Diner Dash - Hours and Hours of "Whack-A-Mole" Fun

Generally speaking, I'm not big into computer games. Partially this is because I lack hand-eye coordination something fierce (though strangely not when playing the piano - or perhaps I should say, not as much when playing piano - but that's about the only exclusion to the hand-eye thing not working out so well.) I think it's also partially because I get motion sick incredibly easily. There have been numerous occasions where I have glanced up from whatever I was doing on my computer to see Tim zooming here, there, and everywhere, rapidly firing off whatever random weapon against whichever random bad guy was part of the game obsession du jour and, after two minutes of watching, felt the need to go lie flat in a nice, steady dark place and will the nausea away.

Thus, computer games that require moving at high speeds and doing more than one thing at a time are generally not a good idea. The whole first person perspective? That just makes it worse. So I'm relegated to puzzles, or the Hamsterpault, or things of that ilk (FreeCell, anyone?) most of the time. However, my sister has introduced me to Diner Dash: Flo on the Go, and I have to say, I'm hooked!

This is the 3rd in the Diner Dash series and I may have to break down and get the other ones (even though the gameplay doesn't change, I imagine, from one to the next.) Essentially, you are a one-woman-diner show (hostess, waitress, busser all rolled into one) who is on vacation with her best friend, who happens to be a short-order cook. Through a series of, frankly, dumb/forgetful actions on your part, you keep losing your luggage and thus must work in the diner to pay for your vacation and new clothes. You start on a cruise ship, then progress to a train, then on to a submarine (not sure where you take submarine vacations, but ok), and finally a zepplin (ok, ok, blimp.) You get different types of customers who take varying amounts of time and annoy the people near them to varying degrees and have varying levels of patience, so you have to balance all that with taking orders, delivering food, bussing tables, and keeping the people in line happy so they don't decide to leave, costing you money. It's a really enjoyable little game that I like way more than I expected I would. Totally ok for kids, too (limited only by their coordination as far as being able to do it without getting frustrated), which is nice.

My only complaint is that sometimes? It's hard. I'll redo a level 4 or 5 times before barely eeking by with my tip goal. Still, tons and tons of fun and heartily recommended for a cheap (I think it's like $20) way to enjoy a huge number of hours.