Playvue.com Editor's Rating: 8.0Storyline
Diner Dash brings us
story of Flo, an office lackey fed up with
monotonous, unchanging pressures of everyday life and work in
big city. Thus she hucks everything out
window and runs off to find something better to do with her life. As it turns out, that is starting a restaurant chain in suburban America.
We are taken right into her quest as a restaurateur as Flo herself; an energetic, enthusiastic owner who fulfills every role from hostess to server, bartender and busboy (thankfully, cooking is provided by a overworked dark figure behind
counter).
Beginning with her very first diner, and ending with an upscale surf and turf joint, we take on Flo's every activity; seating her guests, handing out menu’s, delivering breadsticks, taking and delivering orders (not to mention cocktails), clearing tables, and seating
next guests. All this in
pursuit of money with which to improve her existing restaurants or even open up a new one!
Navigation
The navigation is easy enough to pick up on
first try; it’s point and click (click on a dirty table, she runs over and clears it, click on table awaiting their food, she delivers it from
counter). This does get quite challenging in
later levels where it becomes necessary to click on other activities while Flo is executing
current one (the game creates a queue of activities which Flo will execute one by one until they are complete).
Ease of Use
In terms of ease of use, this game is fantastic. I wasn’t surprised when I was able to pick it up rather quickly, however I was surprised when my grandmother was flying through at a faster pace then I managed to muster. While easy to get going, it does require a master’s touch to reach
highest scores at
end of
levels where constant motion is a must. But this just adds to
playability, and is a welcome change to contemporary games which prove easy to complete with no added challenges.
Playability
I found myself wanting to complete this game all
way through
first time I played it; which would worry me as to whether
game would hold my interest a week or even a month later. However, these worries are relieved with
Endless Shift feature: a score building endless level which “keeps 'em comin’” and provides extras like super ovens, bobcat-fast tennis shoes, and a super podium 3000 to help you along
way.