Flo frustrated with big business and the stress associated with a career runs away from that life to open a rundown café in order to do what she likes best….help others without the big bosses breathing down her back.

In the Career mode click on the customers and drag them to the appropriate table. After they put down their menus click on the table then click on the order tab on the counter, wait for the prepared meal, click on the table with the seated consumers. After their meal, they will signal you, click on the table to receive payment and then click on the table again to clear the plates. Click once more on the dish tub so the next customers can be dragged to their table. The key thing to remember in Diner Dash is to keep the customers happy by working real fast. There will be times when you provide the patrons with coffee to appease them while they wait.

The first few levels are nice and easy so you can get your sea legs and prepare for the onslaught of impatient diners. The more money you make on each level, the better the restaurant appearance gets with new tables, paint on the wall, stereo, speedy shoes, and better ambience of the place. It starts out as a dump where you would never take your mother to eat, however with the improvements to the diner from the hard earned tips for speedy service, more upgrades magically appear at the restaurant.

The Endless Shift is endless. You play until you lose all your stars. A star is lost when customers leave in an angry huff. If you keep all your stars, the game goes on forever. There are 3 difficulty levels so you can determine your own ability. There are 6 customer types from the lowly college student who frequents dives (you know who you are), the impatient business woman and the dreaded food critic. Each one has their own tolerance level matching how generous they will tip so watch out for the finicky eaters.

Diner Dash is simple to learn from their excellent tutorial, but don’t be fooled by the first few levels. It gets crazy in Flo’s diner like any other food emporium. The play gets quite challenging and hectic as the levels increase, but isn’t that like any busy restaurant? If you are new to Diner Dash or this type of sim play, this is the game to start with and if you are a veteran and never played this first one, you need to play it. It may not be as sophisticated or graphically advanced, but it still will be a fun game to master.

Features of Diner Dash:
-50 Levels
-2 Modes of Play
-Build Your Own Restaurant Empire

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Let’s go to the ocean floor and visit Bikini Bottoms where SpongeBob SquarePants and his friends all live. Once there we can help Mr. Krabs expand his empire of fine dining. The Krusty Krab is franchising out to the vast open wilderness of the bottom of the sea. SpongeBob SquarePants Diner Dash will do just that in a funny and entertaining sim time management game.

The play is identical to the other Diner Dash games where you drag your customers, or should I say minnows, to an available table in your café, wait for the customers to decide, take the order to the rotating ticket wheel, wait for Squidworth to cook up the food, take the food to the table, wait for the minnows to devour it, give the bill to the clients and clean up the table. The only differences I can see in this game compared to the original Diner Dash are the graphics and speed of the game. If you do not meet your goals you will lose a star and must retry the level again. This version is a little easier to begin with in this game and can master the play quite rapidly without too much frustration. The customers are also a little more patient, but that will change as the levels increase. Different types of customers will also start showing up to the diner like the restaurant critic, cods and more. Their patients levels are all different so beware of the hotheads, and take good care of the VIP guest. You start as a junior server and move up in the ranks from there, but knowing Mr. Krabs, it’ll take a long time before you get promoted (that means he has to pay you more money).

The help in this game is the kelp drinks. By giving the fish this drink their hearts will replenish keeping them cool and nice so they will not leave the diner. The other upgrades will automatically appear when you successfully complete a level. The new doors and diner counter are a nice touch to the once broken down restaurant.

The Endless mode is where the customers just keep coming in until you lose all your stars. You lose your stars for each angry customer. If you lose all your stars then you lose the level. When the upgrade button flashes that means you can get something to improve the place, make customers more patient or help run the diner better.

If you have played any of the popular Diner Dash games, you will be familiar with SpongeBob SquarePants Diner Dash. Actually, it may be a little too easy for experienced casual gamers, but it is still fun to play. The cartoon characters are always funny and colorful. This game may be aimed towards kids, but casual sim time management gamers will enjoy it as well. So take a swim to Bikini Bottoms and relish a juicy Krusty Krab burger while you are there.

Features of SpongeBob SquarePants Diner Dash:
-All the Familiar Moves of Diner Dash
-50 Levels
-5 Types of Customers
-2 Modes of Play

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Help Betty fulfill her dreams by working in a rundown, rowdy beer bar until she has enough money to buy a tropical paradise drinking establishment in Mac sim time management game Betty’s Beer Bar. As a young child, Betty found the rural lifestyle of a remote farm not to her liking. At the first opportunity, she left for the bright city lights to make her aspirations come to life.

The play begins with you selecting the type of game you want to perform. There are Story Mode, Time Challenge and Free Play. In Story you view the photo album about Betty’s youth, the Time Challenge posts your score online, and Free is unlimited play. The second selection is how long you want your level to last from a minute to 15 minutes.

The sim time management is much like many other games of the same genre. You wait for the customer to put in their order, click on the empty, clean beer mug, click on the keg, click on the customer to serve, wait until the client is finished, click on the empty mug and money to collect. It’s fairly straightforward until the customer drinks too much, may pass out and not pay their tab. If you see the client getting drunk, you serve them coffee to keep them awake enough to tip you. Nothing worse than a wide awake drunk but you must make your money. In addition to serving beer, you must wash the dirty mugs before serving your customers. If you see the hand with bubbles, you can forego washing the mugs because they magically get clean without washing. There are other helps throughout the play like the caffeine pill where Betty will slip into the mugs of drunk clients.

The customers are from all walks of life from businessmen and women to harem girls, nuns, aliens and slobs. Many of the people look rough and mean. One of the women looked a lot like Joy Behar on the View. The artwork is not cute, but it is good and funny.

However, this game is not for young kids. The beer drinking until you are drunk and pass out theme is not appropriate for children. In addition, the idea of nuns drinking in a bar of that caliber is not proper. If the developers stuck to the aliens and robots, they would be okay. I know we may have gotten enough of the sugary sweetness of some other sim games like Jessica’s Cupcake Café, but beer in a rundown biker hangout?

Other than my holier than thou outlook, Betty’s Beer Bar is a easy sim game with all the usual busyness associated with these kinds of play. It starts out slowly with a good tutorial for you to get used to the outline of the game. The characters are all a little depressed looking and are very demanding when they do not get their beer. If you do not mind the theme, get working on helping Betty buy her dream bar serving mango martinis in the setting sun of a tropical island.

Features of Betty’s Beer Bar:
-Quirky Characters
-3 Modes
-Choose Your Length of Play

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Wendy is looking forward to opening Grandma’s gift for her on her 18th birthday since the “mastery secrets” part of her present is inside. Unfortunately, during the night a thief takes the gift and one of her mannequins. Wendy must get back her belongings by making enough money for fares. The chase takes her to London, Paris and Florence. She needs money to buy tickets to those faraway places. The only way Wendy knows how to earn money is to sew dresses and outfits to sell to the public.

So the game begins. The customers will enter the shop with the closing of the door sound and will request a type and color of the clothing they wish Wendy to make them. You will click on the pattern, click on the color of the fabric, wait for the outfit to be made, click on the clothing, click on the customer and then the money. You need to do this until you meet your goals before the shop closes. Once the cuckoo clock goes off, no new customers will enter the shop. After you meet your goals, you are taken to the upgrade shop to buy items like plants, rugs, new patterns and fabric to make more money and to keep clients satisfied. Automatic upgrades are given to you through the story like speedy shoes from Wendy’s uncle.

To make the game more interesting you have added features to the dress or suit like lace. These added features can be done by taking the finished outfits to the glass tubular machine. After delivering the finished product, your customer may want a hat to go along with the dress or suit. Just click on the hat and then the customer to deliver.

Some of the customers are more impatient than others so you have to watch the hearts by their heads to ensure a good tip. The play is made more difficult with Wendy who can carry only one item at a time. You can click on the item again, put it on the mannequin in the center of the shop or toss it in the trash.

The attic in the menu will take you to Wendy’s attic where you can unlock new patterns and fabric to use to dress a male and a female mannequins any way you like.

I found the play easy and the tutorial very clear. This game did not compare to some of the frantic sim games you encounter along the way like Fashion Dash or Dress Shop Hop. You do need to play at a steady pace to meet your goals however so don’t slack off. It’s similar to other fashion sim time management games except the story is based in the 1800s with high necked, long dresses and proper day suits for the men. The artwork is charming and colorful. The music is pleasant. The story is a little confusing but useful in advancing Wendy to another continent. Play it and see if it suits you. No pun intended.

Features of Vogue Tales:
-40 Levels
-4 Locations
-Great graphics

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Cornelia is the star pupil of the Chief Imperial Architect, Sancho, who must restore the many floating kingdoms in the empire. You, as Cornelia, must produce, harvest, gather resources and feed the villagers in each floating island through games and puzzles in Mac sim game Floating Kingdoms.

Each individual kingdom is different. Some have more buildings and resources than others. The different structures will help obtain the needed resources to rebuild your island village. The first puzzle to complete is mahjong. Here you can match the tiles to earn resources like lumber and stone. Be sure to quickly finish the tile game since it is timed. Click on one of the farms and pack the produce in boxes. The vegetables and fruits will come down the conveyor belt and you click on the item and then click on the outlined form to place in the crates. The mill will grind down the grains for the people to make food from and feed the masses. The mini game here is to place the correct grain on the stone with the outline of the plant. Another game is to feed the people by making pizzas for the long line of villagers.

Afterwards, you are ready to build the palace. This is the last activity for each island. However, the castle goes up by itself or I should say, the villagers build the palace while you watch. You continue on to the next floating island to help the people there.

Each floating island has similar mini games to improve each situation. This becomes a little repetitive after awhile. The tutorial is quite extensive even though the play is easy enough the timed factor will make you go back and redo puzzles. I like to do mahjong leisurely and not have to worry about finishing quickly. Floating Kingdoms with its adventure and many puzzles is not my cup of tea, but may be for some casual gamers. The artwork is distinctly drawn and vibrant. Get busy building the palaces and watch out for the pirates!

Features of Floating Kingdoms:
-Adventure Story
-Many Different Mini Games
-Sim Time Management

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Finding a nursing job right out of University of California is almost impossible to find in these days of economic uncertainty. Luckily Maryville Hospital across the nation has a desperate need for a bright nursing graduate or in this case, any nurse. You are hired immediately to handle all nursing duties and more. Are you up to the challenge?

The play is a sim management game in a hospital setting where the nurse runs around doing everything. The patient will walk in and you click on his head, drag him to the examining section, then take him to where the bubble above his head shows. Afterwards you click the prescription on the pharmacy counter and click on the patient. The patient will get better and leave. The patient’s area needs to be cleaned so you click on the bed then the dirty laundry basket.

In between the levels you can purchase needed equipment for the hospital and extra things to enhance the look of the place. There will be times you may not have enough money or enough space for some items, and you’ll need to sell some of the things you already bought. The x-ray machine and the operating table will add services and income to your hospital. When you are in the store there are tabs at the top with buy, sell, expenses and outfit. The expenses are the salaries for the pharmacists and doctors. The more money they get will increase their speed and aid in your play. The outfit tab will, let you adjust the color of the nurse’s scrubs.

The ambulance parked outside of the center is available for anyone who needs a procedure not available in your hospital. It will whisk your patient off to where they will be cared for.

I haven’t played any other hospital sim play yet, but I have played Pet Vet before, not that I’m comparing people to animals but the plays are similar. These games are always interesting and fun to do as an activity. Hospital Hustle cartoon characters are amusing in their appearance and in the x-ray machines. Although the sounds they make when you pick them up can get annoying after the third time, it can be ignored or turned down.  Also picking up the people must be done on their heads or you will not be able to grab them.  In addition, it took a little doing before I could get them out of the X-ray machine.  I do not even remember if there is background music on this game, however I remember the play and the entertaining sim game.

Features of Hospital Hustle:
-15 Treatment Center
-Custom Scrubs
-7 Different Hospital Locations

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Hidden Wonders of the Depths 2 is the little improved sequel to the first Mac game. If you played the first version, you know what you are in for in the second game. It’s a little more interesting to play, a little better color with similar artwork and exactly the same music.

This time the mermaid wants the crab to build her a ship. The main game is the match 3 or more similar items to destroy the glass tiles and traverse the crab or crabs (he has a friend) to the treasure chests. The play is to swap positions of objects to make 3 in a row either vertically or horizontally. A few of the match plays involve grouping 3 or more objects and click once on the batch of similar items to destroy. You can choose to play either Relaxed or Standard mode depending on how motivated you are. The match games are not that difficult and would be good for kids to play. The crabs will go into their funny dance or give you a raspberry when you take too long to match.

There are a lot of mini games but it does get a little repetitive when you play the memory game a half a dozen times. The hidden object is not a challenge at all. The only thing I could say about it is that the scene is very pretty. You may skip these games when the skip buttons fills up. Other side games include mahjong and sliding picture puzzles. These mini games helped break up the match 3 plays. Even though I like match games, sometimes it gets boring. Building the ship for the mermaid is another diversion from the main game.

Okay, this is my take on this sequel Hidden Wonders of the Depths 2: this game is so similar to the first that you really don’t need to play it. If you liked it, knock yourself out, but like the first, the play is simple and not very challenging. If you want a relaxing game, this is the one. If you didn’t play the first game, play the second., and lastly, if you are a kid, it’s fun and cute. That’s it. I give it a 3 out of 5.

Features of Hidden Wonders of the Depths 2:
-Underwater Match plays
-Lots of Mini Puzzles
-Build a Ship for the Mermaid

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mac game Youda Farmer is an extensive, moving (literally) sim play. The game encompasses not only your farm with multiple products to sell, but it also involves the village where you deliver to the local merchants. Keeping track of all your goods takes some doing but the challenge is so entertaining and the detailed artwork of the Youda series amazing, it will keep you playing for a long time.

The usual sim play will stay in one location and build their farm up on that spot. This is the case in Farm Mania and Fantastic Farm. However, Youda Farmer moves in a truck (color of your choice) from each location on the farm to collect your produce and grains to the village full of shops and stores like the town bakery, pub and café. You may get a little dizzy from traveling throughout the countryside so be prepared. As you build up your farm with more crops and livestock, more shops will open up to support your farm. By doing so you earn more money to buy upgrades and improvements to your farm.

In addition to driving all over the farm and town, you need to click on the large eggs with party hats that appear magically throughout the countryside as quickly as you can so you can progress in the game. When you are delivering the goods to the vendors, you must also go to the Party Products to click on the eggs to finish pieces of a puzzle.

With each upgrade (chicken coop, pig sty, things to increase the speed of production, etc.) you have more actions to complete and more storekeepers to satisfy with your outstanding products. Although the play becomes quite intense, your curiosity is peeked and you can’t wait to see the next new product or the newest shop in the village. This Mac sim game is more involved in its play with you driving to many sites to work in order to meet the needs of the storeowners and still stay within your timeframe. Youda Farmer is a sophisticated sim play with you growing your produce clicking on the finished products such as flour or bacon, dragging them to the crates, loading your truck and then going to the village to deliver your goods. After arriving at the village you are still clicking on the storekeepers and delivering each product. In between all your maneuvers you must click on the party products.

Whew! This game will keep your interest and give you quite a workout both physically and visually. I didn’t think you could make a different sim farming play, but Youda Farmer succeeded. I don’t know how the Youda developers do it, but they come out with completely different plays each time. They do not do the cookie-cutter games that are all so easy to do, but they come out with original, creative plays whether sim, hidden object and others. If you are going to play a sim game, Youda Farmer is the one to do.

Features of Youda Farmer:
-Crops to Grow
-Upgrades
-Challenge Levels
-Bonus Games

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Build-a-Lot 3 is for all the fans of the first and second Build-a-Lot sim management games and anyone who is interested in learning an enjoyable Mac game of flipping houses and more. This third edition of Build-a-Lot is based in Europe. You go from country to country improving and upgrading an European town or village.

The play is very similar to Build-a-Lot 1 and 2 where you click on the property, click on the construct button, choose the type of house or building, wait for the construction and collect the rent money. This is the best part when you hear the kaching of the cash register. With more income you can purchase blueprints, property, needed construction material and labor. If you are short of cash, you can sell any of your homes for profit to hold you over until your rental income comes in. In addition, you can demolish one of your houses and rebuild a bigger and better home for more rent.

For each level you need to meet all the goals before time runs out. Clicking on the green tab on the bottom of the screen will open up your Money and Goals section. It will give you all the information you need to meet your goals for that level. It’s also spelled out for you at the top of the screen for quick reference. The board is organized so by clicking on a certain color tab you get the lay of the land quickly and efficiently. The tutorial in this game is so good you begin your play confident you can master the play.

Build-a-Lot 3 is for older kids, casual players and anyone new to sim Mac play. This game is organized well with great graphics and sound effects. I especially enjoy building chalets in the snowy background of Switzerland or erecting a building in the Italian countryside; the pleasurable aspect to Build-a lot 3.

Features of Build-a-Lot 3:

-travel Europe

-Restore Houses

-Pain and Landscape properties

-Campaign or Casual Mode

-Construct Service Buildings

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Recent School of Magic graduate, Maggie, is up for anything in life. She is ready to do big things and her family’s small farm is a great place to start using all her mystical knowledge to good use. Helping her parents run the farm with the help of magic will keep the sinister businessman from taking over the only home she has known. Her spells will speed up the farming procedures and help expand the business to other areas.

Mac game Fantastic Farm is a cross between Farm Mania and Mystic Emporium. Like these 2 action-packed sim games, Fantastic Farm has many aspects to this play from growing plants, shearing sheep and juicing fruits. As the level increases more activities are added to challenge your dexterity. You begin with 3 patches of beautiful blue flowers growing on your farm. In order to expand your growing surface you click on the shovel and magically it will dig up a patch of ground for you, click on the seed button at the bottom right of the screen to open up the seed selection, and then choose the type of plant you wish to sow. Click on the seeds then drag to the patches of turned soil to plant. For the most part the plants will grow on their own. Sometimes you will lose a plant and must reseed or the plant may need water. You will need to click on the well for water and then click on the plant. You start your farm by clicking on the empty crates 3 times to send 3 crates to the bottom of the screen, then click on the plants that are ready to be harvested. This will harvest the plants to the empty crates. Click on the barn to deliver to the customer. The client’s needs are shown at the top of the screen so you will know what to grow or make for the customer. By completing their requests, you finish the level.

This game is easy going, but challenging at the higher levels. Even if you do not make the goals on a level, the game just tells you it’s no big deal, try again. Have a go at it and cast magical spells in this colorful animated Mac game Fantastic Farm.

Features of Fantastic Farm:
-over 150 Levels
-Unlock Free Mode
-Trophies

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Inheriting property should hypothetically be a good thing, but for Karma it wasn’t that easy. In Parking Dash she gets an empty, littered piece of land from her deceased uncle. Her luck looked like it was changing when big business approaches and offers to take the empty lot off her hands. They need the space for their mega mall they plan to build. In the nick of time, Flo from the Diner Café comes to convince Karma that with limited parking on the street as it is,  a mall will be disastrous for the small business owners like Flo. She suggests to Karma to turn the lot into a parking lot and make money doing so.

The play is similar to many of the Dash Diner games where you click on the customer, click on the car, and click on the parking space. When the person comes back to pickup their car, click on the client, then their car and finally on the exit space. A little different part of this game is that you have to strategize where to park the car (if someone is going to be longer, their car should be in the inside space). You may also have to re-park a car in order to get someone’s car out. Also when you get a limousine you can only park it in the middle slot, and it will take up 2 parking spaces. In addition there are some customers who are more impatient and must be dealt with quickly and efficiently since they are big tippers.

In the Endless mode you have your usual stream of customers until you get 3 angry people on the screen and the game will be over. The levels continue to get harder with new features added like washing the dirty cars.

Parking Dash is a fast paced, fast thinking sim Mac game and is fun to play. Figuring out where to park the cars and match the color of the cars to the space takes a lot of doing and is an enjoyable challenge. The sound of the radio, card noises all add to the play. If you like the Dash series, you’ll like this one, and if you are new to it, it’s a good game to play.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

TV star Dick Van Doodle will invite you to join 14 top chefs in a hotly contested televised reality competition for the golden hotdog trophy in Mac sim time management game Hotdog Hotshot. This game takes place on the island of Manhattan in New York. Interesting Big Apple facts are presented in short, file card blurbs.

You will be situated in different hotdog stands (NYC is known for its famous dogs) positioned in parts of the island. To test your cooking prowess you will start with the hotdog. Click on the bun, click on the wiener, it will go on the grill and when it changes color, click twice to move it onto the bun. Click the completed hotdog and then the customer. Afterwards you click on the money to collect. If you leave the money on the counter, the flow of clients will be stalled. However, in higher levels, the money on the counter is too enticing for crooks and you may lose your profits. Also if you do not get enough customers because you didn’t collect the money, you will lose the level and have to retry to get enough money.

As the levels go up, so do your activities such as frying fries (thank goodness it’s only one click to fry and put on the tray), making burgers, onion rings, pretzels, corn and drinks. If you do not hurry, you will lose the level and your cash. This is what’s known as “fast” foods. A helpful serving method is to click on the soda or item and then click on the customers who want that food. This saves you a lot of time and effort. Of course the downside of the play is you must watch your wieners because they can burn easily and when that happens, you have to throw it out in the trash bin.

The sim time management play is deceptive. I thought the game was easy until I didn’t meet my goals and had to retry. I left the money on the counter and didn’t realize the customers were not coming in. That, in turn, made me lose my profits and the level. There are plenty of things to do as the level goes higher and it does get challenging when you must keep all your orders straight. In addition, you will be gauged on how well you stand against your 14 top chef opponents. So work fast, efficiently, and last of all have fun. I give it a 3.5 out of 5 for a fun play, neat NYC facts and a lot of funny characters.

Features of Hotdog Hotshot:
-100 Levels
-15 NYC Locations
-Over 20 Trophies

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

The play begins with you selecting 2 characters, one a male and the other female. These 2 are a brother and sister team driving to a deserted hotel in a snowy isolated location high atop a mountain. Due to the snow storm the hotel is evacuated except for their father, the prominent Professor Burns. He calls Nancy to come quickly and rescue him, but before he could give her more information, the line goes dead. Once at the location, Nancy and Paul find the entire place deserted except for a lone dog, Sam. This is where the fun begins. You move your cursor around the grounds to find a key to enter the hotel. You need to look for things to use during your search and items for the health of Paul and Nancy. Food, rest and fun are needed to keep the characters going and searching for their father. For food, you can click on your character and drag them to the refrigerator to replenish, and they will go to the couch to rest when needed. Collecting the fish, lanterns, firewood will increase their fun scale.

There are other objects you find that need to be combined in order to use them. In order to turn on the TV, you need to find the remote control, but when you find the item, it’s out of batteries so you need to find those as well. You can combine them by clicking on both or by using the combine button at the top left. Some of the objects are locked in chests, behind safes or doors. In order to open these things you must find the item you’ll need to open them like keys, gears and other tools.

At the beginning of each level, you will be given objectives, goals or tasks to complete. These will be listed at the upper left corner to remind you of what you need to do. If you should get stuck, you can click on the hint bone at the lower left to get Sam to take you to what needs to be done and what to use from the inventory at the bottom center of the screen. The constant barking is annoying, but if you need the help, it’s there.

Throughout the entire game, you have many mini puzzles to complete. Most of the mini games are simple and should not be much of a challenge for anyone, but if you want to skip it, wait until the skip button fills up and exit the game. The mini games are trivia questions like what does the A on ABC stand for, spin the wheel to reveal a picture and other puzzles.

Each of your people will have their own skills that are needed in the game. Paul is more mechanical and strong while Nancy is a scientist and nimble. There are many entrances too small for Paul to fit through, but nimble Nancy easily fits through the gap. An annoying factor of this game is that once, Nancy squeezes through a crawl space, you have the option like in a rpg to decide whether she should enter or not. That part is okay, but in reverse when you need her at another location, you cannot click and drag her but you must answer another question whether to enter or not again. Since the game is a top-down view, you assume once she is in a spot, you can drag her out easily but that is not the case in this game.

Another irritating thing I found is the game will not let you string tasks together like picking up bones, lanterns, butterflies, etc. together. Once you click on your person and then on the object, you must wait until the task is completed before going on to another object. Other than those small annoyances, this game is fun to do solving puzzles and finding all your clues. The artwork is cute and colorful. It won’t stress you out (except maybe Sam’s barking) and the play is simple to complete for a relaxing time. I think since the game is fairly short, kids will be able to enjoy Great Adventures – Lost in Mountains as well.

Features of Great Adventures – Lost in Mountains:
-Many Objects to Find
-Over 15 Mini Games
-Mysterious Plot

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Flo is back in Dinertown in her biggest challenge ever. She is visiting her Grandma and resting from her hectic diner empire across the nation. Flo only wants to relive her childhood and have a relaxing time with Grandma. Her vacation takes her to the local zoo, and she finds, as only she can, the place in disrepair. What is happening? Apparently the zoo is not getting enough funds to maintain and upkeep a family friendly place. Of course, Flo is there to take charge and devises a grand plan to get her beloved zoo back in shape. Yes, you guessed it. She does what she does best. She works at the zoo café with Grandma to earn enough money to help the zoo caretakers develop an A-one location for family fun. This is just the beginning because little does Flo realize the entire town is falling apart due to lack of municipal funds.

The familiar sim play in Diner Dash Hometown Hero has added features right off the bat. In between levels you can choose to change out the look of the counter or floor of the diner. Flo’s outfit can be changed to meet the location’s requirements. This is similar to Flo Through Time where you can change her outfits depending on what time period she is in. Also a new item is the reservation feature to add more play to your already busy activities, and there will be new waiters to train and to help you in your work.

The play is almost the same as all the other Dash games where you click and drag the customers to the table with appropriate number of seats, wait until they put their menus down to take their order, click on the tab wheel to deliver to the cook, click on the food when ready, click on the customer to serve the meal, click on the empty dishes to accept payment, click on the table again to clear, and finally click on the dish tub to clean. As with all the Diner plays you must be fast even in the easy mode to complete a level. If they add a drink to appease upset customers, you must do so or it will not let you pass the level. The game will make you retry a level just for not giving an irate client a drink.

Just like Diner Dash, Diner Dash 2, Flo Through Time and Snack Pack this new Diner Dash version is full of extras and pluses to keep any fan entertained and happy. New players will have quite a challenge mastering the play, but if you stick with it, will find this sim play hectic but fun.

Other Diner Dash favorites: Dairy Dash, Wedding Dash, Diner Dash Seasonal Snack Pack, Flo on the Go

Features of Diner Dash Hometown Hero:
-50 New Story Mode Levels
-Reservation Feature
-6 New Customer Types
-Train New Waiters

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

A tribe of people set sail for some adventure but is waylaid by a tremendous storm crashing their boat and washing them onto a deserted island in the sim Mac game My Tribe. This is the premise for starting your own tribe of castaways.

Initially you must choose your island from billions of islands. That’s what the game advertises but after looking at a few, you choose your island right away because you want to get started on your game. Your tribe will consist of mostly adults and a couple of kids. The adults will easily work for you but the children do not (very realistic). To get a person to work, you click on that body and drag him/her to a tree. They will immediately start to chop the tree for wood. They will place their logs on one of the 3 brown blankets on the ground. The other 2 are for food and rocks. You need rocks for building. In order to progress in this game you must build huts for shelter and the research station so studies can be done to build other things such as agriculture and scientific knowledge to advance your tribe.

To move around the island, click on the ground and drag towards your destination. The map on the lower left will give you an aerial view of the island, and clicking on the map will take you to that location.

The Detail screen can set tasks for your tribe members, and even though children do not work, you can set tasks for when they turn 14. The resource display will show how much wood, rocks and food you have. If the resource supply is low, the person building will stop working.

There are moondust and stardust falling randomly from the sky. You need to drag a tribe member on top of these items to collect them. These magical pieces can make tasks easier for some of the people. To use these items you click on either item at the top of the screen and then click on a person. If the tribe learns to build a celestial oberservatory, it will alert you when the stardust or moondust hits the earth.

After the tribe builds huts and the science center, it is important to have someone doing research in order to progress in this game. Research will show where other food sources may be and will teach them to make clothes. With higher technology someone can make potions from ingredient found on the island (bird guano, mushrooms and more).

Every so often crates or barrels will wash up onto the beach and you have the option to open them or not because some items may or may not be helpful to the tribe. Also if you see a tombstone that means someone has died. You have the choice of moving the headstone to another area or hide it completely. In order to keep the tribe going, you drop a person on another and they will eventually have a baby.

My Tribe is very similar to Virtual Villagers and is just as interesting a play. The difference I think is My Tribe the people worked much harder. In fact if you did not stop them from one task, they keep at it until they are completely exhausted and sleeping standing up. My Tribe also has definite goals to work for and one goal leads to another. Of course, the research is important to get access to higher technology and therefore have a better life. I also like how they handle death with tombstones rather than seeing the skeletons sprawled in VV. I like this game a lot for its real time play, ease of learning and the many extras it has to offer.

Features of My Tribe:
-Design Your Own Paradise
-Billions of Islands to Choose From
-More than 10 Potions to Research

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Not your typical RPG game. The name alone would throw you off, but it does catch your attention. It could be focused towards girls but anyone could play. This Mac game can both excite and frustrate you in its story line and play.

You are 18 years old and no longer able to stay in the orphanage where you grew up. With no relatives and nowhere to go you are lost in what to do. A fairy godmother type comes to you and tells you to find your destiny by holding on to your dreams. This is your quest, and it must be done by your 21st birthday. Initially you choose your birth month and by doing so, you choose a few characteristics that will shape your future. You travel to a town in which you must develop your personality and therefore determine your outcome or destiny.

Different characteristics are increased by exercising, training or taking classes. Classes are expensive and will take all your money, but you do need the lessons for specific skills such as magic and crafts. For combat you need to be trained, and must have the proper weapons and armor. Larger the weapons, higher your skill.

You go from site to site located on the lower right side of the screen, you are given choices to make, and whatever you select will form your destiny. Go to the town square and choose the activity you wish to participate in to form your fate. Choosing to pick pocket will lead you to a much different outcome than choosing to socialize and network with people.

Making money is not only important for your destiny but also for buying weapons and armor; the only things in the shop and for taking classes at the college. Those training sessions at the school is very costly, and the professors are not forgiving when you run out of money. There’s no financial aid at that school.

The slums and to the dungeons is where you should head when looking for more traditional RPG play. You must be prepared for the monsters (some are tamable, others are not). Search for items in the dark areas. Meet wizards, dragons and collect magical charm cards. Watching the calendar is important as is reading what everyone is telling you. Keep your health up along with your dream. Learn to make health potions. Every little thing will determine your destiny.

Cute Knight is a RPG play that some will love and others will hate. It is repetitious at many places and frustrating when the game suddenly ends your character making you work the rest of your pathetic life as a beggar or married to a handsome guy working at the library. Once you get into the dungeon the RPG play picks up quite a bit and is more interesting, however there’s very little action in this game so don’t expect an Avernum 5 or Kivi’s Adventure. The artwork is simple and the music annoying so make the best of it and turn off the music and overlook the cartoon characters. Dive into Cute Knight and control your destiny into a life of what you have dreamed about your entire life.

Features of Cute Knight:
-Choose Your Destiny
-Collect Magical Charm Cards
-Over 50 Endings

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Even 1000 year old forest wizards need a break now and then. This is the case in Mac arcade game Youda Fairy where the wizard protecting the people in the village is ready for a vacation of sorts. You are to train as his assistant learning to cast spells, create fairies and such to ward off the evil witch and her henchmen.

The main play is situated in a marshy, wet pond where you need to catch fireflies to make fairies. Never knew that’s the way you create fairies. You click on the lily pad with the same color flower as the fireflies and click on the bug to catch them. The flower will shoot out and gobble up the firefly. Stay away from the spikey firefly or it will decommission your lily flower for a while. So you have a blue lily flower on a pad and that flower will catch only blue fireflies. Pretty straightforward, right? Well, as in all time management type of game, it gets crazy or at least, frustrating in higher levels. Different colors will start popping up in later levels and you have to alternate colors to catch your insects. After the pad has its fill, you click on the pad to release the like color fairy. You click on the fairy and drag her to the like color lantern down at the bottom of the screen. Make sure you click on the gecko and frogs to shoo them away. The frog will incapacitate your flower and the gecko will eat your fireflies. There are more natural barriers as you go higher in the levels. Fortunately, you have helps like the sneeze spell to create more fireflies, spiders when dragged will collect all the same color fireflies in one scoop and a shield for your lily pad to ward off the pests.

Once you meet your goals (# of fairies in each color), you go to village to protect the town’s people from the destructive witch. The villagers will let you know when they need a fairy of a certain color to help them. Each time a heart of the fairy color pops up above a home, you need to click on the lantern with the same color fairies and then click again on the home before the hearts disappear. In addition to being fast on your feet, you have to deal with the nasty bad guys (witches, goblins and trolls). This part of the game reminded me of the Mac sim time management game Sushi to Go Express.

Although the game sounds easy, it is not; especially when you get up in the higher levels. I found it frustrating when you did not have a sneeze spell to create more fireflies to meet your goals. I found sometimes I was waiting around for the bugs. The pests though distracting helped move the play along. Another distraction to the main play is the building of the village with your earned points you can buy a cottage, bridge and many more sections after unlocking the upgrades.

As always, Youda developed a beautifully drawn game with deep, rich colors, but the play, although original, missed the mark for me. I would rather play Peggle without much of a story line than catch fireflies. I guess I was expecting more action than time management play. It wasn’t for me but you may enjoy this type of game. I give it a 3.0 for great artwork and originality.

Features of Youda Fairy:
-Original Play
-Help the Villagers
-Create Fairies
-Challenging Levels

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Far, far away in the vast ocean waters of the world is an island paradise where you can build your own land. This is the realm of pirates where the taking is the law of the land, and you must control the thievery before you lose all your gold. Caribbean Hideaway will let you develop your own piratedom by earning gold and fame in match 3 or more like items.

Caribbean Hideaway is 2 games in one. The sim play is to use your money you earn from the match 3 games and buy buildings for your island. You start off with 5 unemployed citizens who will steal your gold unless you employ them as soon as possible in one of your buildings. You can also build a jail to control the thefts. In addition to the games you will be playing to improve your rank in life. With each promotion, you get more people on your island. You start from being a deckhand and go up from there.

If you hover the cursor over the bottom of the screen, it will explain the stats listed there. Also before each level you get a piece of the pirate story in the open book at the bottom right. The story will pull the play and tale together in one harmonious fashion.
The match 3 or more like items is straightforward where you swap the item you are holding on your cursor to make a match. When a match is made you pick up the item that you swapped and go to the next area on the board. In every level you have to pay attention to the goals in each chapter. Some of the match games will have you make matches over blue tiles, match pirates to earn an army, the hourglass will give you more time and the hammer will destroy a strategic tile. You must read all the goals and objectives to really understand the strategy of this game. It’s very subtle and the story line will catch up to you.

At first it appeared to be a sim game, but you need the match plays to earn money to build buildings to keep your people employed and happy. This game is more a match 3 game for casual gamers. It starts off slowly but does get addictive for players as you increase in the levels. I didn’t get into the story much so I may have missed any nuances that needed attention, but I liked the match part even though it wasn’t very challenging. The play is similar to Cradle of Rome and Cradle of Persia. Have a go at it and make your pirate paradise in the seas.

Features of Caribbean Hideaway:
-Develop your own Pirate Island
-100 Match 3 Levels
-6 Scenarios

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Wobblies are the cutest things since the Furbies. You must train them so you can help evolve them into higher beings in this engaging real time strategy/sim Mac game.

What’s happening in Tribesville? The food and water supplies are dwindling, and the hyenas are trying to take what’s left. You must train the Wobblies so they can help themselves to survive and flourish. In order to keep the tribe going you must produce more Wobblies to evolve into higher animals like zebras, lions, giraffes, gorillas and so on.

The button on the upper left side will announce what’s going on in the tribe. It could be someone is sick, and to help cure them you drop one Wobble on top of another to help heal that creature. This will increase the skills of the assisting Wobble and therefore evolving them. For serious illnesses a hospital and medicine are needed. To defend the Wobblies from hyenas, you drop a Wobble on top of the hyena to duke it out. If the Wobble wins, he/she will evolve into a lion.

The buttons on the bottom of the screen will give you more information about the progress of the game, stats, zoom, history and character of each member of the tribe. Here you can also change the names of each character. I advise you go ahead and change the names, because the names they have are a little foreign and hard to remember. When the Wobblies start evolving they change completely and sometimes this can happen when you are not watching and it gets confusing to who is who.

The tribe people are easy to train in tasks, but their work takes a while and you have to remind them from time to time to keep at it. They are not like the Vikings and natives in Tribal Trouble who work hard and fast to build their quarters, but Wobblies are easier to teach than the Virtual Village people who many times refuse to do any tasks. I like the fact you can train more than one person to do something to increase the speed of building. It’s also great when you leave the game and return to find work already completed like a building.

If that’s not enough play for you, there are map pieces to collect to reveal secrets, and magical items randomly and temporarily visible from time to time. When all discoveries and evolutions are made, the game is complete.

I think Wild Tribe is a great Mac game and is suited for both young players and casual gamers. It’s easy to pick up and learn. There’s a hint button to help you if you need it. The tutorial at the beginning gets you going quickly, and the hyenas are few and far apart initially so beating them is not a problem. In addition you get a heads up when the hyenas are around, and if you zoom out quickly can scope the situation immediately. Play this game and help the Wobblies preserve their village by working hard and defending the tribe.

Features of Wild Tribe:
-Mysteries of Tribesville
-Train creatures to Skilled Workers
-Collect Magic Objects
-Defend Your Tribe

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Tradewinds Legend is not your usual RPG Mac game; it’s a lot more. It is different from most games because you have many features of role-playing, managing finances, and merchandising in an intriguing tale of the ancient Arabian seas.

You choose your character from a cast of notorious traders or create your own person. You must have someone who is smart, wily, scheming and cunning. The sidebar will display your portrait, rank, finances, fleet size, pending tasks, your log, special items, and fleet’s cargo. All that will be needed on your many journeys through the Arabian seas.

The local Sultan or Prince will ask you to do tasks for him that will get you started on your adventure on the high seas, but first you must deal with moneylenders, bankers and suppliers. You cannot leave for foreign lands without securing financial assistance. You need to negotiate with moneylenders but be careful or you can find yourself in a lot of trouble. Keep your eye on the cost of supplies. They are different in each port. You must be a wheeler dealer in this game and must keep track of your finances and also your tasks.

In addition, you must be armed properly to fight off pirates on the open ocean. The battles with these bad guys get tougher as you proceed in the game so keep increasing your fleet and weapons. After buying supplies at one port, you can sell it for a profit in another location. Completing your tasks (always visit the palaces) will open more ports and your reputation will spread throughout the lands and skies.

Tradewinds Legend is a great game to play when you want a fun evening shooting pirates and getting the best deal on items. It will take a lot of thinking and figuring out plus battles with buccaneers on the seas. Take a chance with this different but interesting and entertaining adventure, action Mac RPG game.

Features of Tradewinds Legend:
-Trade and Battle Legendary Heroes
-Choose Character or Create Your Own
-Special Items
-10 Ports

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars