Now you can venture into ForestVille in the good old US of A, too

But for whatever reason, The Big Z didn't make a big stink of it. Zynga has released ForestVille for iPhone and iPad to the US App Store for the wonderful cost of "free". However, the company merely made the announcement on its blog, rather than its usual teasers through the media. ForestVille has been available on the Canadian App Store for a few days prior.

"Farms, frontiers, cities and castles are all important and familiar 'Ville' territory," Zynga wrote in its announcement. "Today, we head to the wilderness to bring you Zynga's newest mobile game ForestVille. And we're sure you'll find it quite a different kind of 'Ville' and forest when you look beyond its trees."

We were under the impression that the game's presence in Canada was merely a test. As it turns out, ForestVille is ready enough for release. We first heard word of the woodland creature-filled addition to the 'Ville franchise through a series of domains registered by Zynga, and later the game's Facebook fan page was found. It seems that Zynga decided to simply let the cat out of the bag.
Gallery: ForestVille on iOS
We've had a chance to look at the game in depth since it hit the Canadian App Store. And just as this writer estimated before, ForestVille isn't much different from the stable of 'Ville games already available on both Facebook and mobile devices. Nevertheless, the game's free, so it's worth a shot to see if forest critters are more your thing than human beings.

Click here to download ForestVille for Free Now >

Have you tried ForestVille yet? What do you think Zynga can do to spice up the 'Ville franchise, or should it move on?

Canadians get to have all the fun: ForestVille testing way up north

Maybe it's consolation for being cold all the time? (Can you tell this writer has never been to Canada?) Inside Mobile Apps reports that Zynga is currently testing the recently-leaked ForestVille iPhone game on Canadian audiences. In fact, you can download the game on the Canadian iTunes App Store right now for absolutely nothing, but only if you have access (i.e. are actually Canadian).

The Facebook page has since been pulled, but we had enough time to catch a glimpse of the game's early promotional artwork. Now, we have a brief idea of what the game will look like, based on a few screen shots. The game looks decidedly more macro than previous 'Ville games on mobile phones, namely CityVille Hometown and Holidaytown. However, players can connect their ForestVille game to the two CityVille games and check pending messages from both while playing this new game.
ForestVille map
The play hooks seem to be all the same: Help a fledgling community (in this case, woodland creatures) build a thriving city, decorate said city, make money from said city, continue growing city, repeat. The visuals in ForestVille look less detailed than their CityVille counterparts, but that might be because the game view is more zoomed out than previous versions.

ForestVille will work on all iOS devices dating back to the iPhone 3GS, and it will feature Facebook Connect, according to the Canadian app page. However, keep in mind that this game is testing, which means it may not even make it elsewhere. (You know, like Kingdoms & Castles?)
ForestVille balloon
[Image Credit: Zynga]

Are you excited about this new 'Ville game? Based on these early images, what do you think of the game's graphics? Play mechanics?