Jessica’s Cupcake Cafe Review
The Story: Jessica is home from LA and overhears her Aunt Margaret talking about hers and Uncle Fred’s woes about their failing bakery. Bright-eyed, ever ready Jessica suggests updating the bakery concept and start a cupcake café to bring in the customers and also make a profit. Aunt Margaret is thrilled with the idea since all the buzz is about 
cupcakes (even Martha Stewart devoted a week to cupcake making on her top-rated TV show, and everyone knows Martha can turn a profit). However, Auntie M is astute enough to know that a conversion of the shop will take a lot of work and assistance, so she asks Jessica to lend a hand to get things started.
There will always be a need for your typical neighborhood bakery making breads, birthday cakes and cookies or even the fancy French patisserie with their, oh so decadent, ganache frostings and croissants, but the latest craze in bakeries is the cupcake shops that are everywhere nowadays. My favorite cupcake shop is Magnolia in New York City, and I hear Vanilla in LA is quite good. I’ll have to check it out next time I’m in town. Jessica’s Cupcake Café is an updated sim play like Ice Cream Craze and Mystic Emporium.
The Play: Making cupcakes appears to be a straightforward, easy play or it it? The play is to click on the type of cake your customer wishes to buy (this is shown to you with the number of cupcakes in a bubble next to the client). The highly innovative machine will place the correct amount of batter into the baking sheet, you click on the pan, click on the oven to bake, wait, click on the baked cupcakes, click on the counter, click on the requested frosting, click on the completed tube of frosting, click on the tray of cakes to frost after completion click to pick up the pan, click on the customer and
finally on the cash register to collect the money. These are a lot of steps to maneuver, but once you get into the groove, everything will flow nicely. However, in these plays there are always things that may slow your play down such as a decoration candy piece to top the cupcake. It can be a bear, daisy, heart or sun. The customer may request a special order causing you to throw out a batch of cupcakes or frosting.
However the game will always give you great upgrades to help you increase your speed to beat the level. You may get additional stoves, more icing machines and candy makers. Another added plus is you can design your own cupcakes to sell to your clients. Don’t worry about the extra cupcakes since they will be sold at a bake sale in a side mini game. Your goal is to sell as many cupcakes as possible in a limited time.
Jessica’s Cupcake Café, although similar to many of the sim plays, is an entertaining Mac game for everyone. In addition you will unlock many great cupcake recipes to try out and enjoy. The graphics is good and the music will keep you in sync with quick speed to meet your goals.
Features of Jessica’s Cupcake Café:
-Run a Cupcake Café
-Design Your Own Cupcakes
-42 Levels in 9 Locations
-Cupcake Recipes
Rating: 
Nanny Mania goes to Hollywood Review
Nanny is on vacation when she reads about Sofia Ashford, movie star, and terrible mother in the gossip rags. She decides to help her and goes to Hollywood to start her new employment. Nanny’s motto is whatever the problem, begin by caring.
This Mac sim game is played by clearing one room at a time. The object is to click on the red framed items for Nanny to clean and clear. The clothes spewed throughout the house must be picked up, taken to the washer to wash, then click on the dryer and finally click to pick up the basket of clothes, and click on the dresser to put away the items.
There are only 3 people who reside in this house: Sydney the baby, Lucas the 3rd husband, and Sofia the movie star. They are probably the messiest people in the world who need a lot of attention, especially the baby. When the baby cries above the crib will show you what it needs. If you see a diaper, you click on the crib for Nanny to change the baby, then click on the dirty bundle next to the bed and then click on a trash bin to throw it out. If you see a a bottle above the crib, the baby is hungry, and you click on the small refrigerator in the nursery, then click on the bottle warmer, then again on the bottle to pick up and click one more time on the crib to feed the baby.
It’s hectic just writing about it. See how frantic it gets in the first few levels, and remember, the levels are timed so you must hustle. In between the levels you can go to the store to buy anything that is unlocked, you have the money for it, and you need to make your work easier.
Nanny Mania is like Baby Sitting Mania with a few more perks like the shop, more people and a little story to get to know the messy slobs to make it a little more personal. Sim plays are not my thing, but this one has a few more activities than a lot of the games out there. Try it out for a little work out in this play.
Features of Nanny Mania Goes To Hollywood:
-Help Celebrity Family
-Sequel to Nanny Mania
-Time Outs, Pets and More
Rating: 
Brunhilda and The Dark Crystal Review
A simple request from her aunt to pick up her purse in her apartment turns into a vast adventure in Mac hidden object game Brunhilda and the Dark Crystal. Brunhilda, not a particularly popular name in the United States, is of German origin and used more in Poland and areas 
near there. Brunhilda in this game is not like the stocky witch in the cartoon series. This Brunhilda is blonde, cute and brave. She calmly confronts the king of the rats and takes potions to shrink her size.
The story begins in a far away land where the dragons and men lived in harmony. This idyllic land is now in danger of inevitable doom. The magic they historically treasured will disappear forever if something is not done. The king ordered all magic to be stored in a dark crystal in hopes that some day a hero from another world will save them. This brings us back to Brunhilda a seemingly normal young woman doing 
her aunt a favor. She goes to the apartment and finds a demon that takes her to another realm. Gruber the demon will assist you in your adventure to find the broken shards of the dark crystal to restore the magic and fight off the evil.
The main play is to collect different objects usually at the request of someone you need to help you out. You can select from 2 modes. Casual has hints and skip buttons and they will recharge at normal speed. Objects of interest are highlighted. The Adventure mode the buttons take twice as long to recharge and rarely will objects be highlighted. The magical quest cards can be found at the bottom of the screen. It will give you the items you will need to find. To get into small spaces you must make a magic elixir to shrink Brunhilda to enter 
the rat door. Once small she encounters many rats who will do her a favor if she does one for them such as collecting all the fireworks in the village, get all the cheese, click on parts for a machine, get rid of all the rat traps and lots more. You may need to go back and forth from the rat village to the lobby of the building and back again. Luckily Brunhilda found a shortcut through the rat village to the king’s palace.
There are mini games you can play or skip such as catching drops of blue potion to make magic elixirs. Another is to pick out magical runes from a book. The mini puzzles do get progressively harder as the levels increase but you can skip them if you wish. However, skipping the puzzles will not unlock bonus mini games. The games involve telekinesis, alchemy, telepathy and wizardry. All the puzzles are related to the story and you are not aimlessly looking for a pizza cutter, battery or bowtie like some other HOGs.
There are 10 chapters to take you on an incredible adventure. You will meet many unusual things like dragons, part human part machine, rats that talk, birds, and much, much more. The story will unfold with Brunhilda talking to people or things that will help her in her quests. There are easter eggs to find so be sure to click on the fairies.
Brunhilda and the Dark Crystal is a different sort of HOG since you are finding things on quests, going back and forth through many rooms and areas and even shrinking down to mouse size. The story is intriguing even though it sounds like something you heard before but is presented in such a great way with the voice acting and gorgeous, detailed and creative artwork. The dialog between Brunhilda, Gruber and others are humorous and funny. The only thing I can say I thought was too much is the fact you have to go back and forth from one spot to another and back again. A small complaint considering the awesome job the developers did in this interesting and fun hidden object game with great details in their characters, words and story.
Features of Brunhilda and The Dark Crystals:
-Engaging Story
-Fantastic Artwork and Mysterious Music
-10 Chapters of Fun HOG Plays
Rating:
Snowy Bear Review
Snowy the bear is the coolest little guy ever. Your goal in this classic arcade platform Mac game is to get him back home safely from the myriads of monsters attacking him from all sides. Is that too much to ask?
There are 3 modes to choose from in this challenging game of many levels. The Kid’s mode will give you 100 (!) lives with fewer monsters. Normal has 10 lives and double the monsters, and Hard is crazy with lots and lots of monsters and 10 lives. You must bring your game face for this mode in order to beat it.
This is your typical platform game where the monsters can come at you from all directions and all sizes, including the bosses. You use your control key and arrow keys to throw snowballs and maneuver around. I had trouble using the control button and arrows so I went into options and changed the control button to the space bar by clicking directly on control and changing it to any key. I chose the space bar since it’s centrally located and it’s bigger than the other keys. I use a MacBook Pro with Mac OS X, version 10.5.6. If you do not change this key, your screen will disappear. That was my only mishap I had with playing this Mac game.
The play is to move Snowy facing the enemies and clicking either your control or space bar to throw snowballs until the monster is completely covered and then kicking him out the game board. Be careful though the snowball may come back and take Snowy down losing a life.
This game is fast and you must move even faster to either avoid the bad guys or by throwing the snowballs. This action, shooter arcade play is more than awesome, it’s a challenging, strategic game with an upbeat music and happy character like Snowy. What more do you need for an exciting and electrifying play? Beat those monsters and get Snowy home.
I would definitely recommend this game to all the quick moving, coordinated (with practice) platform gamers who may enjoy a fun story about a fearless polar bear. Also kids and inexperienced gamers can learn from the 100 lives you have to practice this awesome game. The colors are so bright and intense and the artwork is imaginative. I didn't know you could do so much with platforms. Don’t let the cuteness factor put you off. Snowy is one tough bear.
Features of Snowy the Bear’s Adventure:
-Tons of Snowballs and Levels
-Great Adventure
-4 Worlds
Rating:
Bud Redhead Review
Bud Redhead is an action-packed, side scrolling fun platform Mac game for all ages. Its story begins with Bud and Rachel strolling through a park, and a green creature appears through a light and kidnaps poor Rachel. Bud could only grab part of the creature’s arm before the two disappear through another light. Bud is then approached by 2 grey aliens who explain to him that the green monster is Feyatta, and they, from the Cosmic Federation, are chasing him for galactic evil deeds. The electronic piece Bud grabbed from Feyatta will prevent the creature from escaping to his space ship and leaving for the unknown. They could track Feyatta, but the 2 grey men cannot chase the criminal on earth due to galaxy restrictions in interfering with earthlings. It is up to Bud to help Rachel get back and put away this desperate galactic criminal.
Bud’s adventure will take him to 4 different locations and 4 different time periods. Music also changes in each location. The places vary from a forest over 8000 years ago to a spaceship orbiting Saturn way into the future with Medieval Castles and Ancient Egypt in between.
The play is easy to pick up using the arrow keys and jumping with the control button. There are helps in forms of monitors along the way. You can stop and view them or you can ignore them. There are thousands of coins (which you need to exit the portals), jewels and fruit to get for your score. This is your basic run and jump game where you will find secret areas in each land, moving platforms, many tiered trees, levers, ropes and the dreaded but fun slippery floors.
Bud Redhead is an awesome play in the style of the Mario games. The artwork and graphics were great, and some of it reminded me of Japanese anime. The backgrounds were drawn in detail and rich colors. The ending is a big surprise. So if you are looking for an excellent family fun, try Bud Redhead and venture out into the timeless unknown.
Features of Bud Redhead:
-20 Levels of Adventure and Fun
-5 Levels per Different Worlds
-Thousands of Coins, Jewels, and Fruit
-Secret Areas
-Big Boss Levels
Rating:
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