It may not be the most conventional or traditional method of computer gaming, and the concept is very far from advanced, but it does however, engage an audience of fans in their millions and provide a reason to keep coming back and playing; thus, I present Happy Pets. A lot of speculation surrounding Facebook applications involves the fact that they can be so annoying; there's nothing more so, than frequent invitations for particular Flash animated games you really couldn't care less about, right? Luckily, over the past year we've seen Facebook install the 'block' feature, which allows those of you fed up with receiving constant Farmville or like-minded popular gaming invitations, the right to not see them full stop. 

Happy Pets first made its mark on me when Oldrelic recommended I got it. At first I was a bit dubious about it, because like the majority of UFOians I'm sure, I wasn't much of a fan of the Facebook applications. Nevertheless, I signed up just to experience it to see if I liked it or not, and funnily enough after a time the Facebook addiction began to take its toll... 

In terms of gameplay, Happy Pets is just about as simple as it gets. The idea and object of the game is to collect experience points and to level up with your friends, whilst earning money, breeding a variety of magnificent and colourful animals and helping out your friends and neighbours by sending them gifts to create a loving and friendly atmosphere for your pets to live in. At first the prospect can seem a bit daunting as there are many different features that the game has to offer, such as a shop where you can purchase anything from pet food to dinosaurs, a hotel in which you can store animals if you don't wish to sell any, a facility in which you can breed different pets for different outcomes and much much more. After a while though, the gameplay sinks in and becomes familiar. 

A wide range of pets is avaliable from the store, where you can spend coins you have collected to buy cats, dogs, guinea pigs, ducks, dinosaurs, horses, turtles, hamsters and many other types. The game also allows a feature for those really hardcore about it, to spend their real money by entering their debit/credit card details online. It doesn't detract from the gameplay, but if you really want all the cool stuff, you're going to have to really fall for Crowdstar and have a lot of money in the kitty (the real one). Items can be expensive, often ranging from about $40 to $500, which, in my opinion, for a Flash animated game on Facebook, is a bit ridiculous. Naturally, I didn't go for it, and am quite happy spending my unreal and 'well-earned' coins on the regular features the game has to offer.

The game can be very buggy at times and often in your favour with features for those who pay with real money, slipping through and proving to be a massive help. Consequently, the game can freeze and the framerate can be pretty awful at times. The game can also prove to be a massive time-waster/spender; for example, over time, levelling up will become more and more difficult as more experience points are necessary to progress, gradually taking up to two weeks or longer just to move up by one level. Levelling up unlocks new animals and new furniture, and a scoreboard is located at the bottom of the screen. 

The animals themselves are very cute, and the sound effects are far from realistic but quite light-hearted all the same. The music is very well suited to the application and provides a fun and happy atmosphere. 

All in all Happy Pets is a great time-filler, which requires frequent plays to obtain the maximum fun out of it. It also relies on a community feel, encouraging others to join you and become your neighbours in order to send/receive crucial items for progressing. To gain the maximum number of features and the fewest limitations, paying with your real money is required, however you can have just as much fun playing the game for free. It often suffers from regular bugs and drops of frame-rate, and the loading times can be a bit dire now and again, but overall, Happy Pets is a great game that requires extreme patience and a few friends and, for a Facebook application, proves to be a very emotionally rewarding escapism.