Barn Yarn Review

The only thing I can think of whenever I play a new hidden object game is, "Wow, they sure are making a lot of games built around hoarding." The newest entry to this genre on the App Store is Barn Yarn, from Playrix. Is there fun to be had in this quest to find and sell a bunch of useless junk? Or, like many of the items within, is it hidden from sight?

At first glance, you'll notice that Barn Yarn is an exceptionally pretty game. There seems to be a high amount of production value here and it shows with the subtle animations of the wonderfully-rendered backgrounds and characters. In Barn Yarn, we follow Joe and Tom, a grandfather/grandson pair who are trying to repair an old barn to prep for the long winter. To this end, they're raising money by selling the mountains of junk that Joe owns in order to buy upgrades and repairs for the barn. This is where you come in, my sharp-eyed friend.

The hidden object portion of the game comes from heading to a room and selling objects to customers. Each customer will be of discerning tastes and request very specific items to buy, all while offering a price. It is then up to you to find the object in question among the piles of garbage, er -- I mean treasures that lay around the room.

Customers will have hearts next to them, which represent their satisfaction or desire to obtain their item. Take too long and these hearts will start to deplete and the money being offered will follow suit. You don't have to have the eyes of a hawk wearing hi-def goggles in order to spot some of the hidden objects, but it helps to be quick about your business. Also, don't go thinking that you can just randomly tap everywhere on screen, since serial-tapping will result in the loss of money as a penalty.

But, if you do get stuck, sometimes you'll find helpful little butterflies. Once you collect these butterflies, you can tap on their jar in order to release one, which will then float over to one of the items you need to spot. Sometimes, you'll also find magnets that will point you toward an object. If you're really lucky, you might even find some extra cash that Joe had lying around.

The second portion is sort of like a simulation game in which you use your hard-earned cash in order to rebuild and decorate the barn. You can change the carpet, add some stairs and even build a nice coop for your feathered friends. The more money you make from the hidden object portions, the better the stuff you'll be able to buy for the barn.

Barn Yarn isn't the worst hidden object game out there, but it's certainly one of the most unique and the prettiest. The inclusion of decorating sim portion is a nice touch and adds to the replay value. After all, it can get pretty boring (and tiring), looking for objects among messy piles of junk.

Barn Yarn is free, but this only includes a brief introduction to the object-finding shenanigans. If you want to play through Joe and Tom's story, you'll have to unlock the full version for $6.99. I'm not sure how many of you guys are that hard-up for a hidden object game, but I find that the free version is a good enough experience that you don't need to shell out the extra cash for more nightmares in hoarding.

App Store Link: Barn Yarn for iPhone & iPad | By Playrix | Price: Free | Version: 1.0.0 | 281 MB | Rating: 4+