Build-a-lot 7: Fairy Tales

This time around, as you might already guess from the title, the game takes place in the world of fairy tales, where the famous nutcracker acts as the mayor of an animal town, pigs live in luxurious mansions, and the wolf in exquisite hat hires you to build several dens for his furry friends. To tell the truth, the fabulous theme looks pretty fresh and perfectly goes with the classic gameplay. Cute fairies with colorful butterfly wings, who work as your builders in magic woods and meadows, are much more pleasing to the eye then those little men from the previous parts.

Most game backgrounds reminiscent of some old children’s book illustrations with delicate frameworks, subtle drawing and pages yellowed from time. Of course, they have a special charm and look pretty stylish, but if you expect to see something more exciting than just several faded pages with a pair of animated elements, such as sparkling towers or a burning house, prepare for disappointment.

The houses do not change the way they look after you upgrade them, and the variety of buildings you can construct is not as wide as you might expect. In total, you can build six apartment buildings, including Den, Cottage, Manor, Gingerbread, Tree House and Tower, plus three public buildings, such as Fairy Toadstool, Witches Cauldron and Dwarves Foundry. Each of the buildings mentioned above generates a certain amount of income, which can be increased by improving the building by one, two or three stars. As I have already mentioned, the upgrade of the building does not affect its appearance. Still, you can repaint your houses, spending a certain amount of resources and, surely, your precious time, or even add some decorations at later levels. In addition, in the middle of the game you will be allowed to enchant your buildings, that, however, does not affect their appearance. Landscapes do not differ greatly among themselves too. In fact, the meadows differ from the forest only by their background color, while the houses look exactly the same and the trees are almost identical.

In general, the game contains 65 levels and 5 chapters, which will take you about 6 hours playing to pass them all or, maybe, even more, if you decide to fight for achievements. Instead of the usual medals, in Build-a-Lot: Fairy Tales you will fight for colorful ribbons. The Blue Ribbon is equivalent to a gold medal, and is given for completing the level within the period of time marked on the scale by blue color. The Green Ribbon, you guess it, is given for completing the level within the period of time marked on the scale by green color. If you fail to complete the level within the allotted time, you won’t get anything. In truth, the allotted time in Build-a-Lot: Fairy Tales is quite generous, so it’s really hard to fail the level. Still, you’ll have to show your best to get the Blue Ribbon. It is fairly easily to get at the lower levels, but becomes almost unattainable by the middle of the second chapter, so you will have to exercise your ingenuity to cope with the tasks on time. The fact is that in addition to the goals that you get at the beginning, towards the middle of each level you’ll get a couple more, plus you’ll have to extinguish burning houses after the dragon sets them on fire, because you can’t finish the level, if one of your buildings was burnt down, even if you’ve already met all the goals.

If you do not like time limits at all, perhaps, you’ll enjoy the casual mode, which might be unlocked after you pass the first chapter. Much like the storybook mode, it contains five chapters, with the difference that they aren’t locked from the beginning, so you can choose any landscape you like and enjoy the game as long as you wish. In casual mode you still get tasks and are attacked by the evil dragon, but your time is not limited, so you can’t get any rewards. Once you pass the level your time appears on the score page, and you can beat your own score anytime you replay the level.

As for the plot, it is too vague to talk about. You are tasked to build houses for different purposes and in different locations, which are almost unrelated to each other. In fact, it can not be considered a drawback for such game as Build-a-Lot: Fairy Tales, because you’ll be too busy with all those building chores to follow the plot. Monologues of your employers can be humorous or serious, but always nice to read. Sound effects perfectly match game atmosphere. Background music is also entirely acceptable, though a bit annoying.

In truth, if you have enjoyed the previous parts of the series, Build-a-Lot: Fairy Tales definitely won’t disappoint you, as it’s almost the same as its predecessors. No matter, how used it’s gameplay is, the seventh chapter is still able to drag you to the screen for hours. As for the novice players, who haven’t yet played the previous parts of this legendary series, you should keep in mind that Build-a-Lot: Fairy Tales is somewhat different from the rest of modern building simulation games. Firstly, the rent is collected automatically every few seconds, so you do not have to make thousands of clicks just to get your money. Secondly, the number of workers you can send to each building site is fixed. Thirdly, the only way to get construction materials is to buy them. And finally, fourthly, there are some other goals on each level except of construction buildings. Sometimes you will be tasked to collect a certain amount of gold, buy a certain amount of construction materials, increase the charm of the city to a certain rate, and so on. As a result, you’ll have to think much more often than to click.

All in all, I’m pretty sure that all the fans of this addicting series will highly appreciate the last part. Perhaps, it could be much funnier, if the developers put more effort in graphics, animation and plot, but still I am quite satisfied with Build-a-Lot: Fairy Tales. Considering how difficult it is to get the Blue Ribbon, or how many options to achieve some goals you have, it has a high replayability value. Definitely give it a try, and have fun!