XP amounts. You can build a school and offer science fairs, a mine, visit tailors for sewing ponds, bakers, guilds, etc… That’s just a handful. You’re welcome to have as many as you like. You aren’t limited to just one of something. If you want five mines, you can have five mines. The more shops you have and the more friends, the more money and XP points you can accumulate.  Just like crops, they take time to complete the task. The shops take much longer than the crops but you can complete them instantly with the help of mojo. Mojo is helpful to speed up harvesting, finishing building shops are finishing an order sent by a friend. You gain mojo with level advancement. If you need mojo badly, you can purchase it for real money. The prices are,

  • 4.99  for 30
  • 9.99 for 75
  • 19.99 for 165
  • 29.99 for 300
  • 49.99 for 800

I for one don’t feel the need to spend real money on a boost of energy that will not enhance the game. I play Mafia Wars on Facebook and will not stoop to the level of buying energy packs just to get my mob to level such and such. If you’re desperate for mojo, I suggest placing as many orders as you can, plant the best crop you have at your disposal, turn off the game and wait. Save your mojo. Two high level shops can be purchased with gold or mojo. I have yet to reach that level (I am at level 13), so I cannot tell you what they payout.

Your friends can visit your kingdom and place orders within shops that you have opened. On the map screen, a small ‘open for business’ sign will hover over your kingdom. They enter your kingdom just by clicking on it. Any friend can place orders on available shops but only one per kingdom. The more friends you have, the more chances you have to place orders. The shop will have the sign above it letting the player know they can place an order. If you are not logged on and someone does place an order, you get a push notification. Clicking on shops will show you the remaining time left to complete the order, the option to use mojo to finish it, buy mojo, or as mentioned before, you can turn push notification for that specific crop/shop on or off. But don’t worry. If no one places an order on the shop, you still make some money. So it does pay to have friends. Careful though. Some jobs will not be completed. I have yet to discover why that is. Could it be I waited to too long to retrieve it or is it based on chance?

You can gain money from building cottages. You have 4 different styles to choose from, (brown, blue, orange, straw)After the cottage is constructed (which takes about 1 minute), each cottage is taxed. It’ll take 4 hours (roughly) for the payout to be ready. It’s a very small amount (2xp, 4 gold). I am still not sure if it’s really worth spending money on cottages when the payout is small and the amount of time to complete is so long. The more cottages and shops you build, the more people who begin to wander your kingdom. Click on the people for a fun little sound byte. The citizens don’t do anything for you in gaining revenue or xp points, they just add a little fun and life to the game.

To build anything in your kingdom, just click on the hammer in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Not only can you build shops, cottages, and crops, you can lay out the land however you wish. You can place roads, rivers, flags, flowers, mailboxes, and my personal favorite, an outhouse. They are broken down into sections. (shops, trees/roads, decorations, flags, castle upgrade). Not all are readily available. They are locked till you reach a certain level. These do kick back a little XP points. So if you’re really in need of some XP points to level up, purchase some decor. You can place them really just about anywhere. It can be a little frustrating when you are trying to make the kingdom look a certain way and you come to find out that one certain item cannot be placed down because something is blocking it. Personally, it’s the castle that seems to be in the way. The castle can also be leveled up for a large wad of cash. You start with a very simplistic base camp and as you hit certain levels, you can upgrade it to a much larger castle. Currently, you can upgrade it at levels, 4, 10, 15, and 20. When you upgrade your castle, you also gain more land to build on.

With more space available, you get a little more leg room to move your kingdom around. Moving objects is simple. Click the hammer icon and at the buy screen, you’ll see a little hard hat at top. Click that to edit the layout of your kingdom. Select the object you wish to move. Press it and drag it with your finger to the new location. You’ll be notified with a pop up if it cannot be placed there. Tapping the object will let you rotate it or sell it back for a not so fair payback. The moving option is easy but can be frustrating. You should watch what you click and drag. I personally have deleted shops and an almost ready to harvest crop.Some shops or objects take up more room than you think. I spent a little bit of time each day laying out the land as to how I see fit. Only downside is when I upgrade my castle to a larger one. My land will expand and all the hard work I put into setting it up, will be set off with the newly expanded terrain.

The game is still fairly new. I expect bugs and problems. The game has crashed a few times and lags often but not often enough where it’s an issue. This week has been a headache for players and I am sure for the developers too. Connecting to the servers has been troublesome. I am certain there was/is  an update to the game. (the update wasn’t via the app store but a pop up in game). I logged in and saw a shop that wasn’t there earlier this day. Logging out and later back, I had to sit though another update. The update failed countless times, forcing me to exit the application and restart it. Eventually, it worked and the newly discovered shop was now missing. At least that faux pas lets me know they are true to their words about updates of future crops, shops and more. I’ve read issues with people losing crops and shops but I haven’t ran into that at all.

I highly suggest you check out the game. It is free. It’s a 30mb download size. But compared to many games coming out for the Iphone, that seems about average. The colors are bright. Graphics are nice and the game play is very easy. It’s not a game where you sit endlessly for hours in front of it. You can plant your crops, order a few things through shops, and be on your way. Keep push on to keep your crops from dying and be told if someone is requesting an order at one of your shops.

You’re welcome to add me to your kingdom. My plus+ account is pitweston. Add me if you like.

Click Here For Itunes Download Link

Also available for the Ipad!

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pitweston

I like food. I like the smell of cinnamon.

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