Big Fish Games: Wandering Willows

by Katy Dubu · May 10, 2009

I’ve been on a Big Fish Games kick for a few weeks now. I went through and replayed all the games I had already purchased since I didn’t transfer any of the save files.
Games I purchased

60 min trials I played

I talked a bit about most of these on our May 3rd podcast. My new excitement which I will rave about on today’s podcast is Wandering Willows! This game is the most addicting in a while!

You have crashed your hot air balloon on an island where no one will be helpful until you help them first. What jackasses!! You immediately have a cute animal following you around that will help you dig up stuff, shake things from trees and charm stuff out of other animals. As your animal does these things they get better at it, so the cherries that were in a taller tree become reachable for your pet after it levels up. The townspeople all have crashed on the island also and think you should stay, but you just want to fix your balloon and return home. Each character has likes and dislikes, which effects whether or not you become better friends, when giving them gifts. As the friend level increases they will give you things like recipes to make other things. There is a flower store, clothing store and grocery store as well as a stable to hatch the eggs of more animals and for boarding them. The different animals give you different bonuses such as better prices at stores or more chances of digging up a type of resource. You can also create collars for the animals to boost their abilities. Eventually making things for characters causes them to do things to unlock other areas of the map where you find new animals, resources and people.

This game looks simple and cutesy, but it has a whole lot going for it! It reminds me of Harvest Moon in the recipe making aspect, a little bit of A Kingdom for Keflings with all the resource gathering and a touch of Animal Crossing too! I can’t believe I am taking time away from playing the game to write about it!!

Here are screen shots of my game

Planting flax in the garden	Charmed the wool out of an animal
Buying things in a shop	The pet stable
My torn balloon waiting for repairs	A task was completed