MSRP: $0.99-$2.99 depending on platform
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android
Release: 2/2/16
It’s Spring Again is another game I stumbled across by way of my bundle issue: it’s not something I would have been likely to stumble across on my own. My first thought was that this was more art, less game, but then I realized I’m really not the intended audience.
This is an educational, interactive game for children. Small children. Which probably explains why I managed to blast through the whole thing in less than 10 minutes with 100% achievement completion (spoiler: the achievements aren’t all that challenging).
The narrator, a soothing female voice, will talk you (or, hopefully, your small child) through the seasons – when she says that flowers start to bloom, clicking the ground will produce flowers. Everything is personified and pretty and you want to click on stuff just to see what happens. I’m sure for a toddler, watching flowers bloom where he clicks would be beyond delightful.
Deep game play, this isn’t, friends. And like the seasons, the whole thing just plays on endless loop until you either click the circle in the upper right hand corner to exit, or your small child wanders off to find something far louder he or she could be doing. There’s even an autoplay button on the main menu screen for those little ones who haven’t yet gotten the hang of using a mouse or touch screen.
I debated not doing an entry for It’s Spring Again after realizing what I had stumbled into. Then I realized that gamers are very often also parents, and for those of you with small people at home that you want to ease into the gamer life, I cannot thing of a prettier, more benign, and less expensive intro.
366 Days of Gaming 