Overview
Funky Barn is a sandbox farm "simulator" that was developed by Tantalus Media for the Nintendo Wii U in which players inherit a run-down farmland and are challenged with rebuilding and bringing success to the farmland once more. It is an enhanced port of the Ubisoft published 3DS title Funky Barn 3D that was released in April of 2012, the Wii U port however was published by 505 Games.
Gameplay
The game revolves around growing one of three farms by managing livestock and crops while using strange farming tools such as a Shearing Machine that fires out shorn sheep, or a "Flying FruitBox-Haybale-Copter" which flies around to collect grain and fruit.
In the beginning, all the player owns is an empty field, a few coins, and a single baby chick. If the player feeds and takes care of the chick, it will create produce that can be sold. With this money, the player can buy new facilities at the farmer's market and purchase equipment from the shopkeeper. Little by little, as the farm builds up, the player will unlock new animals and equipment, including a feeding trough, fence builders, a guard dog, and a milking machine. The player can also exchange animals with their friends who play Funky Barn.
The game takes advantage of the Wii U's gamepad for features such as shaking the gamepad to make fruit fall from trees or stroking the animals to increase their happiness via the touch screen.
The game also features a challenge mode consisting of three maps in which the player is presented with a farm that has gotten out of control and is tasked with bringing the farm back from the brink of collapse within a set time limit.
Awards
The game won Giant Bomb's Miiverse Community of the Year award in 2012 for the community's various pictures that riff on title (example: sheep with afros), in many cases without people ever having played the actual game.
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