Diner Dash: Hometown Hero from Goodie Bag Bundle - 3 in 1

Flo and her grandma, returning to their old stomping ground to hear that the zoo is closing, decide to save it piece by piece, starting with the safari snackbar. There is no food preparation involved, it's purely waitressing. Flo serves the guests at tables outside. She assigns them tables, takes their orders, passes them to gran, delivers the food etc. but since the game doesn't limit the number of guests, a huge line of increasingly cross waiting customers inevitably develops. This game sucks! I wouldn't expect it from a game set in a zoo, but these are the ugliest graphics I've ever seen!! The colours are plain and washed-out. It has an "eternal serving mode", but the main game already feels like that. The usual applies: it's possible to upgrade equipment. It's also possible to change Flo's outfit and the colour of the clothes she's wearing. Which just doesn't make the game any less ugly.

Tasty Turbo Trio:
Turbo Pizza
Turbo Fiesta
Turbo Subs

The first game was an Acer GameZone demo, the second a demo that came with Fabulous Finds, and all three were in a bundle on Oberon's site. Starring in the Turbo series are the cooking couple Robert and Rebecca, serving their customers respectively Italian, Spanish and sandwich bar food at their typical circular bar in widely different locations. The guest star is Auntie Rhonda, an eccentric surrounded by white poodle puppies with bows in their hair, who gives Rebecca great ideas for a new fast-food concept, to which Robert will reluctantly agree. Typically, there will be villains to sabotage their prospering business, but for a slowpoke like me, the demo doesn't play long enough to meet them.

Like Cake Mania 2, and unlike all the Flo-centric games, these games have nice graphics not only for backgrounds and inanimate things, but also for the animated characters. Instead of flat puppets starkly outlined in black, they are prettily coloured and shaded, even more so than in the Cake Mania games, and the customers, though lacking funny sound bytes, are more lively, looking around as they wait for their order. As in almost all time management games, there are two goals: the minimum to pass the level, and the higher expert goal for overachievers. There doesn't seem to be an endless play mode in any of these games, but I don't miss it. There are no trophies either, just a high-score list. There is, however, a turbo mode, which really comes into its own in the second game.

In Turbo Pizza, Rebecca finds an old castle for sale, and decides to make it into a pizzeria. The tutorial takes me through the process of serving one-step (cakes, drinks from the fridge) and two-step (pizza, ice cream) products to customers who often order two items, but won't show me the second until I've handed them the first. Making a "combo" - clicking on five customers to give them a menu, then serving all five, then collecting all the coins, means more points, a bigger chance of getting an expert score and more money for prettying up the place and adding items to make their business more profitable. One great thing: it's a takeaway, so there are no dishes to clear. Between shifts, there is a pizza decoration minigame to earn extra money.

In Turbo Fiesta, news of Aunt Rhonda's efforts in the space tourism field gives Rebecca the idea of serving Spanish snacks in a space station. I didn't see any minigames for the short time of playing the demo, but was introduced to the villain faster than usual: his name is Mr. von Simoleon, and he will be causing a power outage soon. Combos are more important than ever in this game, as they fill up five stars at the bottom of the screen which, once filled, initiate Turbo service mode, in which Robert and Rebecca speed up, as does the background music. Filling the stars three times in a row activates Fiesta mode: a Spanish tune plays at top speed, machines no longer take time to process food and all customers have sombreros on their patience bars to signify that their patience will never run out, guaranteeing maximum tips and no angry customers stamping out. Sadly, these modes don't last long.

Turbo Subs starts when Aunt Rhonda gives Rebecca, who has come over for a holiday visit with Robert, an authentic old subway car. Robert, unwisely saying he would have preferred a sandwich, sees his holiday go up in smoke as Rebecca agrees that a subway car would be the perfect location for selling the long sandwiches called submarines (because they're both subs, geddit) and before long, they're serving commuters, tourists and artsy types. I don't know whether the car is stationary or moving, as implied by one flapping door hanging half off its hinges, but the door is fixed by upgrades that not only change the subway car step by step into a luxury Victorian train carriage, but also add half-stars to the five stars needed to activate Turbo Service mode. Yes, Turbo Service is back, but there is no Fiesta mode this time. However, making a tips combo, ie. collecting all money in a row, makes the total higher. The interim minigames are now hidden object games; apparently the back of the car is such a mess that every now and then Robert's belongings may need sorting out, and although it's always the same screen, they're often not in the same position.

Since this is the third in a row of very similar games, it asks me right at the start: do I want to start in easy mode, or am I such a Turbo Expert that the hard mode is better suited to me? I picked easy mode, managed to get expert score for almost every level I played (when I don't, I'm asked if I want to replay the level) and, for each expert score attained, had my ego stroked by the following message: "Completely Mind-Blowing! [Followed by score.] We stand in awe of your magnificent perfection." This may be a subtle ploy to make people feel guilty about playing in easy mode.

Spooky Bundle:
The Happy Hereafter
Spooky Mall
Haunted Domains