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| | Publisher: PlayFirst  Genre: Simulation | | | Min OS X: 10.4 CPU: G4 @ 800 MHz RAM: 256 MB Hard Disk: 40 MB Graphics: 800x600 @ 32-bit |
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As for overall game balance, I found this to be a bit of a mixed bag. Yes, as you progress through the five stages of the game, the difficulty increases gradually, in a broadly reasonable way. However, by the time you reach Champagne Falls, the fifth stage, everything has become pretty expensive, but your starting amount of money hasn't increased that much compared with earlier stages, and frankly there isn't enough money to go around. Certainly there needs to be a challenge, and presumably Champagne Falls must be possible to beat if one perseveres. However, sadly I did not succeed in beating it and ended up feeling rather frustrated with the game (not least after being asked, in the Daily Chef Challenge, to buy the most expensive restaurant in the game with only a quarter of the necessary funds to do so, as mentioned above).The problem also is that there really isn't that much variety in the game. In other Diner Dash games (and many other casual titles), there tend to be five or six groups of levels, each with maybe ten individual stages within it, each of which is a bit different and able to be played in isolation. DinerTown Tycoon isn't like that. Each of its five sections is really just one big level that must be played through to completion in one game. Yes, you can save your progress and come back later, but that isn't like having separate levels to play. In essence, DinerTown Tycoon has only five levels in the entire game. Each one lasts for quite a long time, but involves the same very repetitive set of actions. That problem is compounded by the uneven graduation of difficulty levels. The first three of the five stages are very easy; I completed each one on the first attempt. Stage four was a bit more of a challenge; I had to have two goes at that before I beat it. And then, stage five (Champagne Falls) was such a lot harder, and so resource-starved, that I played it several times and never managed to beat it. So, in the end (for me at least), playing DinerTown Tycoon descended into a cycle of playing and replaying the same repetitive and frustrating stage. It might not have been so bad if there were any other way to play the game (remember, Diner Dash offers both Story Mode and Endless Mode, and other titles generally have multiple ways of playing), but in DinerTown Tycoon the five-stage story mode is all you get. There's nothing more to hold your interest. Graphics: Plain, simple fare There's not a lot to say about the game's graphics. They're nice, they're well drawn in the usual cartoon style established by this series, and they're largely static, by virtue of the nature of the game. As seems to be de rigueur, the game runs at a fixed 800×600 resolution, either full-screen or in a window.Sound: Bubble and squeak There's not a lot to say about the sound either. It's nice, it's in much the same style as the other games in the series, there's a unique and pleasant piece of music for each of the five locations in the game, and both music and effects suit the game content well. The music is quite memorable without being repetitive enough to be annoying, which is a good balance to achieve.Conclusion: A balance of ingredients I did enjoy DinerTown Tycoon in broad terms, but it felt very much like the first game in a new series, rather than a tried-and-trusted formula. There are some nice ideas in the game, and it's easy to get into and quite fun to play, but the whole thing just doesn't hang together as well as I think it might. This feels like a game that needs a sequel to take its ingredients and recombine them in a better-balanced way that produces a more successful game. All the right elements are there, but just not in quite the right relative proportions.The value also seems appreciably less than in other games (a parallel with the $100 ice cream?). There might easily have been some sort of sandbox mode with which to experiment (though I'm not convinced it would have delivered a particularly thrilling experience), but all you get is the five-stage story-based game, and even that really just boils down to playing Champagne Falls over and over again. So, to summarize, Diner Dash Tycoon is a commendable attempt to move the series into new territory, but ultimately it's not all that successful. There's good potential here, though. Better luck next time! Pros • Interesting new take on the Diner Dash series
• Broadly entertaining concept and content
• Easy introduction to tycoon-style games
• Game requires thought rather than reflexesCons • Repetitive gameplay
• Occasionally impossible daily goals
• Imperfect game balance and difficulty progression
• Very limited content and hence overall value
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