Plantera 2: Golden Acorn Review — The Rainbow Apocalypse

In a world filled with flesh-ripping zombie games, PTSD-simulating war games, and devastatingly brutal demon-hunting combo mashers, wouldn’t it be nice to occasionally step away from the carnage and into something peaceful? Something cute? Something that almost overloads the senses with bright green grass and sparkly unicorns?

No? Too bad.

After finishing my review of an extremely violent and gory game, I jumped into Plantera 2 and the contrast between the two almost gave me whiplash. Plantera 2’s use of colors is similar to that of a sugar-addled toddler making their way through a 24-pack of crayons, which is a compliment in this specific case, at least.

Plantera 2: Golden Acorn is a sequel to the 2016 idle-clicker Plantera. Your objective in both games is simple: to fill up as much of the screen as possible with plants, unicorns, llamas, and other cute things until you can’t see the sky behind you and your senses are completely overloaded by the sights and sounds of your rainbow apocalypse.

Before continuing, it’s important to note that this game is an idle clicker. Think Cookie Clicker, AdVenture Capitalist, and other similar games. There is nothing to do but click the screen, farm coins, and purchase more coin producers until there’s nothing left to buy. If you don’t enjoy these types of games, Plantera 2 won’t change that.

In the beginning, you start with a small grassland, a single oak tree, and a little blue dude. To create the rainbow apocalypse, you must first catch some butterflies. Butterflies will give you one coin each, and soon enough, you’ll be able to save up for a Leek crop. The Leek crop will provide you with a total of 4 gold on harvest, which your little blue dude will do for you if you don’t feel like doing it yourself.

As you progress, you’ll upgrade to a Strawberry bush, then a peach tree, and so on. Collecting coins not only builds up your savings but also increases your level. As you continue to harvest your crops and level up, you’ll unlock new crops to plant and more little blue dudes will join your growing farm.

Although you may want to welcome the cute birds, rabbits, and rodents that wander onto your farm, be wary. As adorable as they may be, they’re only there to scurry off with your produce and steal your hard-earned coins. Therefore, it’s in your best interest to bash them with a mallet, which the game allows you to do by clicking on them. As your farm grows, so will the hordes of freeloading animals come to steal your crops, demanding your attention.

As I’m writing this review, I have to keep stopping myself to tab over and bash rabbits and crows to protect my precious carrot and apple stocks. Eventually, you’ll be able to purchase fences, which limit the number of critters and thus also limit the amount of critter bashing.

As your farm grows, space will become your biggest commodity. Plants exist on layers: Tree, Bush, and Crop (which are not the official names but the ones I assigned to them in my head) and you can only have a certain amount of each on your limited initial farmland. You can’t stack multiple items on the same layer in one spot, so sideways expansion quickly becomes your goal once your plot is full.

Your first plot upgrade comes at 500 coins, the second at 715, and so on. Each upgrade gives you a little bit more land to work with, allowing for two or three more plants of each layer to be plotted. As the land upgrades increase in price, so do they seem to increase in size, opening up more of the plot as you continue to purchase.

Plot upgrades are the most expensive thing in the game though, so you’ll find yourself having to recycle the land you already have. As heartbreaking as it may be to get rid of those precious Leek plants, if you want a better return you’ll find yourself deleting your early plants and replacing them with better producers, so that your little blue dudes aren’t wasting their precious time.

Eventually, you can start buying animals and upgrades to your blue guys. Animals are picky producers, seeming a lot more random with their coin drops, but investing in a ton of chickens will get you rich as their eggs are worth 10 whole coins. Blue guy “upgrades” come in the form of various hats that I’m not actually sure do anything.

At the end of the day, that’s all there is to Plantera 2: Golden Acorn. You plant crops to produce coin, and then use coin to plant more crops or buy animals. A game this simple doesn’t really need, nor does it warrant further examination than that; It is a fun, cute idle game that can keep you entertained for a while if you run it in the background while doing other tasks.

Is Plantera 2: Golden Acorn game of the year? No. Will it offer you endless replayability? No. All things considered, you’ll probably be finished or bored of it in about two hours. The cost of entry of $5 is a little bit steep in my opinion, but the game is nonetheless entertaining, and as far as idle games go is probably one of the best you can find on the market.

Plantera 2: Golden Acorn was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! Plantera 2: Golden Acorn is available on Steam.