Review: Posh Boutique 2

game format: time management | arcade

puzzles: none

playtime: 3 hours | difficulty: very easy

developer: Puzzle Lab | publisher: Big Fish Games | links: official site | buy this game

game brief: Just as her vacation gets off the ground, Alicia suddenly discovers she's won the lottery! Now, with her winnings in hand, Alicia's ready to take her Posh Boutique to the next level. Use your Time Management talents to help Alicia expand her business by assisting each customer in their search for the perfect outfit, adding just the right accessories, and choosing the best upgrades for each location! (Bigfishgames.com)

review: Posh Boutique 2 is an easy, frothy race against time and mismatched outfits... quite like sipping a lukewarm cappuccino on a lazy afternoon.

the story: The game takes off after the presumable success of the series' premiere installment - Posh Boutique - with proprietress Alicia on a plane, en route to a long-overdue vacation. But fates conspire otherwise and she wins an in-flight lottery of $1 million (seriously), which propels her to abandon her trip and return to her dream of building more boutiques - international ones this time.

Alicia starts with great ambition - to build 'all kinds of boutiques to satisfy the shopping needs of every possible customer', a mission statement few retailers would dare to voice, let alone attempt to implement outside the world of casual gaming. Soon afterward, she states with equal élan that she doesn't really care about income from her stores; her true interest is the process of building new ones. Her pell-mell management is reflected aptly in grannies dressed in fur coats, leather pants, hippie shades and sparkling white gloves... but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

game-play: Like its story, Posh Boutique 2 offers negligible originality of game-play. Alicia has to equip and service 6 boutiques, including one in a television tower, one underwater and another inside a hot air balloon. She spends a week at each location, totaling 42 'days' i.e. levels for the game. Alicia is a hands-on tycoon and attends personally to each customer, helping them pick out their item(s) of choice via three simple mini-games and billing them at the cash counter. One item selection mini-game is a static image match with 9 options, another a moving carousel match, and the third a scroller match - requiring the options to be scrolled through till the correct one is displayed.

Customer types are few, with no distinct traits except minor differences in patience levels. In addition to the usual retinue businessmen and 'optimistic women', teenage boys and girls, kindly elderly - in this case a granny with a puppy and a 'sporty grandpa', Alicia's all-purpose boutiques are also frequented by couples who must be served simultaneously (but who pay individually), VIP buyers and journalists.

The last two categories of guests are naturally more entitled to tantrums than regular folk; even then they display exemplary patience by the standards of this genre, and spawn two more mini-games. The journalists aka 'press' require certain items to be located in the store in a rudimentary hidden object search, and based on the time taken, rank the store on a scale of 1 - 5 in their reviews in 'Boutique' magazine. This glory translates directly into additional sales, each star earning an extra $100. The VIPs, meanwhile, return to the store after closing time for personal consultations with Alicia, who must interpret their (literally) hazy thoughts into actual items within a given time for extra revenue.

Alicia likely spent her lottery earnings in buying the stores, since there's no evidence of the moolah in her day-to-day operations. She starts every store from scratch, building up from the 2 basic counters each of three items - combinations of clothes, hats, shoes, gloves, accessories, sunglasses and luggage - to 3 advanced counters of each, and her only help is a cleaning girl. The interior upgrades, including two speed upgrades for Alicia and one for the cleaner, are focused on increasing capacity and efficiency of the stores. Alicia also uses her earnings to jazz up the storefronts with mannequins, garlands and posters, which then attract more customers, improve their moods (indicated as smileys) and increase their inclination to purchase.

Each customer can have three to five smileys - depending on store upgrades - that determine their level of happiness, or lack thereof. Depleted smileys can be refreshed, and deleted smileys reinstated, with prompt service and attention. Alicia can also dole out always-gratifying discount coupons, generated automatically at intervals, to guests who are sufficiently agitated.

Posh Boutique 2 takes a detour from the usual concept of 'combos' - chaining actions for bonus points - to introduce its own take: single customers who want the same type of item can be combined into groups i.e. combos of two or three, which increases both their patience as well as propensity to purchase. Similarly, it puts a new spin on trophies earned for achieving preset milestones. While most games hand out a trophy only the first time a target is met, here the player can win each trophy repeatedly, with numbers counting up each success. A third unusual game mechanism is that once a boutique or individual level is deemed completed, it cannot be replayed without restarting the game from the very first level, a caveat that may have posed a problem if the game hadn't been unbelievably easy.

The 'Ultimate' mode of the game, available once the Standard mode is completed, allows the player to select the boutique and mini-game type for each of the three items before unleashing a relentless stream of customers on Alicia while constantly upping both the difficulty level as well as store upgrades. Ironically, the fast-paced action of the side show makes it far more interesting than the dawdling main event.

There is a mini-game on the start screen too - each day Alicia thinks of an item that appears in a thought bubble beside her head. The player can earn $1000 by selecting the correct item from the carousel near her feet. While extra cash never hurts, the game does not require the money desperately enough to warrant exiting to the start screen 'daily'.

art & graphics: Posh Boutique 2 has above-average, cheerful art that works overtime to brighten up the dull proceedings. The clothes and accessories are intricately detailed when seen in close-ups, as are storefronts and shopfloors. Alicia is generically pretty, and her customers are well-rendered as well. The small 'movie' at the start is devoid of animation barring a sliding background, but there is considerable, smooth in-game animation, both of characters and effects. The interface is easy to navigate with large, clearly demarcated hotspots. I faced trouble occasionally while trying to place customers in their slots near item counters, but that's a small speck in the overall superior efficiency of the interface.

text, sound & music: Alicia's story and thoughts are narrated via sparse speech bubbles; the rest of the text is functional and generally free of spelling and grammatical errors. The music is unremarkable - ordinary loops played in the background that do not really register other than to keep the tempo going. Likewise for voice-overs - a few sound bites repeated throughout the game, though mercifully none of the clips are annoying enough to jar despite constant looping.

bottomline: Posh Boutique 2 is a generic product, and nothing about the game suggests otherwise. The mash-up of time management, object matches and hidden object searches is easy to the point of being lame - both Basic and Expert goals are eminently achievable till the end; if anything, the slow trickle of customers keeps Alicia unoccupied and waiting for large intervals of time. This, when combined with the overly simplified game-play that exempts mistakes and penalties, all but eliminates the sense of urgency that normally accompanies time management games. This game should have been a high octane race; instead it's a short, leisurely stroll through the neighborhood mall.

g@mrgrl rating: 2.5/5

	game interface, art & graphics
	too easy, short, unexceptional
	no bugs noted

This is an original review written by me. Please do not distribute the text and images without my written consent.

Tips & Tricks: The Fifth Gate

20 points to simplify The Fifth Gate for you:

1. The Help pages (accessed from the main menu) explain the story and the game. During the game, simple tutorials introduce new concepts.

2. Keep the water jug filled at all times to avoid losing plants. Use the fountain / Dewdrop plant whenever available to save money.

3. Hold off watering plants as long as possible to save water, since once the day is over, plants requiring water are automatically replenished.

4. Upgrade the flower holder capacity first, then the fountain.

5. Though the game doesn't have chaining bonuses, it is quicker to do similar activities together: collect flowers in a continuous bunch and water needy plants sequentially (that way they will also be synchronised in their future water requirement).

6. Each potion requires a combination of flowers in various quantities. Green means fully available counts, orange means partial availability, and red means unavailable.

7. Be careful not to sell off the quest potions.

8. If space permits in the harvest holder, save flowers for potions instead of selling them individually, as potions earn more money.

9. Potions can also be made partially depending on available flowers, which keeps the harvest holder free.

10. A plant produces flower variants at random. In case Morgana wants high numbers of a particular variant, grow enough of that plant to ensure you get the adequate number of blooms in the given time.

11. Newly planted saplings need certain rounds of harvesting before they can produce complex flowers, so plants must be kept from dehydrating or being eaten by critters especially towards the later levels when complex potions require the upgraded variants of blooms.

12. The clock ticks loudly to indicate the last 5 seconds i.e. the 'end of the day' - listen for it and once it starts, collects blooms instead of killing critters or watering plants (unless of course, a plant is on the brink of dehydration).

13. Be extra careful of pests that 'pause' - boring beetles, salamanders, stone golems, spiders, hedgehogs - only to emerge a few moments later and continue chomping!

14. Some critters move quickly or fly, and are difficult to click on. Wait till they attach to a plant (note the green health meter of the plant) and click rapidly to kill them.

15. Some critters are poisonous - stone golems, wasps, toads - and if clicked when they're radiating their green aura will cause the cursor to freeze for 2 seconds, which sounds like very little time but is actually quite disturbing.

16. Given that the total number of plant beds are limited, an ideal mix of 'helper' plants would be:

a) During the starting levels of a garden, when cash is scarce but so are pests: 1 Dewdrop near the water jug and 1 Pest Magnet near the edge.

b) During the later levels of a garden, when cash is plenty and spells are available: 2 Pest Magnets at the garden's edges, 1 Fertiliser plant in the central area (surrounded by at least 3 - 4 plants).

c) Use the Butterfly plant only for quests requiring quick plant upgrades.

d) Avoid the Power plant in case Harvest and Rain spells are available.

17. Of the spells, first purchase Rain, since dehydration kills plants.

18. When cash permits, use Rain + Harvest spells. Put a Fertiliser plant in the middle of the garden, then use Harvest to gather all blooms.

19. The Pest Killing spell isn't required if the garden already has at least one Pest Magnet plant.

20. For the later levels, the garden should have at least 3 of each plant type. Sell off extra plants / change helper plants based on quests.

Good Luck!


This is an original Tips & Tricks written by me. Please do not distribute the text and images without my written consent.

Review: The Fifth Gate

game format: time management | arcade

puzzles: none

playtime: 6 hours | difficulty: easy | size: 65 MB

developer: Playfirst Games | publisher: Big Fish Games

links: Official site | Buy this game

game brief: Brace yourself for a world of magic and potions in The Fifth Gate, an addicting time management game. Eden is trapped in the gardens and must restore five magical gardens to unlock five magical gates. Plants are growing, pests are coming, and potions need to be made; handle them all before time runs out! Can you bring the gardens back to life and free Eden? (Official website)



review:

The Fifth Gate, a time-management game set in the realm of fairies, illustrates the timeless struggle between good and evil in deceptively ethereal surroundings.

the story:

Eden, the game's young heroine and the realm's most gifted gardener, is abducted by malevolent sorceress Morgana, and forced to work as her assistant tending to her garden and fulfilling her requests for flowers, potions and money. Though Eden soon learns of Morgana's plan to use the potions to capture the throne of fairy queen Titania, she is unable to escape the magically sealed gardens.

Morgana, contrary to expectation, isn't an ungrateful taskmistress. Besides rewarding Eden's gardening achievements with suitable gifts, Morgana also acknowledges her desire to escape, and gives her gems that will open the five magical gates... as soon as the pressing matter of overthrowing Titania is concluded.

game-play:

The concept is simple - plant saplings, water them, ward off pests, collect blooms, make potions, sell potions, complete Morgana's quests to earn gems, and eventually, open all the gates. But the pace and complexity evolve steadily, and soon the game enthralls, challenging without resorting to unrealistic demands, or even feeling repetitive.

There are five gardens, with five gates, each of which requires five gems to open. Eden starts in the Primrose's Bower, then moves through the Garden of Sighs, the Garden of Fire & Ice and the Dell of Dusk's Dreaming to the Witch's Doorstep, the site of Titania's throne.

Each garden boasts its own native flora and fauna based on its environment. This includes three unique plants, each of which can be upgraded thrice, yielding a whopping forty-five varieties of blooms over five gardens. There are fifteen different critters, three per garden, encompassing both the real and the mythical, from innocuous boring beetles, salamanders and bats, to poisonous stone golems, wasps and toads. Each garden has fourteen levels, adding up to seventy rounds spanning multiple days for the game.

At the start of each level, Morgana specifies a quest for Eden, defining the amount of saplings, flowers, potions, cash, and sometimes even dead critters, that she wants, and the number of days in which to accomplish the quest (the Expert target). She rewards Eden's successes with new types of seeds, upgrades saplings to more exotic variants, and teaches her spells to help her manage the garden more efficiently.

The harvested flowers are used to make potions. Eden can trade excess potions and flowers for money, used to upgrade facilities like the fountain, replenish exhausted spells, dig seedbeds, buy saplings, and fulfill Morgana's cash requests. Eden can also sell saplings and swat critters to boost her kitty.

Introduced at the Garden of Sighs, 'helper plants' immediately move the game-play past mouse-pushing to strategic placement and use of resources. Of particular use are Dewdrop plants, which produce water, Pest Magnet plants, which freeze pests into ice-cubes, and Fertiliser plants, which force neighbouring plants to bloom. The Butterfly plant upgrades saplings, and at later levels, the Power plant enables collection of all flowers on a plant and killing pests with single clicks.

In a moment of uncharacteristic generosity, Morgana shares her secret spells with Eden. The invaluable Rain spell allows all plants to be watered at once, and the Harvest spell instantly gathers all blooms. The third spell, Pest Killing, eliminates all critters with one click. Each spell lasts for six uses and then must be recharged. My only gripe is that there's no indicator of how many uses are left, which results in frequent recharging before actual expiry to avoid 'running out of spell' during the game.

The gamer is also awarded medals for reaching milestones such as numbers of potions made and critters killed, but this is of academic interest only in the absence of visible statistics.

art & graphics:

This is among the most visually attractive games of this genre. The art is intricate, and the delightfully 'mystical' scenes glow with vibrant colours, brilliant blooms, sparkling fountains and glossy potion jars. Some critters are cute, some not; all are menacing enough to cause panic when they appear en masse on screen. In comparison, the cut-scenes playing out the story are stilted and dull, with zooming static images of the three girls in and out as they 'talk' to each other.

The hot spots are large and easily clickable even in a rush, thus all but eliminating wasted clicks (and stress).

text, sound & music:

The text, in an elegant cursive, is straightforward and free of typos. Morgana's dialogues are quirky, often funny, and reveal her girlishness beneath her heinous scheming: for example when she asks Eden rhetorically why people don't like her, or requests a potion to help her net true love, and when that fails, yet another to mend her broken heart. The tutorials are easy to follow even for beginners.

The music is extremely limited but adequate in mood and quality. The sound effects, while also limited, are well-suited to the scenarios.

bottomline:

The Fifth Gate is a rare blend of a classic fantasy tale, action-packed game-play, and beautiful art. It's entertaining and challenging in equal measure, and leaves the gamer satisfied, yet craving for more. At the end, Morgana, scolded by Titania for being, of all things, lazy, leaves in a huff, but not before promising to return.

That's a sequel worth waiting for.

g@mrgrl rating:

	interesting game-play, attractive graphics, 70 levels
	ordinary music, too easy
	no bugs noted

This is an original review written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.

Tips & Tricks: Burger Bustle

15 points to simplify Burger Bustle for you:

1. First of all, it's a demanding game that requires extreme speed (especially in the last 4 locations) AND planning of which counters to unlock / man to beat aggressive gold time targets.

2. Tutorials take you through the production process of new products that are added.

3. Right at the start of a level, keep all dispensers filled with one serving: burgers (each frier can make upto two at a time), sodas, desserts, fries and ice-cream.

4. Refill all dispensers immediately after serving.

5. The burgers do not require the layers of cheese, tomato and lettuce to be added in any particular order. Only correct layers have to be chosen.

6. Essential workers include at least 1 burger frier (can double as cheese / lettuce / tomato loader), 1 waiter, and 1 side dish vendor.

7. Serving customers a part of their order does not improve their moods. Focus on completing entire orders to earn cash and finish 'task' counts.

8. Customers do not have any preference for items on the display shelf. It serves only as an extra holding area.

9. Use the time delays between customers (more frequent than you'd expect) to build complicated burgers beforehand in case they have to be completed as part of 'tasks'.

10. Since there is no overnight wastage i.e. no money is deducted for food / drinks that remain at the end of the day, or monetary penalties for throwing away wasted items, don't be afraid to keep dispensers filled and make complex burgers before actual orders.

11. Getting gold levels require planning which counters to unlock + how many servers to deploy + which tasks to prioritise:

... If there is a cash target, try to use as few workers as possible. Save recruiting the last worker for AFTER achieving the cash target as once reached, falling below the target does not matter. Don't forget to keep a time buffer of 5 - 10 seconds to add a worker.

... For order targets, delay unlocking too many filling counters or side dish counters. Serving large orders with complex burgers and multiple sides takes more time, and do not increase the count of 'orders completed' versus say serving just a soda or a plain burger.

... For non-cash, food type tasks, recruit as quickly as possible for the burger and filling counters. Remember: you don't have to complete all orders to meet time targets, ONLY the listed items. Serve these first, then complete remaining orders once the clock stops.

... Remember that people eating in will be counted as 'completed orders' only once they finish (and they take a while).

12. Add the ketchup and collect the tips. The cash is invaluable.

13. Use the advantage of serving customers by right clicking the mouse button instead of dragging the item to them - it will save you time and make your mouse pad last longer. For non-cash, order count targets, skip the ketchup.

14. It doesn't matter which decor element you choose to upgrade first. All parts must be eventually selected to complete a cafe.

15. Target using the coffee machine at least twice per level. Use it only when there is a rush of orders as it recharges very slowly.

Good Luck!


This is an original Tips & Tricks written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.

Review: Burger Bustle

game format: time management | arcade

puzzles: none

playtime: 8 hours (story mode) | difficulty: medium - difficult

developer: Sulus Games | publisher: Big Fish Games

links: Official site | Buy this game

game brief: Dive into some tasty fun in Burger Bustle, a fun and exciting Time Management game! Take over a restaurant and serve up delicious food as quickly as you can to keep your customers coming back for more. Earn awesome awards and unlock helpful upgrades that’ll help you work even more efficiently. Stay one step ahead of your clientele to keep up with the Burger Bustle! (Big Fish website)


review:

Burger Bustle is a time-management game that involves running a chain of cafes that occasionally serve coffee.

the story:

There's none. The memo is short and sweet: do tasks, earn trophies.

game-play:

Prima facie, Burger Bustle appears to tread little new ground from the tried-and-tested time management format. Customers come into the cafe, browse the menu, place their orders. Servers scurry to fry up burgers, stuff them with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes, and a hint of ketchup for extra cash. Side dishes include three varieties each of ice-cream, sodas, coffees, desserts and fries. Customers may choose take-away or eat in the cafe; those who eat in sometimes leave tips.

And then comes the twist - the 'strategy' part. This isn't a game that can be beaten by just skidding across the mousepad. Planning which counters to unlock, how to distribute available workers, and which tasks to priortise plays a huge part in winning gold. Multiple targets per level add to the challenge.

There are eight 'locations' of the cafe - Beach, Wild West, Winter (surely this was lost in translation), City (screenshot), Shopping Center, Aqua Park, Hollywood and Space Station (screenshot), each with 8 levels, adding up to 64 for the game. At the start of each level, targets are defined for 'gold' and 'silver' trophies. The time target requires task targets to be completed - minimum orders to be served and/or cash to be earned and/or particular burgers types or sides to be sold and/or staff to be recruited.

Customer types are few (but range from blue collar workers to Japanese tourists) and remain constant irrespective of the cafes' locations. There's no significant difference in patience levels either; most are reasonable even with inordinate delays. Which is a saving grace, because the workers are woefully sluggish, and the sole in-game speed up is a coffee machine which takes over a minute (with levels averaging 2 - 3 minutes) to recharge after a 10-odd second use. After a few levels the cafe gets a gramophone (in a burger shop?) and candy that can be used to soothe irate customers.

Other positive elements include the facility to serve customers by clicking the right mouse button on the item rather than have to drag it to them; there is also no 'overnight wastage' - money deducted on leftover items when the shop closes, nor any penalties for discarding useless items except the time lost in handling them.

Each level has three decor upgrades - flooring, walls and tables, which improve tipping. There is no cash implication to purchasing them, so the feature appears cursory.

Great? Not quite. Burger Bustle suffers from a near-crippling glitch - customers often do NOT order the items required to complete tasks for many, many rounds. This wastes precious time, and renders the player helpless and frustrated. The worst afflicted levels are 14 (Wild West), 53 (Hollywood) and 64 (Space Station), for which gold targets appear improbable thanks to lack of ordering of critical items.

Another problem is that bonuses (upgrades) are 'awarded' on the player moving up a pre-set leaderboard. Even after completing all eight locations with 60 (of 64) gold trophies, I managed to make it to only number 2, short by over 4000 points, though the scores for each level are 'fixed' in terms of targets - achieving targets faster does not earn additional points. Not being able to choose an upgrade also hampers gamers from maximising their individual game-play strengths.

The game has two additional modes which extend playtime by several hours - "Survival", unlocked when the player ranks 8th on the leaderboard, and "Relaxed", unlocked at rank 2. Survival mode has the player racing against the clock to meet orders as customers increase and patience levels decrease, till 20 customers are lost. Relaxed mode is untimed, pressure mounting as customers increase along with order complexity.

art & graphics:

The art is vibrant and attractive, with smooth, clear graphics. Overall the game is a visual pleasure with above average production quality.

text, sound & music:

The game has very little text, keeping it crisp and free of typos. The voice-acting is good, but the limited sound-bites get repetitive after a few levels. The music is functional and remains in the background.

bottomline:

The biggest strengths of Burger Bustle are its perfect length and challenging game-play. The speed + strategy approach keeps the gamer engaged its entire duration. There's no getting bored with this game, and the only regret is the glitch of ordering task items that reduces its overall satisfaction score.

g@mrgrl rating:

	challenging speed + strategy concept, graphics, 64 levels
	design glitch - customers often don't order task items
	no bugs noted

This is an original review written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.

Tips & Tricks: Hotel Dash: Suite Success

30 points to simply Diner Dash: Suite Success for you (beyond the tutorials which explain basic game-play elements):


COMBINING ACTIVITIES & CHAIN BONUSES

1. Since Flo takes time to go up and down the lift, combine activities for guests staying on the same floor.

2. It is critical to earn maximum chain bonuses. Easiest options are putting gift baskets in empty rooms, checking in multiple guests at one time and then giving them their cases, and collecting & depositing waste laundry after rooms have been vacated.

3. Actions can be queued, which helps plan Flo's movements.

4. On the downside, actions cannot be unqueued, and that wastes time / prevents course correction in case many actions are in queue. The queue will end once all tasks are done / some task cannot be done.

5. Flo stops and shakes her head in case there is a cued task that she cannot do, so check often that she hasn't stopped moving somewhere while queued tasks are executed.

6. Clowns make messes in the hallways - guests stop when they come to a mess, so clean up ASAP.

7. From Stark Suites onwards, once celebrities are introduced, it becomes most important to service them fast, since their bodyguards hold up other guests until their orders are completed.

8. Anticipate behaviour patterns to get 'faster service' bonuses; for example, the businesswomen and joggers always ask for towels after meals; the newlyweds, teenaged boys and celebrities ask for pillows after meals; celebrities and fat men order food twice.

9. Picking up laundry bags does not break chain bonuses for activities like serving meals or checking guests out. So try to keep rooms vacant by clearing laundry quickly. This will help serve incoming guests quicker. But note: depositing the laundry in the washer will break the chain.

10. If the hotel is closed, focus on serving the guests rather than cleaning the empty rooms.

11. Remember, throwing away items costs money, so try not to do that often - or at all. If Flo has something in her hand / cart that can be carried around without slowing down service, keep carrying it.


CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

1. If a group is particularly annoyed, focus on earning their hearts back with consecutive 'fast services' for them.

2. Gift baskets should be added to empty rooms to earn more happiness (and tips) from the guests when they arrive.

3. From the Alpine Ski Lodge onwards, opt for the musician - he is good for soothing irate customers, though Flo must wait near him while he activates. But this time is worth spending as ALL waiting guests get more hearts once he plays.

4. Guests must already be in rooms to be placated by iced water.

5. The iced water dispenser has limited usage given that it is usually inconveniently located and cannot be served to guests waiting to be checked in, which is where the maximum delay happens. Upgrade to it after ALL other upgrades are through.

6. Dogs bark and irritate neighbouring guests. They have to be fed dogfood, kept on the table with the room service.

7. The sneaky woman switches the lights off only once per level.

8. Stark Suites, with its celebrities, businesswomen and businessmen is the most chaotic, with demanding and impatient customers all around.

9. The hotels lose $100 for every customer lost.

10. Don't panic! Even with the loss of a customer or two, there are still enough customers to achieve Expert easily enough on all levels.


UPGRADES

1. Buy upgrades that add tips first - such as art, wallpaper and carpets - when there are fewer guests so less chance of them getting annoyed.

2. Buy patience-generating upgrades towards the later levels when the crowd builds up.

3. Flo's upgrades are expensive and need to be planned well - for example, she doesn't need to be very fast for the starting levels and hence at those times, the cheaper and more rewarding hotel upgrades should be done. The elevator, cart, mop and shoes upgrades need to be done in that order.

4. Guests who stay in 'star' rooms pay 'star bills' - currency used to fix up the special room. The more star bills, the more likely Flo is to furnish all available items for the room and earn the special bonus - so it pays to star up the rooms of the hotel as early as possible.

5. Add stars to the larger rooms first to maximise tips. Each star costs $750, so try and add at least one stars to each room at every level.

6. Even two stars on each room gives enough star bills to complete the VIP rooms within the 8th levels of each hotel.


MISC

1. The socialite with the multiple suitcases takes some getting used to - click the number of times as the suitcases to pick all up in the cart.

2. From the Alpine Ski Resort onwards, some guests also want a wake-up call - which can be a knock on the door or a call from the reception desk if Flo purchases the telephone upgrade.

3. Retrying a level for the first time adds the cash earned in the level originally to the bank.

Good Luck!


This is an original Tips & Tricks written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.

Review: Hotel Dash: Suite Success

game format: time management | arcade

puzzles: none

playtime: 3 hours (Story Mode) | difficulty: easy

developer: Kef Sensei | publisher: Big Fish Games / Playfirst

links: Official site | Buy this game

game brief: When Quinn’s new travel business hits a snag, she needs Flo’s patented elbow grease to help renovate and run hotels all over DinerTown! Experience a Hotel Dash as you deliver guests' luggage, drop off room service and provide extra towels and blankets! Use your tips to decorate and restore each hotel back to its original charm in this fast-paced Time Management game!

review: Dash Heroine Flo returns, this time to help pal Quinn iron out the bumps in her fledgling travel planning business, in the aptly-titled Hotel Dash: Suite Success.

Quinn hits her first roadblock when she extends her services from travel booking to honeymoon planning for newlyweds Tony and Vicky. The couple wants to remain in town to be close to Tony's business, and Quinn books them into Dinertown Suites, little knowing that the place has gone to seed over the years. With only 10 days to go before the couple arrives, Quinn turns to Flo for help to restore - and exceed - Dinertown Suites' old glory, and to make Tony and Vicky's honeymoon a success.

Flo's quick service with a smile soon transforms Dinertown Suites into the most-wanted hotel in town. But wait, there's more... trouble. Margarita and her parents are shut out of their vacation lodge due to snow, and the girls rally to fix up the Alpine Ski Resort to ensure that their trip does not end in disaster. 10 days, and the Resort is ready...

...and so are Quinn and Flo, to move on to their next challenge, the Stark Executive Suites in the city. Pal Cassie needs to wow visiting investors - starting with their accommodation. The city is full of demanding clients: businesswomen, celebrities and socialites, which makes Stark the most challenging of the hotels restored by the duo.

With Stark converted into a buzzing business hub, Quinn and Flo change gears to rebuild holiday hotel Tiki Palace in time for Darla's parents' tropical getaway. Tiki moves along at a relaxed place, with generally patient tourists as its primary guests.

Which brings the dedicated duo to the final hotel on the makeover list, the crumbling, haunted gothic marvel Dunwich House! A truly spooky atmosphere and terrific theme music - not the mention the real ghosts it has as guests - make Dunwich the most interesting restoration project.

The game stays staunchly loyal to the Dash Family Values in terms of design, artwork and game-play. It starts with a quick tutorial, introducing core items and taking gamers through basic tasks. It's good enough to get going, and the rest is easily picked up once the game is afoot.

The concept is straightforward: guests arrive at the hotel and must be checked in, then provided with their luggage, room service, and sundry items like towels, pillows and kibble for their pets. Once the guests eat, hit the pool and/or the gym, and take a nap, Flo needs to check them out and put the laundry for cleaning. In between, she mops up spilled water and broken flower vases, dispels hauntings by naughty ghosts, clicks photos for the tourists, wakes up oversleeping and/or sleepwalking guests, puts welcome gift baskets in empty rooms, and investigates a girl in a green trenchcoat who appears to be sabotaging the hotels.

The guests look and act the same as earlier Dash patrons - cheerful girls, honeymooning couples, camera-crazy tourists, impatient businesswomen, clumsy clowns, annoying teenagers, sultry socialites loaded with luggage, celebrities with aggressive bodyguards, men with dogs, and men with beer guts. However, they are all noticeably calmer than they've been in past games, and the situation never really gets overwhelming. Guest losses due to irritation are few, and limited largely to the businesswomen, who are - understandibly - the crankiest.

As usual, the guests are coloured either blue, green, yellow or red, as are the rooms, and there are bonuses for matching the guest colour repeatedly to the room colour. Points are also earned for chaining activities and fast service. Customer hearts lost due to room allotment / service delays can be won back with quick service, a chilled glass of water, or, for those waiting in the lobby, some live music from the resident musician.

Various upgrades can be purchased with the profits to make the hotel more attractive (wallpapers, carpets, flooring, plants, artwork), improve services (reception phone, faster mops, quick filling water dispensers, more active musicians), and boost Flo's speed (quick shoes, larger carts, faster elevators). The upgrades are reasonably priced and can usually be acquired by the 5 - 6th levels of each hotel, making the later levels significantly easier.

Another upgrade is the addition of stars to the rooms - upto a maximum of 3 stars each. Guests staying in star rooms are happier and pay star bills, besides room rents and tips. These star bills are used to refurbish the themed VIP Suite of the hotel that is reserved for special guests. Decorations include deluxe flooring, wallpapers, rugs, curtains, candlestands and chandeliers, designer beds, desks and chairs, and even a waterfall!

Click to view The Honeymoon Special @ Dinertown / The VIP Suite @ Alpine Ski Lodge / The Executive Suite @ Stark / The VIP Suite @ Tiki Palace / The Haunted Room @ Dunwich House.

The 5 hotels have 10 levels each - a perfect length for the game, building up the challenge without letting ennui set in from spending too much time at one hotel. Since every hotel starts from scratch, the game-play keeps reverting to square one, so it's akin to playing 5 small games rather than a single 50-level game. No level is exceptionally challenging, and attaining Expert rank (with large margins) is simple throughout. Judicious purchase of stars for the rooms easily produces enough star bills to complete the VIP suites by the 8th level. While this reduces difficulty, it helps keep the game moving without frustrating the gamer.

Flo can win upto 8 medals for milestones reached - completing each hotel, completing the game, achieving expert rank for all levels, and completing all VIP suites with all available embellishments.

And for those who just cannot get enough of Hotel Dash: Suite Success, there is the Endless Mode, which provides additional arcade fun once the Story Mode is over.

Four and a half cheers for this spiffy, back-to-the-basics game!

g@mrgrl rating:

	game-play, VIP rooms concept, 50 levels, Flo
	too easy
	no bugs noted

This is an original review written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.

Tips & Tricks: Cake Shop 2

20 points to simplify Cake Shop 2 for you:


1. First, it's not a difficult or demanding game, even with 155 levels.

2. Tutorials take you through the production process of new products.

3. Right at the start of a level, keep all dispensers filled with one serving: soda, popcorn, candy floss, ice-cream, coffee, cappuccino (with a tall glass - see Point 9).

Note: Milk, juices and milkshakes all use the clear tall glass.

4. Refill all dispensers immediately after serving. A time-saving way of doing this is to pick up the same container (e.g. a popcorn tub) from the conveyor belt and take it to the dispenser (e.g. the popcorn machine, which already has a full tub sitting in it), and replace the full tub with the empty tub. This saves an additional move to the conveyor belt, and keeps you from forgetting to refill.

5. This logic does not entirely apply to the juicer as the fruits appear only when a customer asks for a juice. However, save time by keeping a juice glass sitting in the juicer so that once the fruit arrives, you only have to pop the fruit in.

6. In case you complete a juice order using one of the 'Fulfil Order' bonuses and have a full glass sitting in the juicer, make sure you place it on the display shelf to have one of the customers order it. Otherwise when the next juice order comes, this will be wasted (no monetary penalty, only time and effort wastage).

7. Keep the ice-cream dispensers loaded with cones, not tall glasses (used for making milkshakes). Milkshakes are ordered much more rarely than ice-cream cones.

8. In case you have a full cone sitting in an ice-cream dispenser and a customer wants a milkshake of the same flavour, don't throw away the cone. Pick up a tall glass and click to exchange it with the full cone. Wait till the glass has the ice-cream, then switch the cone back. Take the milkshake glass to the blender to complete the order.

9. Similarly for the cappuccino machine, which can serve both hot milk (tall glass) and cappuccino (full coffee cup). Milk is ordered more often than cappuccino so keep a tall glass sitting in the cappuccino machine. In case someone wants cappuccino instead, pick up the full coffee cup from the coffee machine, click to switch with the milk glass, wait till the cappuccino is ready, then switch the milk glass back.

10. In the equipment selection list, always select the blender last so the time-consuming activity of making milkshakes is done for the least levels possible. The cappuccino machine should be second last.

11. The cakes do not require the three layers to be selected in any particular order. Only three correct layers have to be chosen.

12. There is a 'cake of the day' put on the display shelf from Level 2 onwards. The first or second customer always orders this. Use the time saved to set up the dispensers before rush hour starts.

13. Customers aggressively order items put on the display shelf. This is relevant in three critical ways:

a) Putting up a ready item saves you time from making a fresh item, which means the customer is served sooner, which means more tips

b) Putting up more complex cakes (shaped, with toppings) brings in more money (otherwise customers usually order simple round cakes)

c) This significantly controls customer orders and helps you play more efficiently

14. Use the time delays between customers (more frequent than you'd expect) to build complicated cakes to put on display.

15. Since there is no overnight wastage i.e. no money is deducted for food / drinks that remain at the end of the day, or monetary penalties for throwing away wasted items, don't be afraid to keep dispensers filled and make as complex cakes as possible for display.

16. Getting gold levels require maximising tips and selling more complex cakes than the customers would order on their own.

17. Use the advantage of serving customers by right clicking the mouse button instead of dragging the item to them - it will save you time and make your mouse pad last longer.

18. Bonuses expire and cannot be accumulated, which removes strategic planning using bonuses.

19. Use the 'Quicker Machines' bonus to re-stock the dispensers and build complex cakes rather than serve customers (unless they're getting really upset).

20. It doesn't matter which part of the shop under construction you choose to build at any point of time. All parts must be eventually selected to complete the shop.

Good luck!


This is an original Tips & Tricks written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.

Review: Cake Shop 2

game format: time management | arcade

puzzles: none

playtime: 8 hours | difficulty: easy

developer: Elefun Games | publisher: Big Fish Games

links: Official site | Buy this game

game brief: Open up your very own roadside café, and earn money, while treating your customers to delicious fruitcakes with different fillings in Cake Shop 2! Purchase advanced culinary equipment and begin to build your confectionery corporation as your café grows! Quickly serve visitors and use unique upgrades to keep your clientele content, and coming back for more. (Official website)

review: First, the good news: Cake Shop 2 has a whopping 155 - yes, 155 - levels stuffed with cakes, shakes, colas, coffees, popcorn and candy floss - sweet, but definitely not short!

Now, the story. I haven't played Cake Shop, the original title, and so started fresh with blonde, blue-eyed heroine Emily. She takes time off from sunbathing at a resort to drop in at her friend Frederico's cafe for a chat and a coffee. Moments later, Frederico's grandma calls to inform him that she's getting married for the, uh, seventh time. Since he must be familiar with the drill by now, Frederico drops all work, including his cafe, into Emily's lap, and jets off to attend the big day.

But that's not the last we see of him. Once Emily starts slogging behind the counter, Frederico reappears, dressed nattily in a striped grey suit. Suddenly, he's the boss and she's the employee. He tasks her into building his beach shack cafe into a Cake Shop conglomerate spread across the city, all the while spewing inanities such as, 'I don't know how you did it!' and 'Even I couldn't do that!'. He (generously) allows her to keep the part of the money not spent in constructing new buildings and upgrading equipment as her salary, and sends her off to a well-earned vacation at the end. What about a partnership in the firm she built for you, bro?

Emily, unlike the feisty heroines of other time management games like Flo and Jill Evans, remains a static image on the level loader screen. It's Frederico's show all the way, and the gamer may have actually cared about the 'big picture' if he had been the protagonist. Building the Cake Shop empire is Frederico's dream, not Emily's. And thus, the story fails.

Which makes this game, well, just a game. So, coming to the game-play.

View screenshots: Level 1 / Level 2 / Level 3 / Level 4 / Level 5

Cake Shop 2 follows the conveyor belt format. The ingredients must be plucked off the carousel and used with various equipment, purchased between levels, to serve the customers. Besides cakes, the Shop also offers sodas (cola, orange, regular), ice-cream cones and shakes (vanilla, chocolate, strawberry), popcorn (salted, caramel), coffee (normal, black, cappuccino), juice (apple, grape, orange), candy floss, and hot milk.

The cakes are three-tiered - two layers of waffle sandwiching a layer of filling. The tiers appear separately on the belt and must be combined correctly to make the basic, round cake. Cakes may be shaped into squares, triangles or hearts, and may be topped with chocolate, peach or strawberry sauce. Ice-cream cones can also be topped with the sauces.

Equipment includes soda and ice-cream dispensers, a blender, a juicer, a coffee maker and a cappuccino machine, popcorn machines, a candy floss spinner, cake shapers and toppings taps.

With such a vast array of products, flavours and equipment, Cake Shop 2 boasts incredible game depth. Equipment choices determine the items offered and revenue. But more expensive, complicated items need more time to make, which means less tips, so a strategic balance has to be constantly maintained between cost and time.

Emily's efforts are supported by four types of bonuses. 'Patience' adds hearts to the customers; 'Time Freeze' switches the clock off for several precious seconds; 'Quicker Machines' make equipment produce items instantly; and 'Fulfil Order' completes part of an order, an entire order, or all pending orders at that moment. All bonuses can be upgraded thrice. Upgrading 'Patience', 'Time Freeze' and 'Quicker Machines' adds seconds to their time limits. 'Fulfil Order' upgrades in service range.

However, the bonuses expire within seconds, and it's difficult to use them to any serious strategic advantage. For example, the gamer doesn't have much control over using 'Quicker Machines' if the bonus is expiring and the customers are only ordering basic, round cakes. Or the 'Patience' bonus appearing when there are no customers around.

Customer types are few and remain constant irrespective of the shops' locations. Buyers include a cop, a tennis player, a young girl with a balloon, a businessman, a tourist, and a blonde hottie who looks, waves, walks and talks on the cellphone just like Paris Hilton.

Profits are used to construct new shops - there are four (Beach Cafe, Park Cafe, Business Cafe and Central Cafe), plus an office. Construction proceeds parallel to the game, but selecting which portion to build is perfunctory - all portions have to be purchased to move to the next shop. Same goes for equipment upgrades, though in this case, buying intelligently helps save time during the initial levels. A drawback to planning equipment purchase is that product prices are not mentioned - for example, is coffee more profitable than popcorn? However, this oversight is rendered irrelevant as goals are easily achievable and profits are much higher than expenses, so there is no money crunch (I finished the game with $46,000 AFTER all expenditures).

A few game design elements make Cake Shop 2 more efficient than its peers: customers can be served by clicking the right mouse button on the item rather than have to drag it to them; there is also no 'overnight wastage' - money deducted on leftover items when the shop closes, nor any penalties for discarding useless items except the time lost in handling them. Customers aggressively buy items on the display shelf, and putting up more expensive items for show pays off handsomely in managing time and effort and controlling customer flow, directly resulting in greater profits. On the downside, serving customers a part of their order does not improve their mood, so there is no way to cheer them up unless the 'Patience' bonus comes up.

For all its game-play strengths, Cake Shop 2 has sub-par production quality by today's standards. The stylised art sequences are dull, Frederico and his assistants' lip movements are disconcerting, and the customers walk like zombies on skates. However, the equipment animation is good, and well-complimented by the sound effects.

That brings up the music, which is possibly the worst part of the game. The severely limited selection comprises a couple of basic sound loops and a jarring jazz-like piece. This is one of the very few games in recent times that I played with the music muted.

The text is rudimentary and suffers from poor grammar and spelling errors, possibly due to translation into English from its original language.

While having so many levels prolongs playing hours, unfortunately, more than half the game is painfully sluggish. Customers appear sparingly, and huge chunks of time lie unutilised. The action picks up in the second half but only slightly; it's easy to get the gold star on every level till the last. In that, the game is often boring, if not downright tiresome.

Cake Shop 2 is ambitious both in length and depth, but the two elements never blend together effectively enough to provide the adrenalin rush of racing against time while juggling multiple challenges. Nor does it create any sense of achievement once it is over, only a bit of relief.

g@mrgrl rating:

	game design, numerous items and equipment, 155 levels
	graphics, music, too easy, boring
	no bugs noted

This is an original review written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.

Review: Cake Mania: Main Street

game format: time management | arcade

puzzles: none

playtime: 5 hours | difficulty: easy

developer / publisher: Sandlot Games

links: Official site  |  Buy this game

game brief: Take a trip back to Jill Evans'™ hometown of Bakersfield in Cake Mania Main Street™, the highly anticipated fourth chapter in one of the most popular time management series of all-time! Help Jill and her closest friends earn enough money to revitalize Main Street by opening, managing, and upgrading four unique downtown shops and building must-see tourist attractions. (Official website)

review: Cake Mania returns with its fourth instalment – Main Street, bringing back Jill Evans, who makes the best cakes in the universe, her husband Jack, and her friends Risha, the city girl, and Tiny, the ex-sumo wrestler.

As usual, an upstart mall, Baker’s Corner, has run out the quaint mom-and-pop shops from Bakersfield’s Main Street, which leads to the setup of Operation OSDBFRBRMSATAWSSCFBC - umm, yes. That’s “Operation Save Downtown Bakersfield From Ruin By Revitalising Main Street and Attracting Tourists, All While Secretly Stealing Customers From Baker’s Corner”, which sums up the aim of the game.

So, getting on with that noble mission, we start with the Grand Reopening of the Evans Bakery. The game format remains the same - Jill serving her clients with cakes, frostings and toppings. She takes orders by phone too, though each level rarely logs more than one call.

But thereafter the game breaks away from the confines of its name, and allows the player to purchase, upgrade and run three more types of shops: Jack’s Burger Barn, Risha’s Flower Shop and Sumo’s Sushi. Each shop has 25 levels, adding up to a 100 crazy levels of running around baking cakes, making burgers, selling bouquets and wrapping sushi. This is as good as offers get – four for the price of one!

The Flower Shop follows the same format as the Bakery, replacing cakes with bouquets loaded with wrappings, ribbons and knick-knacks. Burger Barn and Sumo’s Sushi have a different format – the player is ‘behind the table’ making the dishes, similar to 2007's Burger Island.

A map of Bakersfield shows the position and condition of the shops, the town’s attractions, and the number of tourists. Each shop has a daily income, which accumulates to allow purchase of shop improvements, which in turn increases its daily income. Half of all daily earnings from the shops go to the town, which is used to build attractions like the Bakersfield Arch, the Giant Ferris Wheel-O-Fun and fountains and statues for the benefit of tourists (and of course, the town). Trophies are awarded for completing various milestones of the game.

After each successful level, the Bakery and Flower Shop allow purchase and resale of equipment and upgrades. The Burger Barn and Sumo’s Sushi allow purchase of new recipes (a vast collection) and two items, both for pacifying customers.

The clientele ranges from aliens to vampires to pirates and sundry corny types, including a spaced-out hippy who wants tacos but can be sold, well, ANYTHING. Some clients affect other clients either to the gamers’ advantage or against – Super-Matt freezes his neighbours, ninjas black them out, mafia-man steals money, vampires turn others into vampires, and an arrogant chef turns patrons into hot dogs, changing their orders, often leading to massive wastage, and consequently, negative marking. It’s not really a bad thing - it makes an otherwise standard game unpredictable and challenging.

A big annoyance for me was that Jill and Risha carry only one item at a time, which resulted in a LOT of walking back and forth, reducing productivity, tiring the eyes, and being boring in general. Burger Barn and Sumo’s Sushi are super-efficient though: there’s no unnecessary movement, wrong ingredients cannot be added and fried things don’t get burned, so there’s zero wastage.

Cake Mania starts each shop segment with tutorials that are simple to grasp even for first-timers either to the series, or the genre. The game is easy too: 99 levels took me only one attempt to reach the goal, and never more than 2 – 3 attempts to reach Superstar for the (surprisingly few) demanding levels. Level 24 of Sumo’s Sushi remained unconquered: despite 10 retries, I failed to get past 1700-odd versus a Superstar target of 2000. But overall, it’s fun without frustration, and full marks for keeping it that way.

The art is average: the comic book format is common, the intro screens are gaudy, and the actual game screens have nothing new to offer. The music is average too; mostly up-tempo beats thumping up the urgency, except for the cringe-inducing electronica-oriental theme of Sumo’s Sushi. The game has many voice-overs, and while stereotypical, these did make the intro segments more interesting.

One thing that grated on my nerves – and this seems to be a trend across time management games nowadays – is the ‘big is bad and hostile, small is sweet and all heart’ message that kept getting pounded across. Maybe because I’m a city girl through-and-through, never having lived in a small town, I disagree with this regressive anti-mall, anti-retail chain, anti-multiplex, anti-big hotel, anti-organised sector philosophy.

While I’m sure market research supports following through with this theme again and again, I find it alarming that gamers today, especially girls who are a key audience, are in favour of this in-your-face back to the basics propaganda, which, frankly, is in complete contradiction to the reality. Jill is ambitious enough to take on a large shopping mall and beat it to the ground. She buys shops and entertainment venues across town, builds her own statue as a tourist attraction, rakes in the moolah selling new and improved items from level to level, and yet remains aggressively derisive of the very quality she displays in achieving her goal – sheer business acumen that identifies and capitalises on money-making opportunities. Is there really any difference between the ultimate aim of a mom-and-pop shop and the biggest retail chains?

The game tries to get us familiar with Jill’s friends too. Jack is sweet and affectionate but daft. Risha is smart and no-nonsense, and brings most of the humour to the game with her snarky remarks.

Tiny’s saga is tragic and bizarre in equal parts – an Octozilla (mutant octopus) drowned his village and he was forced to become a sumo wrestler to make ends meet, and then he defeated someone, who is now hunting him down via ninjas. All this has unfortunately but expectedly scrambled his brains and he now revels in romantic matches between shrimps and crabs and squids, all the while nursing a deathly fear of fugu (wikipedia), a dish made from the poisonous pufferfish.

Then there’s this unnecessary track of Jill’s hinted-at pregnancy, covering the entire gamut of side-effects from morning sickness to mood swings to craving for strange foods. Unnecessary, because till the end she displays no baby-bump, Jack remains absurdly clueless, and there is no update on the situation in the final wrap-up. I suppose we’ll see in Episode 5.

I was honestly disappointed that Cake Mania: Main Street did not endeavour to break any new ground in terms of game-play or storylines or production values, given that it’s one of the leaders of the genre and hence lends itself to big expectations. It’s a quick, formula package – a product of the suited-up retail business the game ironically keeps bashing, and lacks the much-touted heart.

PS: Cake Mobile offers the option to play the game on the cell-phone, taking a step forward in techno-terms, but I remain old-school for now.

g@mrgrl rating: 3/5


This is an original review written by me. Please do not distribute / adapt the text and images in any way without my written consent.