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8.4 ultra recommended
The person from whom I took over this casual games review job once told me that there are two things you should never do when you're on a diet: drive past Moody's Diner in Waldoboro, Maine... or start playing a time management game.
Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame, from Gamehouse, is the latest in the Delicious series. Emily and her friend Francois are on their way to Hollywood when suddenly their car's engine overheats! And to make matters worse, Emily panics when smoke begins rolling out from beneath the hood of the car; she drives straight into a no parking sign on the side of the road. The two are left with no choice but to hoof it down the highway for help. Help turns out to be Betty's Drive Thru, a roadside greasy spoon that has become too busy for sole proprietor Betty to handle alone. Before you know it, Emily is helping Betty run the diner and saving money for car repairs. Can Emily make it to television city? Or will her taste of fame remain just that - a taste?
Keen readers might have noticed that Delicious takes place in a restaurant (a few restaurants, actually), marking the arrival of yet another time management waitress game. Dust off your mousepad and clean the bottom of your mouse, because you'll need fast clicking skills and a nimble wrist to get through this latest chapter in Emily's life.
Gameplay involves serving customers food, quickly, then accepting their payment (and tips), also quickly. I always liked the Delicious series because you don't have to give customers menus... you just wait for them to order. That means you aren't immediately distracted by new customers walking in the door, which often happens in other time management games.
Customers' orders appear in word balloons above their heads. Once they've made their order known, it's up to Emily to prepare their food and bring it to them. Some customers want takeout and simply wait in front of the counter. Others sit at a table. Your job is to control Emily by clicking around the restaurant. Click on food items in the kitchen to throw them onto Emily's tray (portrayed by a simple rectangular platter in the lower left corner of the screen). Then click on the customer to deliver the food to him or her. When the customer arrives at the cash register, click on the register to accept their money. The faster they've been waited on, the greater their tip. Finally, clean up any mess they may have left behind at their table.
Customers who are kept waiting for too long will become red-faced and unhappy, then angry, then they'll leave the restaurant! They'll also leave if they come in for a sit down dinner but all the tables have yet to be bussed. Either situation means no tip and not much chance of meeting your goal for the day!
As is the norm for time management games, you are able chain together multiple steps by clicking ahead. Emily will process your instructions as fast as she can and you don't have to wait for each individual step to be completed. Chaining together actions ensures that Emily is always moving as quickly as possible, and is the best way to keep customers happy. You also get bonuses in some situations: for example, serving more than one customer at once or ringing up more than one bill at once.
Some orders require two, three, or even more steps to prepare. For example, if someone orders a burger you'll have to click on each ingredient (bun, lettuce, patty, cheese, etc.) separately, taking care not to give the customer cheese if they ordered a hamburger instead of a cheeseburger. If you make a mistake and add something nobody ordered to Emily's tray, you can either wait until someone orders what she's holding or just click on the unnecessary item and dematerialize it into oblivion.
There are foods the restaurant has an endless supply of (hamburger patties) and there are foods which need to be replenished (waffles). If you run out of waffles Emily will be stuck at the griddle for a few precious seconds. Some items on the menu require a little more skill to prepare. Sundaes, for example, have that nifty swirl of softcream ice cream at the top. To make sure they're made properly, you have to click once to start drawing out the sundae and then click again at the right moment to stop.
The most interesting aspect of Delicious are the almost daily interruptions. Early in the game, for example, a table breaks and Emily must repair it during her shift. That entails sending her to the broken table and its slow-as-molasses progress bar whenever she has a free moment. Another day, your future Hollywood boss, Ludwig Green, calls and "screentests" Emily by asking her to give a long string of random orders to the mailman. There are hidden object game scenarios which find you clicking all over the restaurant. (In fact, a few of the game's trophies are given out for finding hidden objects - finding Gamehouse-related items, or just 50 mice during the course of the game - you know how mice love greasy spoons!)
The art is clear and cute, and Delicious includes an impressive number of customer types. The thick black outline around characters and most clickable items is rather unique to this series and sue me, but I find it charming. I like the simplicity of the game's design. The music is utterly forgettable but completely unintrusive. There are three difficulty levels to keep you entertained, though you'd have to have some sort of flipping super powers to complete this game on Advanced mode. I can barely progress through Normal mode, so if you have any hints or walkthroughs, by all means post them below!
Download Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame