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There’s something magical about teddy bears, they often hold a special place in the hearts of the young and old alike.
Bankruptcy, greed, dismembered body parts and poor sad orphans aren’t exactly words that pop into your head when you think of cute cuddly teddy bears are they?
Well, a company ironically called “Toybox Games” wants to change all that, they bring us a fast paced click and drag action game that will have you looking at your favorite stuffed animal a little differently for ever more!
The story starts off helping a girl named Sally, who runs an orphanage, she likes to make sure every kid has a teddy bear to sleep with. But soon the fur hits the fan,, the factory that has generously supplied the orphanage with free bears for years, has gone bankrupt! A cruel new factory owner has stiffed Sally on the weekly free shipment, and now he is forcing her to work in his factory for the cute and cuddly teddies.
The gameplay is pretty basic, bear parts roll out of a machine onto a conveyor belt. Each bear is made up of 6 parts and it is our job to help assemble them as they make their way down the assembly line. Oh, did I happen to mention, you must do this task by color, there are a few different colors of teddies being manufactured at this factory. The mouse is used to click on a body part such as a pink leg to a pink torso, so on and so forth. If the needed piece isn’t on the belt you can always assemble other bears of different colors until it rolls out. This is not only beneficial but absolutely necessary in later stages as you will be juggling many parts on more than 1 assembly line at once.
The orphans line up at the edge of the factory and you will need to make them desired colored bears or they become impatient and leave crying (pretty demanding orphans, huh?) After a complete bear is correctly constructed it gets snatched up by mechanical claws and dropped into a box ready for shipment, this IS a business after all, and not all the bears go to the orphans! I say put them too work, but they do have laws against that now don’t they?
There are a few extra bonuses to help you out, such as rainbow parts, that allow you to put on any bear of any color, as well as a cog that reverses or slows down the conveyor belt (temporarily of course). Once the quota has been met you are given a rating from bronze to gold, a sort of performance appraisal based on how quickly you completed your shift and how many orphans left happily clutching their precious new teddy bears. Over time, the game moves on to bigger and harder factories that make new toys like stuffed elephants and pigs, the mechanics remains the same however.
There is a Trophy Room within the game, and based on well your performance is, you are rewarded with special edition bears. I was awarded the Elvis Bear (the bloated white jumpsuit era) and a Cowboy Bear. This is a fun and refreshing add-on and I found myself becoming competitive trying to earn them, like trying to win a prize at a carnival .You know what I am talking about ,you will stop at nothing to win something, you know full well they aren’t worth a dime but just the same! While these bears never appeared within the game at any time, and were clearly added for show and tell, it was nice to see a new element within “Teddy Factory, which up until that point didn’t do much in the way of expanding on the game play beyond the bear construction storyline.
“Teddy Factory” has a few small yet frustrating aspects to it, the difficulty level being one of them. I obviously don’t have any qualms with a game being competitive and keeping me on my toes but not when it starts off easy (too easy) and then suddenly gets hard (too hard)! I was f barely keeping up with the pace and completed the later levels by the skin of my teeth. Not to mention, you are basically at the mercy of the game if you will- you can only “hope and pray” at times that the blessed machine spits out that much needed body part (in the right color!) to you , so that you can be the hero and deliver poor little Timmy his new best friend!
There was stuffy jazz music consistently playing in the background , an odd choice I thought, it seems to me that an upbeat children’s jingle would have been a more appropriate choice for this type of game. If the parts get too backed up on the assembly line a beeping alarm consistently goes off and mixed with the sound of the wailing kids, it could get quite annoying!
The graphics are warm and fuzzy, the soft pastel colors worked perfectly in creating an upbeat yet comforting hue, bright and vibrant colors while working well in other games would have been too harsh and straining on the eyes with the quick pace action here.
Overall, “Teddy Factory” while lacking variety and never really thinking out of the toybox was a quirky and fun game; and anyway it’s all about the positive impact you make in a child’s life in the end right?
Get Teddy Factory Here 
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Posted by oxyjen on Nov 1, 2006
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