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Diner Dash: Flo on the Go
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Graphics & Sound:
I'm a big fan of the Diner Dash series from way back. I've played it on the PC and also on the PSP and have really loved it in all of its various iterations and spin-offs. Needless to say, I was excited when Diner Dash: Flo on the Go made its appearance on the DS and couldn't wait to review it. I am both pleased and disappointed with the results.
Diner Dash: Flo on the Go looks pretty good on my DSi. Although everything has been reduced to fit on the small portable screen, the surroundings are still bright and cheerful. However, the size of things on the DS is a big part of the problem. While it is very easy to tell which restaurant patrons are which, what makes things really tough are the tiny icons, like those for the desserts and appetizers. It can make things hard to tell apart, but more on that in Difficulty.
Sound effects and background music are pleasant enough. Nothing you'll be humming later on, but it's not something I intentionally turn down. However, if you do want to play and you don't have earphones, you don't miss a whole lot by turning down the sound. That being said, I must admit that I always enjoy hearing the food prep; it just has a nice ring to it. But I can always do without the screaming babies and the cell phone addicts - hey, just like in real life! Oh, and the lovebirds sound really creepy when they start going at it. |
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Gameplay:
Just as in other versions of Diner Dash, you play as Flo, waitress extraordinaire. Flo is trying to go on vacation, but mishaps keep occurring like the loss of her her luggage and she is forced to help out wherever she may be in order to further her vacation. Flo will visit a cruise ship, a train, a submarine, a plane and outer space (or at least, that's what I hear - I haven't made it past the sub yet). Flo will run into most of the customers that we've seen in the past like seniors (which look slightly different than the ones on the PC), business women, lady diners, families, cell phone chatters, bookworms, tourists and so on. Each have their own quirks, like being slow to order and eat, or being impatient, or bothering everyone else with their phone talk or crying babies, or even wanting you to take their picture and so on. But they've thrown some new monkey wrenches in with the lovebirds, who will only sit at a table for 2 and will start making out loudly if left too long, disturbing the other patrons. Worse yet are the uber-particular customers who will only sit in tables that match their apparel in color. Let me tell you, those levels are hard!
If you don't feel like furthering Flo's story or simply want a time killer, there's always Endless Mode where you can select Easy, Medium or Hard and just serve an endless supply of demanding customers. How demanding they are naturally depends on what difficulty you select, and they don't have much patience either. You are given a number of stars to start with and every time you lose a customer, you lose a star. Lose them all and its game over. Do well and you can earn upgrades that will make things easier (like the upgrades I wished were in Story Mode) like a faster oven and such.
There's also a Multiplayer Mode where each player requires a copy of the game and you have three game options in Multiplayer: Highest Score, First to Serve and Survival. Highest Score is pretty obvious, First to Serve means the winner is the one who takes care of their customers first, and finally, Survival crowns the first player who loses three customers in a row the big-time loser.
There's also an option called Flo's Closet where you can swap up Flo's apron, pants and shirt with a number of colors, patterns and styles. The kicker is they always show what you have unlocked in pretty pink colors and those colors are never available to me. I thought that was kind of weak. |
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Difficulty:
Endless Mode and Multiplayer offer Easy, Medium and Hard settings. I don't believe the Story Mode had the option of changing the difficulty setting, but since the game won't allow you to have two games going at once, I can't even check that out without starting a game from scratch and losing all of my progress. Ugh.
But really, it isn't just difficulty settings that can make a game tough. Tiny icons and tables placed so closely together make it really difficult to consistently tap on what you are going for. This can cause you to not only break chains which can destroy your chances of making your goal in a level because the goal requires such perfection, but it can also cause you to simply click on something you didn't mean to, leaving you with a tiny and confused Flo. Again, when she is behind a slew of tables and you've made an incorrect tap, sometimes it's too hard to get back in gear when you can't figure out where she is supposed to go. Having to look from ticket counter, to the dirty dish station, to the dessert and appetizer areas, trying desperately to see which one is yellow (indicating she needs to drop off/pick something up) and figure out where you need to go next can cost you enough time to where you have to restart the level, especially in later levels. Once again, developers - this is not extending gameplay and it is simply not fun. |
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Game Mechanics:
If you've played other versions of Diner Dash, you won't be surprised by the controls Diner Dash: Flo on the Go utilizes. The top screen keeps a tally of your score during gameplay, and the bottom screen shows the layout of your restaurant. Using the stylus, you'll tap on customers and then tap on the table where you want them to sit. If you are trying for chiar color multipliers, you can swap them around into different chairs by moving the stylus around the table. Once they indicate that they are ready by placing their menus on the table, you can pick up their orders and drop them off at the ticket station. When the food appears on the counter, tap it to pick it up and deliver it to the correct table number. If the customer is getting angry or impatient and their heart (patience) is depleting, you can fill their drinks (assuming you have earned a drink station or a beer tap) to make them happy and refill their heart. They may want dessert or an appetizer and indicate that by an icon, where you tap the dessert fridge or the appetizer area and deliver that. Sadly, although you can chain up to two tickets or food orders to be delivered for higher scores, I found that when I tried to chain bringing desserts out, it didn't work and instead simply picked up the patron's ticket and left the table dirty instead of delivering the dessert, as I had hoped. While this might not seem like a big deal, in Diner Dash: Flo on the Go, it's huge because in some of the levels, you are required to pretty much get everything perfect in order to just make the goal, much less the Expert's goal. In past iterations, simply doing well would net you the goal money and if you were exceptional, then you'd get Expert. Contrary to what the developers of this game were obviously thinking, it's simply not fun to replay a level 30 times in order to get past it, simply because you make one tiny error that messes up your colored chair multipliers or you fail to deliver a dessert and accidentally click them and pick up their ticket instead.
The game does offer upgrades in the form of an updated look for the tables and chairs or the counter, or even wacky upgrades like an anchor or a periscope, although it never reveals just what the benefit of these upgrades are, so it seems random and merely decorative, as opposed to truly functional like in the PC version. I would have loved an additional table or speedier shoes for Flo, but alas, I wasn't given that option. Additionally, sometimes the chair/table placement was horrible in certain levels and they were so close together that you could easily tap the wrong thing accidentally, which again, could break your chain and ruin your multipliers. Lastly, my game locked up completely on me at one point, forcing me to reboot. Not fun, especially since I was doing really well on a fairly high level.
For anyone who loves time management sims, Diner Dash: Flo on the Go is going to be a nice purchase and a great time killer. But if you are a completest like me and can't stand not beating the game, chances are you'll incur a lot of frustration along the way. I've been playing pretty solidly for the last two weeks and got really stuck on the last two or three levels of the train and the last level of the sub. I hope to someday beat the game, but sadly, I imagine I'll sooner beat my head against my DSi than best this game. |
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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