Diner Dash: Review

The first thing that you’ll notice when you first begin with this game is the great, comic book style way in which the scenario is presented to the player, it’s done very well and is rarely seen in games so I thought I’d mention it. The rest of the game’s graphics are of equal quality, they’re bright and cartoony and give the game a nice look, even against the backdrop of the early dingy diner you acquire.

The aim of the game is to help Flo to run her diner as smoothly as possible, which is quite a task when there’s hordes of customers queueing, and the same amount either waiting to be served or screaming for their cheque. Not literally, but it is still quite a task, especially to get the highest scores. As you may have guessed, the game is very fast paced, you have to seat customers, take their orders, get their food to them, give them their cheque and clear their tables. It’s even a task writing it let alone actually doing it! You’ll find yourself scurrying between the tables and dodging the masses of hungry diners to win the hearts of the customers, which is actually really fun and addictive, despite you only using the A button coupled with the analogue stick.

Aside from the standard Career mode there’s Endless Shift mode, which is basically as the name says, and multiplayer modes, both over LIVE and Local games (however I could not find anyone online at the time of writing.) In Endless Shift mode Flo must survive a constant stream of diners for as long as possible earning as many points as possible, in an unlimited time, or until your eyes dry up from not blinking during the game. It’s a frantic task, with different sized groups of diners to contend with you’ll have to seat them at the right tables, or regret it later on in the game when the OAP’s are taking up your valuable table space! The one difference between the Career mode and the Endless Shift mode however is the ability to upgrade a lot of things in Endless Shift during the actual game itself. Career mode allows you to upgrade, but it does it automatically, Endless Shift give you control to upgrade what you want when you want, leading to a lot of choices. Example: you can bring in more tables, get a super oven, or even just buy some magic running trainers to make Flo the speediest diner owner around.

The only negative thing I have about the game is the lack of other modes, now I know there’s not much else you can do inside a diner but the Endless Shift mode can get a bit tedious after a while playing it.

To conquer both the Career mode and the Endless Shift mode, you’ll need to work as a cohesive diner unit! You’ve been warned, diners…

Review by Daniel Brookes