I can't stop squealing

In an impressive turn of awareness, one of my shieldmate's co-workers bought us Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie figures for an office Secret Santa. We pitched "Rainbow's" purse and Pinkie's really-that-'s-a-Rarity-accessory tiara and placed the gals appropriately in the house. Then during dinner we looked over that fold out sheet that shows you everything else you can buy. Wow, I remember getting those with my Transformers. Nostaaaaalgia.

Then we saw a recommendation for an MLP app game.

We figured, "Eh, it's free, let's give it a shot."

We were up till 1 am.

I'm probably the last fan to this party, but it's a resource management game starting in Ponyville that loosely grows with the canon as you progress. All the voice actors are in it and the dialogue's fun and I kept giggling and smiling a bunch and it's adorable and squee, squee, SQUEE.

It's not just getting ponies work in little shops and getting bits and gems to progress as you have to level up the ponies so they can do certain jobs. The leveling up games are simple and addictive. I'm very good at apple catching and okay at navigating the clouds, Jess is better at the ball game and constellation connection. We're both unimpressed with the clearly tacked on Equestria Girls rhythm game, but we slog it. Even when Jess is cursing it blue for the rhythm beats not having anything to do with the song. At all. Seriously.

As of this morning, it has joined Jess's morning DragonVale-ing and I've been teased that I'm going to be in Ponyville all through the holiday (THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT, THEY'RE IN THEIR HEARTH'S WARMING PAGEANT COSTUMES AND EVERYPONY CAPERS ABOUT, BEING ADORABLE AS YOU GAME AND IT'S SUNSHINES AND HAPPINESS AND I CAN'T), and there's probably some validity there.

Don't know if it'll go the long way, but it's fun right now.

And it is in no way taking away from my writing. At all. It is a writer's enhancing tool. Totally.

Comments

[Masterweaver]

Meanwhile I'm stuck writing about super hero ponies. SIIIIIIIIIGH...

[Sparkler]

Eventually, you need to get more and more grinding done to get to more voiceacting parts, which is where I lost interest. That, and its small tendancy to crash on my phone.

But - yeah, it might be a recycled game but damn they put some effort into it.

[Bookish Delight]

Ooooh! That sounds like the Gameloft ga-

I'm very good at apple catching and okay at navigating the clouds, Jess is better at the ball game and constellation connection. We're both unimpressed with the clearly tacked on Equestria Girls rhythm game

It is the Gameloft game.

Yeah, that thing is really, really adorbs. It's so easy to just get lost watching the town have tons of fun and converse and party and everything. (It's also been the one MLP thing to ever make a case for Derpy for me.) And the pony models are really convincing provided you don't zoom in to ground level or something. I'm not surprised you enjoy it at all -- there's a whole lot to like

That said, it drove a lot of people away from it during its first year of release due to bad design decisions and blatant fleecing maneuvers (Rainbow Dash used to cost an ABSOLUTE FORTUNE, disproportionately so from the other M6, for starters, and things only got worse from there.) The game's also a Farmville derivative and when those are done wrong, it's easy to see those as preying psychological traps. I'm all for paying cash for things I want in an F2P but they were asking multiple times a retail game's price for some pieces of the the content in this sucker! It was that bad.

But yeah I was one of those people burned by it back then so I admit I harbor a little bit of resentment despite it getting the show's aesthetic so, so right... but from what I'm reading, though, it's expanded its content (there used to be only three minigames, one city, no events and so few ponies) and gotten less dumb in its pricing and mechanics, so thanks for reminding me to try it out again. If they've worked out the prices to something fairer, I might actually pay money this time!

Enjoy! And hey, it actually is a writer's enhancing tool. Not even joking. It's a window into the world! Seriously, what more could you ask for?

Oh oh oh and one piece of advice from someone who's stared into the abyss and blinked: it's okay to just stare at the game a bunch, but resist the urge to actually powerplay/grind in it. That way lies so much burnout. Playing so many of those minigames in a row is just... Just enjoy it for what it is and know you'll get that pony you want... uh, someday.

Easy for me to say, though since YOU START WITH TWILIGHT SPARKLE. :D

[Cerulean Starlight]

I agree with Bookish on about every point, so I don't have much to say. Oh! There's one thing: A lot of the flavor text ponies say to you when you start and finish quests in this game is really neat and shows their character! Look at these two ridiculously cute "Find and tap the pony in the box" quests:

Oh my gosh! Thanks for throwing me that ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party! I just have one teeny-weeny question: have you seen my quirky little pony pal?

*GASP* Oh, there she is! I didn't see her at the big party, and I got super-duper worried! But silly me, she was here the whole time!

Hoh my gawd, the first thing, the first friggin' thing Pinkie does when she gets back in Ponyville is check to make sure Derpy's okay, oh that's adorable hnnngg

Hey y'all! I'm lookin' for my li'l wide-eyed pony pal. Now where did that doggone pony run off to again? Have ya seen her anywhere? I've got an apple pie with her name on it!

Ah, there she is! Sometimes that pony likes to play hide 'n' seek... but she forgets to tell anypony! Thanks fer findin' her for me.

hnnnnggg