Top Genres
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A
cupcake grade
What’s more addicting than a Match 3 game? A Match 3 game combined with click management! That’s what Restaurant Rush brings to the casual game market. Combining both the puzzle and action game genres seem to be a really good idea. So does Restaurant Rush deliver?
Heidi is back in this sequel to Burger Rush. After chosen as the best burger chef and winning the grand prize, Heidi decides to take the prize money and open a free cooking school so that everyone can become a great chef. (Being a cook at home myself and having dreams of being a chef one day, this definitely gives Restaurant Rush brownie points in my book.)
After opening the cooking school, Heidi must prove herself to the World Culinary Federation by opening up her own successful restaurant franchise. Combining the addictiveness of Match 3 with the frenetic pace of time management games, Heidi must make match pieces on the grill to fill the different customers’ orders. Each order consists of several different components which correspond to the pieces Heidi must match. For example, the Chinese fried rice maybe consist of six rice pieces, eight pork pieces, and eight lettuce pieces. On the Match 3 grill, Heidi must match that amount of pieces to complete the fried rice order.
The pace quickens when Heidi has multiple customers and therefore multiple orders to fill. Not only does she need to match pieces on the grill, she must bring the food to the customer and collect money, and of course, it must be done in a timely manner as to not anger her restaurant’s patrons. By having this system of filling specific orders, Restaurant Rush adds a level of strategy where the gamer cannot just match pieces blindly, but rather they must recognize which specific pieces they need to match in order to fulfill the customers’ requests.
Restaurant Rush ups to ante by adding tons of additional features to keep the gamer busy. By fulfilling each day’s goal as well as meeting different bonus challenges, Heidi receives tokens that she can spend at the mall, the farmer’s market, or the record shop.
Heidi can decide to go to mall to and shop for new recipes for each of her different restaurants, which include American, Chinese, Italian, and more. In all, there are more than 50 different recipes that Heidi can buy. The more complex the recipe, the more pieces Heidi must match on the grill in order to complete the recipe. However, the result is that each customer will net you more money.
At the mall, Heidi can also purchase desserts or upgrade the drink or soup machines, which all help to either make the customers happier or to increase their patience.
The farmer’s market is another nifty feature that allows Heidi to increase the individual value of each separate ingredient. For example, if Heidi’s menu consists of a lot of hamburgers, it might be a good idea to upgrade the ingredient values of lettuce and beef in order to collect more money for the hamburger orders.
The last type of upgrade Heidi can purchase with her tokens is music for the jukebox. By clicking on the jukebox and playing specific songs, certain customers will actually be happier and more patient while waiting for their food. This adds another level of complexity to the time management aspect of Restaurant Rush since each of the different customers have their own personal tastes for specific songs in the jukebox.
Restaurant Rush has great comic-style graphics which remind me a bit of those old Archie comics. The music ties in nicely with the different types of restaurants. For example, the Italian restaurant has a great soundtrack which makes me think I’m in an Italian pizzeria.
Although it is not too difficult to reach the daily goal, hitting the expert goals is a challenge that will keep most people busy with this game for a good while. Not only does it require some fast matching and clicking, it requires a good amount of strategy to determine which recipes and ingredients to purchase.
All this great content and impressive replayability ensures that Restaurant Rush is a successful sequel to Burger Rush. It should definitely keep fans busy with fun and entertainment!
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B-
cupcake grade
After taking a well-deserved break following the success of opening her salon franchise, Sally is back and ready for her next challenge in Sally’s Spa. Sally’s childhood pal, Nell, is having trouble with her salon product’s business after the local spa shop closed. Sally, being the awesome friend that she is, decides to start a salon business of her own and help Nell at the same time.
Much like the previous game, Sally’s Spa involves dragging customers to the correct salon station and then having Sally perform a variety of services to the customer such as massages, facials, hot stone treatments, water baths, and course a girl’s favorite, manicures and pedicures. The objective is to pamper the customers and make them happy in the hopes that they’ll leave a big tip. However, make the patrons wait too long and they’ll storm off angry.
What make’s Sally’s Spa such a great game is the variety and the depth of many of the options in the game. Not only are there tons of upgrades that can be bought to improve the service and the look of the salon, there is a variety of customer attributes to take into account and a product shelf that you are responsible for setting up to help Nell sell her salon products.
There are over sixty upgrades that Sally can buy for the salon ranging from plushier chairs and massage tables, faster saunas, mood-setting scented candles, and assistants to help with the salon services. The upgrades offer motivation to progress through the game and offer just enough benefit to help you through each level.
One detail about that game that I enjoyed was the different attributes of each customer type. The types of customers ranged from the busy mom, the bride-to-be, the fashionista, the cute lovebird couple, and even the male model. Customers are a little different in terms of how patient they are and how much they tip. For example, the busy mom may be a little more patient than the fashionista and the fashionista tips more. So when there’s a backlog at the massage table, it may be a better strategy to serve the fashionista first in order to get the bigger tip. This attention to detail in Sally’s Spa adds an additional level of strategy to the game, which makes the game more enjoyable.
Of course one of the nice features about Sally’s Spa is the product shelf, which is where Sally helps Nell to sell her salon products based on the market conditions. Before each level, you need to take a look at the market conditions, such as high UV index, dryness, or stress, and then decide which of Nell’s products Sally should stock on her shelves in order to make the most sales. As Sally sells more of Nell’s products, she will have a greater selection of products to sell but also more market conditions to be aware of.
The graphics for Sally’s Spa are great and remind me a lot of Japanese animation. The game does well to pay attention to small details like the mascot on the magazine cover and even the subtle interactions between the old lovebird couple. The soundtrack for the game is very catchy and fits the game very well. What I particularly liked about Sally’s Spa is how they tie the story about Sally helping Nell into the actual game. Although the general gameplay has not changed much from the previous game, the amount of variety, the depth of options, the art, story, and soundtrack in Sally’s Spa definitely makes it a worthy download.
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B
cupcake grade
Rebecca and Robert are back and this time they are serving intergalactic travelers hungry for Mexican cuisine in Turbo Fiesta. Like the rest of the Turbo series, Turbo Fiesta is an addictively, crazy-fast time management game with great graphics. Although the gameplay has not drastically changed and offers few new twists from the two previous Turbo games, this fast-paced clickfest still offers a ton of fun for those of you who love the click management genre.
After conquering the lightning-fast delivery of pizzas and subs to starving patrons, Rebecca and Robert have decided to take their restaurant business to outer space and this time they’re serving Mexican fare consisting of robo-prepared burritos (with the option of atomic-baked or laser-fried of course), nachos, beans, ice cream, and soda pop. Of course this wouldn’t be considered turbo if not for the almost overwhelming number of orders to fill.
You’ll be responsible for moving Rebecca from food station to food station, placing orders for food as well as picking it up, handing menus and dropping orders off to customers, and collecting your hard-earned tip all before the restaurant’s closing time. The faster you are able to fill your patrons’ orders, the happier they’ll be, and the more tip they’ll leave. Have the customers wait too long and they will leave angry. If you’re able to collect enough tip money to fulfill the daily quota, you’ll be able to help Rebecca and Robert keep the eatery open for another busy day of work.
Although the levels start out slow and easy, Turbo Fiesta quickly ramps up when word of your delicious Mexican cuisine spreads around the galaxy and you become bombarded with wave after wave of customers. The time waiting for the robo-chef to cook up the burritos as well as putting certain foods in the atomic ovens or laser fryers quickly adds up and can soon overwhelm poor little Rebecca.
Fortunately for Rebecca, there is turbo mode! By chaining together actions to make combos, the turbo meter fills up. Once the meter is full, Rebecca moves extra fast and is able to deliver the food to the hungry patrons in no time. Trigger turbo mode three times and turn the restaurant into a fiesta, where customers stay happy listening and dancing to the mariachi music and Robert and the rest of restaurant is able to deliver the food in an instant.
In addition to turbo capability, all that tip money that Rebecca has saved up can be used to purchase upgrades that allow her to move faster or even add an extra robo-arm to help her carry more food at once. Other upgrades not only spruce up the restaurant, they also provide boosts such as increasing the tip from customers or filling up the turbo meter at the beginning of each level.
Jealous of the success of the Turbo restaurant franchise, the greedy Mr. Von Simoleon orders the crafty Raven sisters to sabotage the Turbo Fiesta operation by constantly cutting the circuits to the lighting system. As various points, Rebecca will be required to reconnect the lighting circuits in a quick mini-game. This mini-game is a welcome change of pace once because it allows you to rest that clicking finger for a little bit.
The art for Turbo Fiesta has definitely received an upgrade from its predecessors, making what was already a good-looking game fantastic. The comic-style drawings are wonderful and the music soundtrack is definitely very catchy. The hyper-fast clicking gameplay may be too much for some but it definitely gets yours truly excited.
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B
cupcake grade
Set in a fantasy world ala Narnia, 4 Elements is a puzzle game that incorporates the always addictive Match 3 with a dash of hidden object and spot-the-difference. The varied gameplay with the nicely executed fantasy theme definitely makes it worth a game worth downloading!
The story describes starts with in a happy wonderland that is suddenly stricken by evil. To restore the world to its former glory, the great wizard of the land sends you and your fairy companion to unlock four magic books, each representing the 4 Elements, earth, fire, air, and water. Each book can be unlocked by collecting the four cards within each book and each card is unlocked by beating four Match 3 puzzles. The result is 64 levels of addictive fun with additional hidden object and spot-the-difference mini-games and a decent storyline to tie the game together.
The purpose of the Match 3 is to create a path for the positive life energy to reach an altar. By linking chains of jewels of the same color, you destroy tiles and create a pathway towards the altar. When the energy flow reaches the altar, you pass! Although simple at first, the levels get increasingly more challenging as you are confronted with additional obstacles like thicker tiles, ice blocks, rocks, and stone slabs which make it more difficult to create pathways using just small chains. As you progress, the levels get much larger and contain immovable blocks so you will be required to figure out the specific pathway to the altar all within the time limit.
Don’t worry though, your own personal Tinkerbelle will also offer hints and unlock power-ups along the way to aid you in your quest to restore the fantasy land.
After unlocking each magical card, you are presented with two cards that have subtle differences. Spot the differences between the two cards and you are that much closer to restoring all that is good in the 4 Elements world.
4 Elements has some good artwork, soothing music, and addictive Match 3 gameplay. The hidden object and spot-the-difference offer a little variety. I definitely think the game would have benefited with more hidden object levels. Overall, it’s a fun game that does the Match 3 genre proud.
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C-
cupcake grade
The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is the latest hidden object game to come to Cupcakegames. Set in the early 1900’s, you play as the young journalist, Nicole Rankwist. You are concerned about your quirky archaeologist father who has been suspiciously absent. The last time you had spoken to your father he had mentioned a discovery that he claimed would change the world. Although, normally a bit absent-minded, you decide to check up on your dad when he’s late meeting you up. He’s never late!
When you arrive at your father’s house, you are presented with your first hidden object puzzle that you must pass to get inside your dad’s house. After quickly using your object-finding skills, you get inside to see that your dad’s place has been ransacked. After finding your father’s diary by solving another quick hidden object puzzle, you learn your dad has discovered a secret Crystal Portal! Now you must find your dad by retracing his footsteps and jet setting across the globe to exotic places like Japan, the Swiss Alps, Guatemala and many more.
What’s different about this hidden object game is the idea of container objects which can either hold some of the hidden objects or they can actually reveal another set of items that you need to find before you can move on. Upon finding all the hidden items for the container object, you are often given a critical puzzle piece to progress or given access to more hidden items.
The other type of special object is the secret puzzle pieces that are required to pass the secret puzzle at the end of each level. Each puzzle level is a nice brain teaser that makes the game a little more interesting.
Your progress through each stage is tracked by a Key Item bar which shows you how many of the special container items you must complete before you can move on. However, a point I must make is that although the container items are a cool new twist to this genre, they can be quite frustrating because you have no idea what they look like. They appear as question marks on your Key Item bar so you are forced to randomly click around the screen until you get lucky enough to find one. Don’t think that the container items necessarily look like containers as me and you know them to be. The container items can be anything from a globe, a lantern, a plate, or even a windmill fan.
The music is another point I have to nitpick. Although you get some great music for the transitions between each location, when you are actually playing through each stage, you get nothing but random background noises. It actually feels a little lonely and creepy to be honest.
The story although very interesting at first doesn’t draw you in as you play since the people you encounter have very little to say. At times, I almost forgot I was looking for my dad and the Crystal Portal!
The Mystery of the Crystal Portal is also disappointingly easy since there are relatively fewer items to find compared to other hidden object games and the objects are fairly easy to spot with the exception of the ones hidden in containers. There are no penalties for excessive clicking (which I guess is helpful when looking for container items). Also, there is no limit to how many times you can use Hints button to point out hidden objects you might have trouble finding, although you are forced to wait a short amount of time between each use.
Although the twist of container objects is nice, it can be very frustrating at times clicking randomly on the screen. Combined with the poor story, disappointing lack of music during game play, and the easy difficulty, I would suggest to download and play through the trial of The Mystery of the Crystal Portal and then decide for yourself whether it is good or not.
Until next game, this is Jane Kupcake signing off!
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