Attention fans of Diner Dash and Wedding Dash; game developer PlayFirst recently released Hotel Dash: Suite Success for the PC and Mac. It’s available for instant download at bigfishgames.com for only $4.99 and I couldn’t resist snatching up this game. However, I can’t say that I’m as impressed with this game as with other time management games. It definitely doesn’t live up to the Diner Dash legacy.
By Jessie Krehlik
SHU News Editor
Attention fans of Diner Dash and Wedding Dash; game developer PlayFirst recently released Hotel Dash: Suite Success for the PC and Mac. It’s available for instant download at bigfishgames.com for only $4.99 and I couldn’t resist snatching up this game. However, I can’t say that I’m as impressed with this game as with other time management games. It definitely doesn’t live up to the Diner Dash legacy.
Instead of serving dinner to guests, the main character, Flo, finds herself running around four different hotels, bringing room service, towels, ice, pillows and a few other assorted goodies to the ever-impatient guests.
The game itself is split up into two modes: story mode and endless shift. Being the linear gamer that I tend to be, I immediately gravitated to the story mode and beat the game in about two days of game play with brakes for homework, class, eating and sleep, of course.
Like the traditional Diner Dash games, the game is comprised of 50 levels, where players have certain goals to reach, as well as expert goals as aspirations. The happier the hotel guests, the more gold stars the gamer wins, and the more she can spend on upgrades. But, Hotel Dash offers a unique element to the game play.
Alongside renovating the hotel and improving Flo’s abilities to deliver great hotel service, the player must also renovate the honeymoon suite of each of the five hotels.
Players start out in DinerTown Suites before quickly moving to the Alpine Ski Lodge. Along the way, players meet new and interesting hotel guests, such as the lumberjack at the Ski Lodge, who loves an extra meal or two every time he visits. From there, players will visit Stark Suites and Tiki Palace Hotel, before they reach their final resting spot at Dunwich House, home of some spooky hotel guests, ghosts.
Unlike the different customers in Diner Dash, the hotel guests are pretty easy to figure out. Before long, I found myself knowing exactly how many towels and pillows I’d need, before the guests even asked for them.
In the original Diner Dash, Flo could only carry what her two hands could hold; while in Hotel Suite, players can upgrade Flo’s cart to carry as many as six items at once. It really destroyed a lot of the challenge in the game, and made combo scores really easy to achieve.
Although the game keeps things interesting for the most part, it really doesn’t hold up to the challenge expected out of a time management game like its predecessors. I was really disappointed in how quickly I completed this game, while I’m still stuck in the third diner in Diner Dash 2. I really wish I could say that this game is a good buy, but I’m not sure it’s even worth the $5 I spent on it.
Do yourself a favor, and play the hour-long demo for free before purchasing the game. Or better yet, just get one of the Diner Dash games instead, you won’t be disappointed. I can’t say the game is all bad. I had fun while it lasted; however, if you want a real challenge, pick one of the other PlayFirst games to keep yourself occupied.