Cooking Dash: DinerTown Studios Preview

Posted by Ruff on August 10th, 2009
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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I just got a preview build of Cooking Dash: DinerTown Studios coming from PlayFirst and will, of course, take time off from work once again to get to review this sequel to the highly popular Cooking Dash time management game. This time around, the venue to Flo’s newest adventure takes place in DinerTown Studios, where all of DinerTown’s TV series are born.

Expect the game to have more challenge and involves more strategy than its predecessor as new elements come to play in the world of Cooking Dash. In all of the game’s 5 stages, Flo will be busy keeping all the actors, directors and crew happy with her diner food, and keep us casual gamers having fun too as we help her out.

Anyways, just to keep teasing you more, check out some of the screenshots below. The review will come as soon as the game is released.

Features:

  • 3 new celebrity customers with special power-ups and unique features that help you score extra points
  • Over 25 new decoration and functional upgrades to purchase
  • 5 new on-set restaurants, each with an original menu that now includes 2 and 3-course meals
  • 10 medals to earn throughout the game
  • More than 50 television-themed levels of gameplay

Screenshots:

Cooking Dash: DinerTown Studios

Cooking Dash: DinerTown Studios

Cooking Dash: DinerTown Studios

Cooking Dash: DinerTown Studios

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Passport to Perfume

Posted by Ruff on August 3rd, 2009
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
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Passport to Perfume DownloadI don’t know how current perfume manufacturers make their blends, but I assure you that perfumers during the early times have it hard trying to find the perfect scent. Passport to Perfume puts you in the shoes of a budding perfumer during those times, continuing the legacy of her long lost father. And what a legacy it is, as you get to travel all around the world in this time management game.

Your character in-game is named Sophia. During her younger years, she’s always beside her father trying to find rare perfume ingredients all around the world. Disaster strikes however, after her father fell during an expedition in Brazil. Ten years later and after retrieving her father’s journal, she starts her own perfume shop and her own adventure with it, while trying to continue her father’s dream – to blend “The Scent of Marie Antoinette”.

As expected from a PlayFirst exclusive, Passport to Perfume is a time management game. Your objective in each level is to fill elegant bottles with perfume and serve them to scent-loving customers. Other than your own blends, customers may also ask for fine or rare perfumes. And in some cases, if they are indecisive about what they want, just throw in anything and you’ll still profit in the end.

In this game though, you have to always keep in mind the customers you need to serve first. Not only because of the patience levels we are all used to in many other time management games, but also because of the indecisive customers with the habit of taking perfume intended for those who actually ordered them. Basic strategy is to serve indecisive ones last, but of course, you’ll still eventually make mistakes as the game gets more hectic.

Passport to Perfume DownloadRestocking prior each level starts is also an essential task in Passport to Perfume. In fact, most of the profits you acquired during the previous level goes into restock rather than upgrades like most time management games. While this may pose as a disappointment for some, I feel more like it’s an addition to the game’s planning management. For example, you may buy an upgrade to Sophia’s speed, but you’ll still lose customers if you have no stock of perfume to sell them.

Are there mini-games? Well yes, you get to play a hidden object mini-game whenever Sophia goes into adventure mode and visits other countries around the world in search of exotic perfume ingredients. In the mini-games, you also get to use tools like the brush and the shovel to uncover objects, but unlike conventional hidden object, don’t you fret too much since there’s no time limit in this one.

The best feature of Passport to Perfume is a mode where you can blend your own special perfume collection using ingredients Sophia found during her travels. In this mode, your objective is to blend the most profitable perfume with the least time to prepare during the actual time management game. More quantity and rareness of ingredients mean more time to prepare, so try to experiment before you set serving some customers.

Storyline is very rich in all parts of the game. The quest for the elusive Scent of Mary Antoinette seemed to go on forever in the many levels of the game. While visuals are not that impressive, it’s still enjoyable to watch the in-between cinematic as the story develops. Sophia’s father’s notebook adds a little education too, documenting facts on flowers and other ingredients that make a perfume much more pleasant to smell.

Gameplay is smooth, but I always had problems clicking on wrong items in the game field. For example, my aim is to add spritzer to the perfume, but if you don’t click the switch at the bottom part of the spritzer station, you’ll just place the perfume and not do the appropriate task. This is kind of annoying since the same is true on all the tools you use, wasting precious time when you already thought that the machine is working while you’re busy serving customers and you’ll backtrack just to flip a silly switch.

Passport to Perfume is a long and challenging game though, and very enjoyable too if you manage to get a good control on your clicks. Of course, you can always restart each level if you mess up too much so that isn’t a big problem.

An engaging storyline and a fun new way into fitting the shoes of a perfumer – makes this game as interesting as a time management game worth your try.

Passport to Perfume Download

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Jane’s Zoo

Posted by Ruff on July 6th, 2009
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
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Jane’s Zoo DownloadHotels and realty - that’s what the businesswoman Jane is known for in her previous casual games. But never did we know that Jane has a soft side for animals too, evident through the release of Jane’s Zoo, the most recent starring role for Realore Studio’s spunky heroine.

After Jane’s past successes, she already has all the money and time she ever wanted. During one of her African safari trips, she stumbled upon a disturbing revelation – that with the onset of industrialization, most of the wildlife is in danger of being polluted. This gave her the idea to start a relief fund to help zoos all around the world and improve them through hands-on experience taking care of animals and providing them their needs.

The adventure of Jane’s Zoo spans across three countries. During the first minutes of gameplay, you are introduced the tutorial mode of the game, telling you how to serve animals their food and take care of their habitat. This introduces the two tabs in the main menu – one for Jane to serve food and drinks, and one for her Uncle Ben, taking care of all cleaning, repairing and gardening in the zoo.

Each level will reward you silver coins and additional gold coins if you finish within Expert score. These coins will help you purchase facilities for the zoo as well as beautify its current state. Additional facilities mean additional services for the animals. And as you put animals in a service building, you get to play a popup mini-game entailing you to wash, exercise or heal them just to name a few.

Jane’s Zoo DownloadThese mini-games are aside from the bonus levels you get to play in between time management levels. In Jane’s Zoo, bonus levels have a hidden object gameplay, and your primary task is to find garbage in the scene within a specified time limit. It doesn’t matter if you miss finding them all since your bonus score is just computed from what you achieved during the course of the whole activity.

With all the pop-up mini-games and bonus levels, you’ll be sure that this game will not show a boring side to it from start to finish. As a matter of fact, other additional tasks present themselves during the actual action game too. Shooing annoying crows, serving prideful lions first, and pampering baby animals are just some of the examples of how this game can be both challenging and fun at the same time.

To help you with the challenges, power-ups randomly appear in the zoo. Let Jane or Uncle Ben pick them up as they appear, giving you score or patience bonuses at a limited time once activated. Jane’s Zoo also lets you upgrade Jane and Uncle Ben’s service to the animals. This is aside from the upgrades you get prior each level starts, and can only be granted to you after you finish playing the bonus hidden object level.

Really, with so many gameplay elements presented for this game, it’s hard not to get addicted and play until you drop (but please don’t take your health for granted). Each animal is unique and has qualities that really put management into play. Of course, it also gets challenging in later levels when animals get crankier for Jane and Uncle Ben to handle.

With all the positive things I mentioned about Jane’s Zoo, I want to make it clear that the game also has its downsides too. Mostly on the story parts, there are inconsistencies that don’t really add up with what the game presents. For example, in the second level, Jane mentioned that she’s off to Africa for the next zoo to start up, however, the graphics indicate pyramids, and I don’t see pyramids in Africa, do you?

Well anyway, all in all the game is an enjoyable ride. I don’t really mind much the inconsistencies since for me, as long as I have fun playing, then the conclusion points to a good game to recommend.

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Jessica’s Cupcake Café

Posted by Ruff on June 14th, 2009
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (7 votes, average: 4.86 out of 5)
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Jessica’s Cupcake Café DownloadWhen there are already too many cafés being made into casual time management games, it’s now time to go into specifics on what kind of a café is to be depicted next. Jessica’s Cupcake Café is just what the name suggests. It’s a time management game with a cupcake café in mind, and since I don’t know whether actual real life cupcake cafés are in boom or anything but let’s just see if this one lives up to being a great casual game.

Since her name is on the game, our heroine would be girl named Jessica after she just got back home for a relaxing break from the hustles of city life. Chance came too when she met her Aunt who shares her story of closing down their boring bakeries for something more hip and fun. Jessica suggested selling cupcakes, and with little more convincing the Cupcake Café is now born.

As far as time management game mechanics go, Jessica’s Cupcake Café still introduced a new twist during the first few seconds of gameplay. Instead of the usual immediate grind after pressing the start button, each level will give you a few seconds to prepare initial cupcakes for all your starving customers. Try to make as more as possible so that when the customers come rolling in, you’ll have enough cupcakes to keep their patience at bay.

Preparing cupcakes is simple since you’re provided with such smart push-button machines to help you do an easy job. Prepare batter, frosting and decorations simultaneously then bake the batter once available. Put the right ingredients together and put the cupcakes on the appropriate display case. Each run makes you 12 cupcakes and each display case holds 48. Try not to go over these numbers or make recipe mistakes; else it’s in the recycling bin where waste cupcakes go.

Jessica’s Cupcake Café DownloadTo earn more money and hopefully reach Expert Score in Jessica’s Cupcake Café, you also have a variety of options and tactics you can implement. Of course, there’s the combo service bonus wherein you earn more money for each service you make in succession. You can also design your own cupcakes before each level starts, earning you more tips for the effort. And lastly, you can also earn and use power-ups when available after serving customers that hold them.

Aside from Expert Score achievements, you also have a chance to earn medals by reaching milestones set by the game. We’ve seen features like these on other casual games but it still adds a little bit of challenge and replay factor for this game too. A chance to play a mini-game after finishing each stage adds a bit of fun while you sell excess cupcakes at the fair and earn a little bit more money.

The greatest bonuses that I know Jessica’s Cupcake Café is very much proud of are the free recipes you can get whenever you take part in playing another level. Recipes are unlocked as you go along the game complete with exact ingredient measurements and procedures on how to prepare each cupcake. As a matter of fact, you can even save each recipe on a text file and print for your own convenience and use to delight your own family and friends.

The downside to the game though is its lack of visual flare in design. Not that the game is bad to look at or anything, but I guess with all the time management games I’ve played in the past, it’s just that I’ve seen better designed games. I guess that’s a matter of personal preference, but in the case of upgrades you get to buy before each level starts, the game could use more options other than the usual tools and trinkets available during the upgrade mode.

Overall though, Jessica’s Cupcake Café is a must buy game. Why? Well, even with just the bonus recipes included, you already get your money’s worth of fun and enjoyment. Treat yourself with the game and treat your family and friends with a perfectly made cupcake. Sounds a ton of fun, right?

Jessica’s Cupcake Café Download

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Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love!

Posted by Ruff on June 6th, 2009
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (7 votes, average: 4.86 out of 5)
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Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love! DownloadLove is in the air again and again as the next sequel to Playfirst’s Wedding Dash got released early last week. Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love features the original time management gameplay of Wedding Dash with a whole new Cupid mini-game in-line with a fun new storyline as well. Helping Quinn had never been this fun too as each leg of your journey puts you a step further into making her realize her own wedding dreams.

There are 2 character predicaments presented in the game’s story. The first is Cupid’s problem after he failed to meet his monthly quota of successful love matches and the second is Quinn’s after she booked a resort for her own wedding, even though Joe hasn’t proposed to her yet. The two characters can help each other since with her wedding expertise, Quinn can help Cupid meet his quota and Cupid can help as well in making Joe propose to Quinn. And of course, it won’t be a walk in the park since the difficulty of handling perfect wedding receptions will make itself known soon.

Frankly, don’t expect much from the gameplay mechanics of Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love since when you’ve already played a time management “Dash” game, it seems that you’ve already played them all. The same idea of seating guests at the perfect table presented in previous Wedding Dash games is still very important just as serving them promptly and effectively. As a bonus, you now have Flo of Diner Dash doing most of the running work, so expect this to be a very fast-paced game, a signature feature whenever this character is present.

Of course, Quinn helps too in averting predicaments that constantly happen during the wedding receptions. Some examples of these would be stopping Cupid from ruining the wedding gifts and finding lost puppies for old ladies that cannot seem to handle them well. This is all part of the proven and effective Wedding Dash challenge that keeps player clicking fingers as busy as ever.

Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love! DownloadLove tokens play an important role in Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love since you will need them to buy upgrades for the upcoming wedding receptions for each stage. In order to earn love tokens, you need to do well during the planning part of each level. Basically, buying cheap and appropriate items requested by the newlyweds lands you the most love tokens. Aside from this, you can also try to play for Expert score or do well during the Cupid mini-games for more bonus tokens.

Like I said earlier, aside from the storyline, the game also features a whole new Cupid mini-game giving limelight to the 3rd character of the story. In this mini-game, you try to help Cupid aim for the perfect couple to match. Use the lower left targets as reference, find them from the number of face clouds and plan enough power and trajectory to hit them with a cupid arrow.

If you’re aching for more challenge than what’s presented in the actual game, you can always opt in to play Endless Reception available from the main menu. And since Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love also features a fun storyline starring Quinn and her own wedding plan woes, the game lets you review its exciting development through the Comics section seen also in the main menu.

All in all, even with the game’s traditional gameplay, it still provides certain enjoyment and challenge for all time management game fans. As a matter of fact, starting from the Barn stage, which is only the 2nd stage of the game, you’ll already feel so much pressure coming from the seemingly endless stream of wedding visitors aching for your constant attention. Still, the knowledge of the vast variety in visitor types will greatly help you achieve Expert score if you plan Flo’s and Quinn’s actions well.

Definitely, the game is a must for those who love the Wedding Dash series and of course, those who love time management games in general. With it’s fun animation and storyline as well as its challenging gameplay, Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love will be a great addition to any casual gamer’s time management library.

Wedding Dash: Ready, Aim, Love Download

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