My initial impression of this game was Diner Dash meets Cake Mania meets Plantasia. And that’s probably the best way to describe what is one of the most addictive casual games I’ve played, as it takes elements from all three and combines them in Flower Shop: Big City Break.
The story begins much like Diner Dash did, although with a 3D intro. Meg is going crazy at her workplace in the city and she runs outside for a little break when she finds a newspaper with a business opportunity: a florist in a peaceful island. Equipped with her green thumb and little else, Meg takes off to begin her career in the flower business.
The game area consists of a counter, a series of paths, some planters, a seed cart, garbage bin, watering can, fertilizer, a series of buckets and a wrapping machine. Basically, this works like Cake Mania, the customers come in and place an order for a bouquet. Then, much like in Plantasia, you run around planting, watering and fertilizing all sorts of beautiful and colorful flowers so you can cut them. Once you have the flowers the customer has ordered, you bring them to the wrapping machine to create the bouquet. You hand the finished result to the customer and pick up your money.
Some flowers will grow without any extra care, most will need water, and the most delicate flowers will also need fertilizer. This results in a lot of micro-management, queuing and causing chain reactions, like in Diner Dash.
If you make a mistake in creating a bouquet with the wrong flowers, you can put the bouquet in the buckets. This will separate the flowers you have used so you can use them again. The buckets are also used to keep flowers that are already fully grown, so you can plant others. It’s a time saver when you have several stored in there, I usually wait for my customers to have left and leave the money on the counter so I can plant a few more flowers and grow them, so I can be ready for the next wave of customers.
Later on in the game you get extra items that will help make your job easier. Like in Plantasia, you have pesky bugs coming in now and again to chomp on your precious seedlings. To get rid of them, you have to click them or use the bug zapping machine, which gets rid of all the bugs on the screen. There is also a fountain that when turned on helps to keep the customers happy. Both items take a while to recharge, so use the zapper when there’s at least three bugs wandering around and the fountain when the customers happiness meter is down to two hearts.
But you will also get some items to make the job more complicated. At some point, your seed cart will have five varieties instead of three, which means more diverse and complicated bouquets. There will also be a decorations table, where you can place the finished bouquet to add an extra touch. Some customers will order decorations and they won’t accept bouquets without them.
Every so often there are also bonus levels, which are also very similar to Plantasia. In these levels you have to keep the bugs away from your buds and remove any weeds from the planters. The more flowers you grow in the end, the more bonus points you get.
The only problem with Flower Shop is that Meg can only do one action at a time and can only carry one item at any given time. Seeing as she has two hands, I don’t see why carrying two flowers or seed packets would have been a problem. It would make the game faster and easier to please the customers. The paths are also very limiting, since they tend to make you waste time by going around things and not straight to where you want to go. Eliminating that would have been perfect.
Other than that, Flower Shop is a really neat game. The graphics are colorful and very cute, the music is pleasant, the gameplay goes from relaxing to frantic in a matter of minutes, and it will definitely keep you clicking without missing a beat. There’s also quite a bit of replayability in trying to get a Guru score in all the levels.
If you like Diner Dash, Plantasia and/or Cake Mania, Flower Shop: City Break is the game for you. Give it a try, maybe a florist’s busy life is just the break you need.