Diner Dash

Diner Dash is all about a young burnt out corporate employee named Flo. She gets tired of running the rat race and so opens up her own restaurant. You can play the game in two modes – Flo’s Career and Endless Shift.

For the first mode, you will start out with a rundown diner. You play as Flo and your ultimate goal is to open the restaurant of your dreams. You need to attract and serve as many customers as needed to reach the financial goal for the day. If you make your goal then you will move on to the next level with some incentives – maybe a few new tables, or a new door, or even a coffee machine. The further you get into the game, the more upgrades you get. After reaching a certain level you can open a new restaurant. The Endless Shift mode will let you serve customers until you cannot keep up with the demand. When a certain number of customers leave without being served properly, then your shift ends.

The game does not ask much in terms of system requirements. All you need is a Pentium III 600MHz processor, at least Windows 98, at least 128MB of RAM, and 12 MB of your hard disk space.

The graphics are pleasing to the eyes, very family friendly. It is a refreshing alternative to the violent games which are rampant today. There are a lot of funny animations and even funnier sound effects.

The little upgrades and bonuses you get after each level entices you to do a much better job next time in order to improve the restaurant even more. Earning a certain amount beyond your daily goal will give you even more perks.

Playing the game does not require much thinking – though you need to do a bit of brain work in order to figure out the best possible seating arrangement based on color bonuses. Skill and fast hands are your best bet in beating the game. To be honest, I got frustrated with this game because I couldn’t get past a certain level and thus couldn’t open up the last restaurant.

If you are not sure you want to buy the game yet, try downloading the free one-hour trial version on Yahoo Games. I am quite sure though, that when the game window closes after 60 minutes, you will be left wanting for more.