Back to save the village once more, eh? Youda Farmer 3: Seasons is a time management game from the seasoned experts of the casual genre, Youda Games. Following the original Youda Farmer and its sequel Youda Farmer 2: Save the Village, the third in the series keeps the gameplay largely the same but introduces several great features, all adding up to a healthy and robust time management simulation experience you'll enjoy mastering!

A winter storm destroys most of the small town, leaving little more than your wood mill intact. The mayor panics and asks you to help rebuild the buildings piece by piece. Hopping in your trusty truck, you set out to package and deliver goods, constructing and upgrading things like the baker, the market, various farms and more, each of which both produces and requires products. And guess who the lucky delivery boy/girl is?! PROTIP: It's you!

Using the series' staple interface design, you control everything that happens in the game with quick clicks around the edges of the screen. Cards pop up at the bottom indicating when a product is ready. Click the card and the map scrolls to that area. Drag the product into a crate and your truck automatically drives to that location, ready to load! You can either chain together a few products at the same location for a bonus score, or scoot off to another area to grab some more goods. Depending on the needs of the level, your strategy will vary widely. Either way, you've gotta be efficient with your clicks!

Goods in tow, check the top of the screen to see which townsfolk need which products. Baker needs some eggs? Click his card and the map will show you his shop. Then, choose which goods you want to deliver to him and click the "deliver" button to set it in stone. You get your money, the baker gets his things, and the level continues. Simple!

There are a few upgrades you can spend your money on in Youda Farmer 3, the most notable of which include additional storage, faster truck speeds, and support services for natural disasters which, it's worth mentioning, do occur. The upgrades aren't really the central focus of the game, though, as Youda Farmer 3 is a serious time management experience where managing your time is all you've got to do!

Analysis: Youda Farmer 3: Seasons far outshines its predecessors in almost every way possible. It doesn't innovate as much as the previous two releases did, but the improvements are subtle and welcome, allowing both veterans and new players room to experience new things. It's a click-fest, for sure, but the sense of satisfaction you get from successfully stringing together deliveries far outpaces the frustration you'll feel when you occasionally fail.

Visually, Youda Farmer 3 is easily one of the best-looking time management games out there. Not only does every in-game element look great, but the interface is incredibly stylish, looking like it was lifted out of the pages of a futuristic sci-fi novel, only not in a science fictioney sort of way.

Notably new in Youda Farmer 3 is the hotel. We're all familiar with supplying pancake houses and restaurants with materials they need to produce delicious foods. But with the hotel, you can attract rich but demanding visitors who order meals and pay a premium for the service.

Youda Farmer 3 continues Youda Games' fine tradition of time management releases with a title that impresses on every front. It's a lengthy, good-looking, challenging experience that will truly test your ability to juggle a number of tasks at once!

Windows:
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Mac OS X:
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