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cupcake grade

C U P C A K E

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    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.