Garden Guardian bills itself as a modern take on LCD games. What that means is that this is really, really simple title. Bugs will approach your plants. if they run into you, you will get plant food. You then feed the food to carnivorous plant when its mouth is open until the main plants produce fruit, then harvest. Rinse and repeat. There are exactly three kinds of bugs. One that just steadily approaches, a bug that you need to snip twice, and spider that bum rushes your plants. If the bug are able to snip the plants three times, game over. Fortunately there is a brief delay between when they arrive and why they snip. Garden Guardian might sound easy, well it isn’t really.
There are two main modes in Garden Guardian. Endless and Trials. Endless is simply high score mode. There are four game types corresponding to the speed of the game. Trials feature levels with certain objectives or limitations, like your food basket being halved, or 150 points at a ridiculous speed. In addition there are unlockable art and achievements. You can also unlock new menu backgrounds and UI. For being a glorified LCD game, it actually has a lot to it.
I liked Garden Guardian. It is very simple, but can be challenging and fun. My only complaint is the seeming lack of an “LCD mode” making it look like you are playing an actual LCD game, complete with beeps and boops. That would have been awesome and made this a Must Play. Still, other than that, there is nothing wrong with this simple time waster. Recommended.
Overall: Garden Guardian is very simple, but challenging and fun.
Verdict: Recommended
| Platform | Nintendo Switch |
| Release Date | 10/20/23 |
| Cost | $4.99 |
| Publisher | Mokuzai Studio |
| ESRB Rating | E |
P.S. For a recent Must Play title, check out ChipMonk, or a classic like Tux and Fanny!
