
	Platform PC Genre Puzzle / Action Publisher PlayFirst Developer Gamelab / Playfirst ESRB E (Everyone) Released Q4 2006 (in boxed, retail form)

- Highly addictive “Tetrised” puzzle gameplay - Progressively more difficult “puzzles” set a high challenge bar

- With a few strategic moves (delivering checks to as many tables at once, picking up multiple orders at once), scoring many points and advancing to the next level not quite as difficult - Repetitive background music can get stuck-in-your-head-all-day annoying


Newsletter
Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly. Enter E-Mail Address Below: Subscribe \| Unsubscribe

Diner Dash & Diner Dash 2

Score: 9.0 / 10

Anyone old enough to remember the late-70s/early-80s sitcom “Alice” that took place in Mel’s Diner and featured the lives of Alice, Vera and “kiss my grits” Flo (my guess to the inspiration for Diner Dash’s lead character, since “Alice’s” Flo left waitressing – Diner Dash’s Flo leaves a 9-to-5 office job – to set up and run her own restaurant) will know that the life of a waitress is busy and utterly hectic. That frantic career perfectly portrayed by the gals at Mel’s Diner is the basis of the Diner Dash puzzle/action series, which takes the frenetic occupation of waitressing at a crowded eatery and combines it with a “Tetrised” style of gameplay to become a highly captivating game that has taken the casual gaming community by storm to the tune of seven-figure sales.

The original Diner Dash became a mini-phenomenon amongst the myriad online casual puzzle game titles. It’s deceptively easy to play, but takes some strategizing to effectively advance throughout the game. Gameplay is really a puzzler from the Tetris bloodline disguised as an “action” game. You, as Flo the waitress/aspiring restaurateur, must seat your customers, take their orders, give the orders to

Advertisement

- PC Game Reviews
- Puzzle Game Reviews

your cook, pick up said food orders, deliver them to each table in your food establishment, hand them the bill after your patrons are finished eating, and then finally clean up the tables for the next wave of hungry clientele. Sounds hectic, but that’s the life of a busy waitress/ restaurant owner.

Where’s the puzzle aspect come in? That’s supplied by the arranging of patrons in color-coordinated seats. Patrons come in different colors and

Advertisement

varieties. Placing a red-clothed patron in a red seat gives you more points, and it’s a predetermined point ceiling that will advance you to the next level, so it’s important to pay close attention to the color seating arrangements. Since patrons come in different numbered groups, you must turn them, similar to how you would turn a Tetris shape on its way down to the shapes below, to fit in the most perfect seating arrangement possible to net maximum points.

And what’s more, different varieties of patrons have different restaurant behavior patterns. Businesswomen are always in a hurry, and must be tended to quickly. Teenagers are slightly less fast-paced, but not by much. Seniors take their time, so you must be careful seating them quickly, because that seating booth could be used more efficiently to a famished businesswomen’s group first.

Happiness of your patrons is what determines how successful you are earning the day’s points (in the form of tips). Each patron group has a “happiness” meter. If you don’t keep them happy, or seat them quickly enough, then they lose happiness hearts. If you let their happiness meter run out, expect them to leave your establishment in an angry huff, and with a major point-deduction penalty to boot, so everything must b e done to keep them happy if you want any chance of moving to the next level.

There are items that can increase their happiness meter (the hostess podium where Flo talks to the waiting-to-be-seated crowd and drinks to serve to those already at tables), but those items must be earned by advancing to the harder levels on a particular stage (advancing also improves the appearance of your restaurant with upgrades that are your reward for completing a level).

So, it’s not at easy at it may be first suggested by the early, less-difficult levels of Diner Dash. You really do need to use strategic planning. But there are a few tricks that help increase your score (rather easily later in the game, deflating the challenge level a bit), such as giving checks to as many patrons as possible at once or cleaning up as many tables in a row without completing another task to multiply your points to reach the required goal. This is the basic blueprint for the gameplay in the Career Mode, but there’s also a never-ending Tetris-style Endless Shift that you can play, too.

In Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue, Flo’s food-slinging career continues, this time with a bit of a story behind the waitressing, as Flo’s joined forces with four other restaurateurs that are intent on scuttle-butting the hostile takeover advances of Mr. Big. The new plot doesn’t really add or impede the once-again addictive puzzle play, as the needs to succeed are the same as before.

The cartoonish graphics are better in Diner Dash 2 than in the first title (but the music’s still just as stuck-in-your-head-all-day annoying), and there are different customer types along with new restaurants. One interesting feature of Diner Dash as a whole series I found visually is the appearance of Flo. While most video games portray their women as Amazonian warrior types with big boobs, Flo’s just your average girl next door, with a perky and cute appearance, a welcome respite from the humongous double-D rack that you’ll find on women characters in many games.

You also have a choice this time of upgrades as a reward for completing levels, although that doesn’t affect your success (or lack thereof) during gameplay one iota. One sidebar: Diner Dash 2 recently won a Zeeby award, handed out by Gamezebo and the Casual Games Association, as the Best Arcade & Action Game of 2006. It really is that fun of a casual title and certainly deserving of the award.

Be forewarned: if you’re not looking to be consumed with highly addictive “Testrised” gameplay, stay away from both Diner Dash and Diner Dash 2: Restaurant Rescue (the Diner Dash series now includes a download-only third rendition as well as one starring SpongeBob Squarepants), because if you don’t, expect to spend untold hours flinging food to feasting patrons all the while trying to get to the next “level” of a frantically paced fun-fest.

- Lee Cieniawa

lcieniawa@armchairempire.com

(February 23, 2007)