Fairy Godmother Tycoon Review

We all have fond childhood memories of sugary sweet fairytales with happy endings, where pretty girls get to marry handsome princes thanks to a little magical intervention from trusty old Fairy Godmother. But this is the 21st century, and Fairy Godmother doesn't just grant wishes for fun anymore - she's in it for the cold hard cash.

In Fairy Godmother Tycoon, the name of the game is potions. Fairy Godmother has built a vast empire in the land of Onceuponia (say it out loud) by creating and selling potions to peasants to remove various curses. As her assistant, you'll help her manage and expand that empire by doing things like buying ingredients, setting prices, purchasing upgrades to your shop, and hiring goons to intimidate the competition.

There's quite a bit you'll need to know in order to run a potion empire, but thankfully the game eases you into it gently in the first level, which is aptly named Tutorialville. The key to running a successful biz lies in mastering the basics of supply and demand. Each day you'll receive a news byte telling you the forecast for curses that day; from there you can predict how many potions you'll need and buy enough ingredients. You can also set the price of your potions and invest in some advertising.

Once you're all set, you begin the day and watch it roll by in real time as customers go about their daily routines. If you've done your preparation correctly, your marketing campaign will lure them into the store, your prices will be reasonable enough that they won't storm off indignantly, and the mark-up on the potions will be high enough to bring in some decent dough.

Those are the very basics, but once you leave the comfy confines of Tutorialville things will start to get nastier as you go up against rival stores. You'll find yourself strategically placing "goons" - special marketing tools - to either guide peasants to your store or try to discourage them from visiting other stores - and your rivals will be doing the same. As you research more complicated and expensive spells, you'll also need to invest back into your store by upgrading your warehouse, storefront, in-store entertainment and other things to keep your well-oiled empire running smoothly.

Finally, since you're a fairy and have magical powers and stuff, you can purchase a few different spells to help you during the real-time part of the game, such as freezing an opponent's goon in its tracks or flying in emergency ingredients if you run out.

There are eight fairytale-themed villages to set up shop in, and they come with names like Three Piggyton, Shoe Haven and Sure Would Forest. Since Fairy Godmother won't be happy with anything less than a monopoly, your goal is generally to either acquire a certain minimum net worth or cash reserve, or to simply put all the competition out of business.

Given Fairy Godmother's status in the community, the locals often come to her (and, by extension, you) to try to solve their problems. These dialogues play out as a series of multiple choice questions, and serve as interesting diversions that, if you help people by giving them good advice, can reward the store with extra cash and reputation boosts.

The game's "tycoon" mechanics are modelled after other successful management sims like Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon and Railroad Tycoon. However, equally impressive is the game's strong story, great dialogue and wicked sense of humour, which throws in a ton of fairytale references filtered through a contemporary lens with snide references to modern life. (Think Shrek.)

For example, some of the dialogues you'll encounter involve investigating a betting ring at the race between the Tortoise and the Hair, moderating a property dispute between Little Bo Peep and Mary - who each lay claim to the same lamb - and helping the Ugly Ducking overcome her self-esteem issues.

Fairy Godmother Tycoon is definitely an A-list package that does most things right, but there are a few gripes that are worth mentioning. The real-time part of the game takes place on an overhead map of the village, but the actual interior of your store - where most of the action is taking place - is a tiny little window down at the bottom left. Since you end up investing a lot of money into your store to fill it with fancy entertainment and flashy-fast potion makers, it would be nice to be able to get a decent look at the store itself, either by having a bigger window, a zoom option, or a way to toggle between exterior and interior views.

Also, a real-time strategy game like Fairy Godmother Tycoon absolutely screams for an online multiplayer mode so that you can go head-to-head against other human players. Alas, there's no multiplayer to be found.

Complaints aside, Fairy Godmother Tycoon is perhaps the quirkiest "tycoon" game yet, and it's definitely a hoot to play.

I bought this game two days ago and I'm totally hooked! I haven't got far enough into it yet to be able to complain too much about the size of the window at the bottom left of the screen - I'm still trying to get to grips with the first non-tutorial level - so I don't have much to keep track of in my store yet. I can see how it may become a problem later though.

I'm sure that some of the game developers are Baby Boomers because, even at the level I've reached so far, I've encountered several thinly veiled references (both in the graphics and text) to the 1960s and 70s, which brought back warm fuzzy nostalgic feelings to a BB like me!

Talking about graphics: excellent, quirky graphics right from the opening sequence to Exit Game. I can't comment on the music because I always listen to the radio while I'm "working" ;) on my computer so I mute sounds in games. Some time or other I'll have to find a programme I don't like on the radio, turn that off and play my games "full score" for a change.

I'm currently trying to put the Ugly Prince out of business - I'm sure I detect a wicked caricature of a certain British Royal here :) - and I've just got the Tortoise and the Hare on my side by arbitrating in their case. Now all I have to do is try and persuade that loan shark to go easy on my interest payments so I can build up some capital :(.

i love the look of this game and would love to play it!
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I love this game; it is so addicting!! I am currently on the Ugly-Prince level; the one with the pirates! I love this game!

Great Game!! BUT THE PRICE TO BUY IT IS OUTRAGEOUS

I've gotten up to the 6th level in the game, and now it just keeps shutting down on me. My computer geek friend has assured me there's nothing wrong with my computer, and that it should run fine, so it may just be a glitch in the game since it's so new. Has anybody else had this problem?

hi

Looks totaly cool!!!

i

Just finished this game. Absolutely awesome. Only thing was that at the end the demand was so high that they were unhappy waiting and I had bought all of the upgrades. I did notice that at the end the house in the upper right corner was not accessible. Any ideas?? Is this where the Fairy GM retires?

Loved It!!

Fun but way to easy....finished in a few days.

Disappointing. It starts well, and there's a lot of clever parody, as well as many gameplaying elements to fool around with. But then after the third or maybe fourth town, you begin to realize that the AI is literally incompetent, and never uses most of the options that are available. It hasn't in my experience (and I've played through the game) ever hired goons that do more than publicize itself--and that, only in one town. It never hires the goons that are just passing through. It often prices ridiculously high, or ridiculously low. It doesn't employ any of the spells that are available to you. In short, it's sort of a series of very rich dummy corporations whom you have to beat with less money to start but a ton of extras. Very boring, once you realize it just means playing the same way, in every new town.

I like the tycoon sort of games already, but this game is exceptionally entertaining.
One thing to keep in mind is that it is a Tycoon game, so there's really no reason to expect it to be something completely different.
No matter what, this game is a lot of fun and I enjoyed this game immensely.

I finished this game in 8 hours (i'm a fast player), and though addicting, it kinda loses it's kick after you complete all the scenarios.

TOO EASY!!!

=P

It looks really cool. I dunno why but I hope they make a The Sims 2 expantion pack using the same idea.

I want to play now....

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