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Diner Dash (DS)
by graceyyxx
==Price and Availability==
I'm a big fan of simulation games and always try to tend to try them out online and Diner Dash is one of my particular favourites. When I saw there was a version on DS I bought it new from play.com for about £17, it is available new on Amazon for just under £12 now. It's also available second hand ... from CeX for £6 which is a great price as you can often find a nearly new version.
==Idea of the Game==
The player is in the role of Flo, a waitress/ restaurant owner who is trying to build up her restaurant. The idea of the game is that you start with a basic American diner and you have to seat and serve customers and make sure they stay happy to advance to the next level. The restaurant is very basic to begin with; just a few tables, shabby decoration and basic counter, over the course of the game as you earn more money you upgrade the restaurant with more tables, drinks machines and new decoration.
As you work your way through the game there are 6 different restaurants to unlock. To unlock a new restaurant you work through 10 different levels which get harder as you go along. For each level there's a target and an expert target, if you achieve expert status on every level the 6th restaurant is unlocked and 20 bonus levels.
==Playing the Game==
I found Diner Dash really easy to play from the start, even if you've never played before. I found the game a little bit slow and boring over the first couple of levels, but it is for anyone age 3+ so I can understand this, and there's a very simple to follow tutorial which makes it very easy for players to get used to the game. There are two options available when playing, Endless Shift or Career Mode, my favourite by far being Career Mode as this is when you work yourself up through the levels onto different restaurants. Endless Shift is, in my opinion much more difficult as you don't have a set target to work towards you just keep playing until customers walk out because they're tired of waiting. Endless shift does become extremely fast paced and if frustrating, and I much prefer the progressive Career option. If you finish a level as an Expert you can choose one of three upgrades at the end of each level so there's loads of choices to get the restaurant how you want it which I think is a really good idea, there are also different outfits for Flo to wear which again gives the opportunity for lots of different choices. The game is really cartoony and easy to follow, although I don't think a three year old would quite get the grasp of the game I think they'd definitely be able to follow it. My partner's sister is six and she gets really into the game and is progressing really well on it. As the game progresses though it does get harder which also makes it great for adults to play.
==Overall==
This game is a really good buy, it keeps me amused for hours and the fast pace and working towards targets really requires concentration at times. Although it's a bit sad there's a great feeling when gaining an expert badge after a particularly difficult level. It's great for all ages and is a game which can be played over and over again as I should imagine it will take me a long time to reach the last level. It doesn't get boring because there's so many different options, upgrades, outfits and customers as well as working your way through the different restaurants. Overall, a great game.
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Zoo Keeper (DS)
by lorrainek858
Zoo Keeper DS is a Puzzle Game that was released on the Nintendo Ds early 2005, this game is similar to other better known puzzle games such as Puzzle Bobble, Columns, Dr Robotniks Mean Bean Machine in the sense that the aim of the game is to match 3 different 'same' blocks in a row to make them disappear and gain more points. In this ... case the blocks are in the form of different animals that you would find at the zoo (hence the name) such as lions, monkeys, giraffes or pandas to name a few.
There are four different modes in which you can play this game, they include:
Zoo Keeper
In this mode, a zoo keeper gives you a task to capture a number of animals within a certain time limit, as you advance on you meet harder levels that involve you catching more animals in less time. You remove animals by matching up 3+ blocks in a row of the same kind of animal. I enjoy playing this mode of the game as I always want to better my score and get to a further level than I have before.
Tokoton
In this game you are given an animal at the start of the game and your goal is to catch 100 of this type of animal, this can take quite a while and gets more challenging the more animals you catch, when you have reached 100 of your set animal, you get another animal to start all over again with. I don't really play this mode on the game as much as I find it rather repetive, searching for the same animal over and over, however I can see how it could appeal to puzzle lovers and this is my fiance's 'go to' game mode when he plays.
Quest
In this game you are given a number of different achievements that you need to achieve, for examplecapture 15 more giraffes than pandas or capture seven times without chaining or only capture a each animal once. I like this mode on the game as it requires a bit more thinking than the other modes on the game, you have to be careful to achieve the different goals and this can mean sometimes planning ahead.
Time Attack
Like most time attack modes on any game this is simply capturing as many animals as possible against the clock, each session within this mode lasts 6 minutes.
You start off being able to play this game on either easy, medium or hard, however as you get high scores and rank 1st on each scoreboard, you can unlock a super hard mode, this mode is involves you thinking really fast and reacting quickly and is really challenging, this made the game both interesting and frustrating for me.
Multiplayer is available on this game, however I never really played multiplayer on any of the Ds games I played, so I don't really know much about it.
The graphics on this game are what you would expect from the Nintendo ds, they are bright colourful and cartoon styled, but I think that this is what attracts Nintendo fans as games are light hearted and fun to play/look at.
I bought this game in Game (I think) for £25 when it came out, this is a really great price for a DS game as they are normally much more expensive. You can now buy this game in Game, HMV, GameStop, Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys or online, I am sure that these stores also stock the game in around this price. I am sure that you could pick this game up pre-owned in Game or HMV for much cheaper, however it is a really old game, so it should be rather cheap to buy.
I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys Puzzle games such as Tetris, Columns, Puzzle Bobble or any other Puzzle game like these game. It is a good game to sit down and relax with for me, though I am sure it is not for everyone. You could pick Zoo Keeper up rather cheap and if you are looking for something to keep your mind occupied this is a great buy.
*also on ciao under lorrainek90*
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