Developer: SGN
Price: FREE
Version: 2.0
App Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS
iOS owning Animal lovers, rejoice! Now we can satisfy our insatiable desire to make every homeless cute and fuzzy thing happy, while getting a healthy dose of “D’AAAAAAWWWWWWWWWW!!!” in the process. Fluff Friends Rescue is a result of the collaboration between SGN and The Humane Society, and quite honestly it seems like something that someone should have thought of a long time ago.
Much like other freemium games the idea behind Fluff Friends Rescue is to earn cash, buy and build better facilities to help earn more cash, then spend that cash to access more advanced structures, etc… The key difference here is that players won’t be in charge of a city or farm, but rather an animal shelter. Lost pets wander through the wilderness surrounding the designated “We Heart Animals” area, and can be brought in for rehab and rescue with a couple of taps. Provided the player has enough coins and the proper care center built (cleaning, feeding, healing, etc…) they can pay a fee to begin the process. After a set amount of real time passes, the adorable fluffy things can be moved to an adoption pen where a visitor will eventually decide to take them home. Adopted pets earn coins from donations, which will in-turn allow the rescue of more animals and construction of more buildings.
SGN has really hit on something with the pacing behind Fluff Friends Rescue. While it does indeed take time to “fix” things, ranging from seconds to hours, there’s almost always something to do. While a stray dog is being tended to, a lost kitten can be brought in for a clean-up. If all the stations are occupied, the cuties in the adoption pens can be cared for to keep them happy. If all that’s done, messes around the compound can be cleaned to earn some extra experience (good for unlocking new facilities and breeds) and funds. And there’s almost always something to build.
The only problems I’ve run into so far are relatively minor ones. The shelter area starts to get pretty crowded pretty fast, and it takes a while to earn enough cash to expand, but this can be offset by purchasing newer facilities that can accommodate multiple animals. I’ve also found that it can be tricky to select wandering animals sometimes, but it usually only takes a few attempts or a little zooming in to take care of it. I am a bit disappointed that certain breeds can only be rescued with that “special money” all freemium titles use, but there are plenty of others available that aren’t quite as tough to manage.
I was genuinely surprised to find myself playing Fluff Friends Rescue so incessantly. It can turn into a major problem when there are important real life things to do. Animal lovers should consider that both praise and a warning.