Occasionally, a great story is unearthed when ploughing through the gaming news. When Giants Software announced Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition, we planted our interest and wanted to take a look for ourselves. Okay, we’ll stop milking the farming innuendos and bring you our review. Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition is a new Mega Drive title that is out on the 14th of May 2025 and available in a limited edition physical cart form from Strictly Limited Games. The game is a ‘demake’ of the popular farming simulator that has sold over 40 million copies since it launched in 2008.
Before we get into the review, it’s worth noting that only 1,000 copies of the limited edition green cartridge are available, split between standard and deluxe versions. The deluxe versions are due to ship late in the year, but Giants Software have said that folks ordering it can get the actual cart sent at the same time as the standard if need be. The deluxe version includes a few extras, including a CD soundtrack and a nifty cart holder. There is also a standard release, featuring a normal black cart, that will also be available from various retailers. Finally, each copy has a bundled emulator that you can download to play the game on a PC.
With all that out of the way, let’s head down to the farm and get digging into this sim to see what opinions it harvests. At its heart, Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition does exactly what it says on the tin, you take control of a farm, cultivate the land, grow your crops and sell them to market in an isometric 16-Bit environment. When the game loads, you’re greeted with a thumping chiptune soundtrack that instantly reminded us of Mega Drive games from back in the day. The excellent music is from the brilliant mind of veteran composer Christopher Hülsbeck, known for many great retro soundtracks such as Star Wars: Rogue Squadron and Turrican.
Once you click to start your farming adventure, you’ll find yourself on a simple, small map that has a few fields and some basic equipment to get you started. It’s advisable to read through the manual first, as getting to grips with the gameplay loop will take a bit of learning. You need to know the difference between your cultivators, seeders and harvesters before taking on the tough job of growing your crops. It feels like a lot to take in at first, but the reality is that as long as you follow the process laid out, you’ll be growing crops and making money in no time.
You start by using a tractor and cultivator combo to prepare the soil for growing, then you visit your garage to switch it out for a seeder combo. Once the crops grow, you get in your huge harvester and pull up the crops. The final stage is using a tractor and trailer to move the harvest to the market to get paid. As your money starts to increase, it’s used to keep refuelling the tractors as well as buying more land and equipment to keep the business growing.
It all sounds very simple, and if you plan each stage of the process in Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition, it generally is. However, if you don’t keep your tractors and equipment filled with fuel and the resources needed to keep them going, they will break down, and it’s a bit of an effort to get back on track. Luckily, the map has everything you need to build a thriving farm from a gas station, to a seed depot and the all-important market to drop off your crops. The game is pretty simple in that regard, and it only becomes more complicated once you buy more farmland, which comes in the form of larger maps.
Anyone who has played Theme Park will understand the structure of the game well, build a successful farm, buy more land and equipment, and keep growing until it’s a huge empire. Unlike Theme Park, though, you have to do everything yourself manually. There is no automatic tractor or self-fulfilling harvester, it’s all on you to keep switching back and forth, refulleing, replanting and balancing all the plates to keep the money coming in. Although the pressure does seem to mount at times, the game doesn’t have any timing features, so not getting to the job promptly doesn’t upset the flow; it just means you’re not making money as efficiently as you might.
The other gameplay feature is the ability to invest in better tractors and equipment. The main reason to do this is so your equipment can hold more fuel or supplies that make farming the larger maps easier and save you from having to keep going back to the gas station. It’s also fun seeing the different types of machinery included in the game. From what we could tell, all the tractors, harvesters and cultivators in Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition were real-life equivalents, and this will be a big draw to any tractor aficionados.
To make the game more interesting, there is a difficulty option that adjusts the amount you get for your crops, the cost of equipment and the resale value of old tractors. This is where some longevity will be found for those who nail the gameplay loop, as it gets tough when the money starts to become finite. While Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition isn’t a particularly hard game overall, it can become quite manic managing all the different land once you start to grow the business.
Graphically, Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition looks like it could’ve been released in the early 90s and has an aesthetic that reminds us of EA-developed Mega Drive titles such as Desert Strike and its sports sims. There is a good use of colour to differentiate the different stages of the farming cycle, and all the buildings pop on the screen, as do the tractor and equipment. The menus can be a little complicated to get your head around when you first start playing, especially the shop and garage, but once you get used to where the different options are, everything is only a couple of button pushes away.
Controlling the tractors in Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition is fun and uses a tank-control method that has an awkwardness to it that you would imagine a real tractor would have. As you start to upgrade the equipment, the tractors get faster and seem to control a bit better, and it’s fun when you finally get a better machine to control. The tractors can also be set to automatically drive forward with the click of a button, and you must make sure to activate the attached equipment when going over the soil for the action to happen.
Overall, Farming Simulator 16-Bit Edition plays exactly as it should, like a sim title from the 90s. This title won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but those who enjoy something different or wish for a slower pace will enjoy the gameplay loop and building an empire. Those who have experienced the modern versions of this title will appreciate the detail and possibly the simplicity of this version of a much-loved franchise.
