Plant Tycoon is one of those games that you'll either find absolutely fascinating or that will bore you to tears. The best that I can do as a game reviewer is to describe to you what the game is all about and then let you decide into which category you fit.

In most tycoon games the object is to build a business from scratch and turn it into a major money maker. However, in Plant Tycoon the business aspect of things is secondary to plant breeding. Making money is a necessary evil required to fund your plant hybridization experiments and is more of a distraction than a goal. The real goal of the game is to rediscover six lost magical plant species from the island of Isola by cross-pollinating increasingly more exotic plants. You start out with a modest budget, some ordinary seeds, and a nursery full of empty pots. To grow plants you must place some soil in a pot, plant a seed, and then provide just enough water and fertilizer to let it grow. You may occasionally have to spray it for bugs, but for the most part you just need to give it some time to grow.

Now we arrive at one of those aspects of the game that you'll either love or hate: plants can take some time to grow. Even with the game's clock sped up all of the way it can take you on the order of a half hour to bring a group of plants from seed to flower – insert joke about watching grass grow here. You also have the option of moving on to another game or going back to work because the plants in the game will continue to grow even when you're not playing. You can basically treat the game as you would your real plants; spend a little time each day tending to them and then leave them on their own. If the real plants around your place are sickly or brown from neglect, I think you should just move on and consider other games instead.

Once your plants are flowering, you can cross-pollinate them in an attempt to create hybrids. You can harvest the seeds after pollinating the flowers, plant them, and then see what comes up. You'll often end up with something that you've seen before, but with over 500 plant species in the game there are plenty of discoveries waiting to be made.

Plants that have reached maturity can be placed out on your nursery's lot for people to buy. Customers will meander in and eventually buy all your stock. There's not much to do with your storefront other than glare at the customers and wish they'd hurry up and buy stuff so that you can get more money. The money can be used to buy more seeds including pricier exotics, better quality soil, and even chemicals that can be used to encourage seed mutations.

Finding the six lost species and all of the available plants in the game will certainly take some time, but it will also take a very methodical approach on your part. The game doesn't track your plant family trees or recipes for you, so you're going to have to take good notes or spend some time setting up an Excel spreadsheet or Access database to keep track of it all. Once again, this is not many people's idea of a good time, but it will certainly be attractive to methodical people that enjoy puzzles that take a long time to crack.

I suppose that that is how you need to look at the game. It's not so much a game as it is a long and complex puzzle based on a large and secret pattern. If the prospect of checking in on your game a few times a day and keeping meticulous notes of your progress has got you excited with anticipation then Plant Tycoon is definitely for you. Otherwise it will bore you to tears in under an hour and it would be best if you stayed far away from this one.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 75%. If the word "meticulous" is very descriptive of your personality, then Plant Tycoon is for you. Otherwise you should put off buying this game that way that you put off watering that brown fichus in the corner.