This week Amazon's Buy One, Get One Free Sale on Game Downloads
is all about simulation games. Both Build-a-lot and Airport Mania: First Flight are included in the sale this time, for those that missed previous offers on them. I've played Airport Mania quite a bit and will keep at it until I get all the gold stars on all the levels.Several themes are repeated amongst the games, so you might want to try them a day or two before deciding which to get (remember, all game downloads can be tried for free for 14 days, but the sale ends at the end of the week). There are two coffee bar games (Coffee Rush & Coffee Tycoon
) and one where you run a beer bar (Betty's Beer Bar
), several reality show games (The Apprentice: Los Angeles
, My Tribe
, Top Chef
and Hell's Kitchen
), cooking games (Cake Mania 2
, Cake Mania 3
, Cooking Academy 2: World Cuisine
, Hot Dish 2
and Vanilla and Chocolate
, amongst others) and more. Surprisingly, at least to me, one of the biggest categories is farm and garden simulators. On the first page alone, I found Farm Mania
(includes virtual beekeeping, not only easier on the back and with less stings, but a good lesson in how our food chain is all connected), Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party
(raise all the crops needed in order to make a pizza), Youda Farmer
(try to run a financially successful farm), Farm Craft (run a small farm and fight off corporate agriculture), Orchard
(grow the fruit, make juice and bake pies) and Sunshine Acres
(take those seeds from planting to harvest to market). There are a few traditional puzzle/quest type games as well as life skills simulators (raise a puppy, kitten or baby, for example). In other words, there should be something in there for everyone. And at $5 or less for each game on the sale (the most expensive games are $9.99, others are $6.99), it's one of the best dollar per hour values in entertainment around and provides a break from reading now and then.
