Game review: Fashion Fits!

I wasn't planning on playing Fashion Fits! based on just the name. It sounds like some sort of fashion designer game. Well, it's not. I decided that I had to jump into the game and if it turned out to be terrible, I'd at least be able to warn you about it. Fashion Fits! is a time management game based on the exciting world of retail. Your heroine, Francie, gets a job selling clothes at a big box store. You get to do thrilling things like stock the floor, empty the fitting rooms of leftover merchandise and ring up customer purchases on the register. Unlike a normal retail peon, you do get to make choices on upgrades for the store. However, some of the upgrades seem to give you more work to do.

While this isn't a bad game, it isn't particularly exciting either. It's basically the same annoying jobs you can get in real life without getting money in your pocket. There are different types of customers which, obviously, require various levels of service. A lot of the customers leave clothes in the dressing room for you to clean up while a few of the customers pick what they want and try to get out as soon as possible. It's your job to try to make sure that you, as the only employee of the store, can make everyone happy while keeping the floor stocked with product. I found it rather difficult to juggle absolutely everything. You can upgrade the floor displays to hold more stock and you can add more fitting rooms but that really just leaves you with more displays to fill and fitting rooms to clean. None of the upgrades I was offered included hiring an extra employee. You can make Francine walk faster but that doesn't accomplish a whole lot when the sales floor is filled with demanding customers.

You might want to give the game a try if you like time management games. It is possible that I just hate retail so much that it has seeped into my opinion of it. However, I don't think I've ever had to work a busy sales floor on my own without any help from anyone. That would completely suck and this game proves it.

Game review: Diner Dash: Hometown Hero

Everyone's favorite waitress, Flo, has gone back to her hometown for some rest and relaxation. While driving around with her grandmother, they find out that the places from Flo's childhood are falling apart due to lack of funds. It's up to Flo and her grandmother to save the day! Diner Dash was my first time management game so it has a special place in my heart. This sequel doesn't disappoint. There are some changes to the gameplay to make it a bit more difficult than the earlier editions but the changes are good. Now you are able to slide two 2-seat tables together to make a 4-seat table. I absolutely love this. Before, you always got screwed when you had a lot of parties of 4 coming in. Moving tables together alleviates the problem.

Another change is the 'competition level.' In the demo that I played, there was one level where Flo got to hire a new waitress. To "train" the newbie, you had to beat their score by at least ten points. This wasn't difficult at all since the new waitress seemed to just hang around waiting for you to miss something. She was really good at handing out drinks though.

The restaurant design part of the game is still there too. I think the design part makes the game just a little bit different from other time management games. And, of course, you can still upgrade just about everything.

Diner Dash: Hometown Hero should be a hit with any Diner Dash fan. Let's tie on our aprons and get to work saving Flo's home town!

Game review: Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate

The Mystery Case Files series is what got me into hidden object games. My daughter and I frequently play Ravenhearst together. So I was ecstatic when I saw a new MCF game called Madame Fate. In this version of the game, you are helping Madame Fate, a fortune teller at a carnival, who has foreseen her own death. You have to figure out which of the quirky carnival workers is slated to kill her and stop them. All in a day's work, right?

This game was a little more difficult than the other MCF games. In some levels, there are objects you need to put together to form a whole object on your list. For example, you might be searching for an ice cream cone. In order to get one, you need to put the scoop of ice cream on an empty cone. There are also hidden areas in some areas of the carnival. They are usually easy to find as the "hidden door" does this glowy-blinky thing. The final puzzle of each level is a different form of hidden object puzzle. Instead of having an entire list of things to find, you are given a multitude of two objects. For example, you may need to find 10 letter Ms and 10 musical notes in one scene.

True to its form, I did enjoy Madame Fate. The end-of-level puzzles were rather difficult as many items are hidden in shadows but it wasn't a deal breaker for me. I hope that I'll get some time to play through it more to see how the higher levels are.

Game review: Hawaiian Explorer: Pearl Harbor

While the website was down late last week, I gave Hawaiian Explorer: Pearl Harbor a try. Yet another hidden object game, I was expecting something along the lines of Hidden Expedition: Titanic, which was an extremely enjoyable game. However, Hawaiian Explorer was nothing but a disappointment. The typical list of objects to find is often times confusing. When you find something from your list, you need to click on a specific spot on the object or you will lose time. This, of course, makes you think that isn't the object you are looking for when, in fact, it is and you just didn't click on the special spot. If you run out of time, you have to start the level over again with a slightly different list.

In between levels, there is a map piece puzzle. Basically, there is a ripped up map and you have to piece it back together. If you fail to do accomplish this within the time limit, you get tossed back to the previous hidden object level. It is frustrating to say the least.

Hawaiian Explorer: Pearl Harbor is probably the worst hidden object game I have ever played. While some of the graphics are pretty, the gameplay is atrocious.

Game Review: Restaurant Empire

I turned on GameTap the other day, which is rather rare for me, and decided to give one of the simulation games a try. Restaurant Empire seemed to be the best choice at the time. You have just graduated culinary school and are about to take over your uncle's restaurant. From the furniture and design of the restaurant to customizing the food you serve your customers, the future of the family business is in your hands. There are some good and bad things about this game. I like that you get a lot of control with the culinary recipes. You can change up the minor ingredients to change how the food tastes but that also takes the chance that your customers will hate it. On the other hand, you don't seem to get a lot of control on the floor of the restaurant. I frequently had customers complaining that their food was taking too long. Meanwhile I had a ton of servers but I couldn't hire any more cooks. I'm assuming my guy can only cook so fast. There should be a better way to deal with customer complaints. I know I can't make all of them happy but the complaints that I can fix seem to be extremely difficult to fix on the first level.

I'll probably keep playing it for awhile to see if it gets any better. I passed the first few levels though I imagine the challenges will get harder in the later levels. Hopefully the game will help a bit more with the waitstaff and customer complaints.

Game review: Chocolatier

I played Chocolatier awhile ago and thought it was just OK. So I decided to give it another try. Maybe it's because I knew how the controls worked this time around but I enjoyed it a lot more. The basic gist of the game is that a large chocolate-making family has hit some hard times. They need you to help rebuild their chocolate empire. You travel around the world in search of their lost recipes while keeping track of your factories and their inventory. In your travels, you will come across people that will place special orders for candies. For the most part, these people will pay top dollar for your wares.

In some ways, the game gets very difficult. Every time you have to make a new type of chocolate, there is a mini-game for that factory. If you wish to make that type of chocolate in multiple factories, you'll need to replay that mini-game each time. While the recipe will transfer to all of your factories, how to actually make them will not. That part is a little tedious. Especially when you are trying to teach your factories how to make the new recipes as well.

Overall, the game was pretty fun. It takes awhile to get used to what you are supposed to do and I still have problems remembering what port sells which ingredients. I think that chocolate lovers might get a kick out of this but I don't think it's anything that people will be able to play for really long periods of time.

Game review: Forgotten Riddles - The Mayan Princess

Forgotten Riddles - The Mayan Princess is an awesome new take on the hidden object genre of casual games. Instead of just giving you a list of objects to search for, they give you a list of riddles. Each solution is an object in the room. Some of the riddles are really easy but some do make you think a bit. There is a storyline behind the game. You are an archaeologist researching the history of the royal Mayan family. Each level reveals new clues about the life of the Princess and her father.

I loved this game. I think that anyone who enjoys hidden object games but is looking for a little bit more from their entertainment would have a lot of fun. The riddles aren't ridiculously difficult and this is coming from someone who generally sucks at riddles. A+ from me all the way!

Game review: Carrie the Caregiver 2

I haven't played a lot of games lately. For the most part, there hasn't been anything I've found interesting. Then I decided to give Carrie the Caregiver 2: Preschool a try. I played the first Carrie the Caregiver game a long time ago. It was OK but nothing spectacular. I was hoping the second would change that. Our nursing school graduate, Carrie, has decided to try teaching preschool. It is your duty to remind the kids what they are supposed to do (paint a picture), give them supplies to use, wipe any runny noses, hang their artwork on the wall and clean up their supplies. Things can get a little hectic when the kids start getting demanding.

I didn't like this game nearly as much as the first one. While this is supposed to be a preschool setting, Carrie ends up doing everything except the actual painting for the kids. By the time the kids reach this age, they are old enough to get their own paintbrushes and clean up their own messes. However, Carrie is still doing these tasks. It would be nice if the game treated the kids more like real kids. Instead of having Carrie be a servant to the kids, change the game a little so you have to click on the kids for them to get some of their own things. There would still be plenty of things for Carrie to do: hanging the kids' pictures on the wall, helping the kids that are a little slower than others, getting the paint ready for the kids, among other things. I definitely think that would have made the game a lot better.

Game Review: Escape from Paradise

While browsing around Yahoo Games, I came across Escape from Paradise. The description on Yahoo is: "A luxury cruise ship crashes on an uncharted island in the Pacific Ocean. Lead the survivors of the shipwreck, set up camp on the island, and build a rescue object to get your friends off the island. Escape from Paradise is packed full of different games to play. Explore the five islands surrounding the main island and unlock new games that will help you gather resources and aid you in your quest."

This is pretty much a Sims game. First you design your character then you are tossed onto a deserted island with one other character. After a bit of instruction from the Tiki Man, you are given some goals to complete. The first goal is "Gather 50 pieces of wood." So between your character and the computer-generated character, you must cut 50 pieces of wood as well as gather enough food so the two of you don't starve. The goals gradually get more difficult but it isn't anything you can't accomplish with a little bit of time. In between the main goals, you'll have the chance to play mini-games such as marbles. (Well, it's not called marbles but it's the same concept.) In my opinion, the mini-games aren't really necessary and end up being more difficult than the reward is worth. I'd rather just stick to the main goals of building houses and wells.

Overall, this game is just OK. It's not extremely difficult so a casual player would probably like it. However, it's rather tedious until you get a few more people in your village. I don't think too many people would stick with this beyond the 60-minute demo.

Game Review: The Scruffs

While I was fairly busy this weekend, I did take some time out to play The Scruffs, a hidden object game available exclusively at Big Fish Games. Here is the description from the website: "The Scruffs have enlisted your help to save their beloved family home from being sold. Grandpa Scruff has come up with a solution - an elaborate scavenger hunt to recover valuable artifacts, he's hidden around the house. But in a surprising twist, Grandpa Scruff also reveals that he's been hiding something else - a shocking family secret. Help the Scruffs stave off this looming family crisis and uncover the secret that will change their lives forever."

This was a really fun game. Not only is there the typical hidden object game where you are given a list of things to find in a picture but there are two other mini-games to play as well. In each level, there is a family picture hidden among the other objects. Once you find it, you can play a mini-game where you have to identify 20 'scribbles' on each picture. These 'scribbles' are really easy to find as they are bright and colorful in comparison to the picture. Also, every time you complete a level, you have to piece together an old photograph. Within that photograph is a picture of a special object you'll have to find in one of the rooms in the hidden object level.

Sounds difficult, doesn't it? It's not that hard; it's just not easy to explain. I had a ton of fun playing it and I was sad when the demo ended. Once I have a bit more free time, I think I'll purchase this one.