Now your kids can play and learn in their very own garden with Let’s Play Garden on the Wii and DS. Each version features agricultural themed mini-games for all ages.

In the Wii version, first select a boy or girl gardener and get tips and instructions from a helpful talking dog. All about the garden are mini-games to play. If you beat all the skill levels in one game, you’ll unlock an item for your garden to make it bigger and prettier. You can even challenge a friend in some games with Multiplayer Mode.

There are more than a dozen mini-games in all. Dress up a scarecrow, gather as many veggies as you can in the time limit, catch falling apples, whack moles, and connect sprinkler pipe lines. As you play, the seasons will change and you’ll unlock more weather-specific mini-games like a snowball fight.

The only problem with the Wii version is the controls are a little awkward. You must hold the remote pointing the TV, but you move around your character with the D-pad. It just makes things a bit clunkier.  Plus the loading times are a little long.  But other than that, it’s still a fairly decent game for young gardeners.

The DS version is very similar. You don’t get to pick your own character, but you still have a garden full of outdoorsy mini-games to play. Instead of unlocking items for your garden, by completing mini-games you’ll earn trading cards. These cards have pictures and facts about fruits, veggies, and flowers, so the DS version can be considered somewhat educational, too. Mini-games include whack-a-mole, water gun battles, tomato fights, and butterfly catching. Play control using the touch screen is a little better on the DS version.

Kid Factor:

Let’s Play Garden is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Comic Mischief. Players toss tomatoes and water balloons at each other, as well as bonk moles on the head, but nobody gets hurt. Older gamers might get a little bored with the short and sweet activities. Reading skill is useful as all the instructions in the game are text only. But younger gamers should be able to do just fine with a little help.

Tags: Game Reviews