The Dream Day hidden objects game franchise returns with Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan, its fourth game in the series. Once again, the series introduces features that enhance the game. Sometimes a game in a series would receive new features that look like an ugly attempt to claim the game isn’t a rehash of the previous with a new storyline thrown in.

Oh, I’m not saying sequels can’t recapture their predecessor’s success with a new story, new sets, and new characters. Fans love getting more of the same. With casual games coming out with a new game on a daily basis, it takes no time for a game to look dated. In fact, I’m judging handheld games — the same category I did last year — and these categories have no new games. The games look and feel dated.

Back to New York. Dream Day First Home introduces the two story route. Dream Day Wedding applies this feature by giving us two couples from which to choose. Play one first and then play the other couple next time around. I run into a technical problem (fixed) with the first couple after almost finishing the game play, so rather replaying them — I switch to the other couple for a change of pace.

Dream Day games come with a Choose a Story, which lets players decide where the story takes them next by picking one of three options. At the end of a Choose a Story, players earn a Time Booster item. Remember the item as it won’t appear on the list of things to find and gain one minute when you find it.

Bluebirds also appear in every scene save for Wedding Crises scenes. For every five bluebirds found, you win an extra hint. The scenes — prior to a mini-game or Choose a Story — come with three hints plus whatever you earn in finding bluebirds.

Mini-games fit the game’s wedding planning theme perfectly. After finding all the objects for a level, you’ll get the wedding registry scene where you pick a gift to open that leads to either the Choc-O-Matic Fountain or Party Puzzle (seating chart) mini-game. Players need to turn metal tubes in Choc-O-Matic Fountain to ensure the chocolate can flow from start to end in every pipe or else guests won’t get their chocolate in the wedding. Not a good thing!

Party Puzzle brings something I haven’t seen appear as a mini-game. Each placecard contains a guest with one or two colors on the sides. The colors on the sides of the placecards must line up with like colors. One joker is available to help you out of a rough spot.

After completing one of the two mini-games, you play the apartment puzzle. The bride gives you, the wedding planner, a key to her apartment where you hunt down the list of things she needs. That list takes you through the next few scenes.

The apartment puzzle has no time limits, so explore the scene and figure out what to do. While you can press “Solve” if you get stuck, these don’t take a lot of work to figure out. Just look for clickable items or watch for the sparkles giving you a hint of where to look. Some items will go into your inventory so you can use them with other objects to make something happen.

Now that you have the list, move on to the next scenes to find them. Sometimes the bride will ring you up and announce she doesn’t need an item on her list anymore — saving you one item to find… IF you find your cell phone before it stops ringing. Clever! A surprise waits in some scenes. You find an item only to discover you’re stuck in a room and you must quickly find your way out in the Escape Puzzle.

The Wedding Crisis has appeared in the previous Dream Day games. In these scenes, players have less time and must dig through the messier and busier scenes to overcome a crisis whether the roses the bride wanted sell out or the bakery can’t do the wedding cake. Once the crisis passes, you design an item that will appear in the wedding and its album.

The scenes repeat often and the objects rarely change locations. The only things that change are the Apartment Puzzles and Wedding Crisis. However, if you play the game again to try taking a different route in the Choose a Story, you’ll have to work through the same scenes again. Considering I play one couple twice due the technical problem, it’s a pain as I feel like I’m repeating everything I had done the first time.

One more disappointing element — other than in the name and the logo, you wouldn’t know you’re in New York. It’s a wonderful city with beautiful architecture and great scenes — why bother adding “Manhattan,” if you’re not going to showcase the Big Apple?

Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan takes a few pages out of its previous games and adds a few original ideas (Escape Puzzle, bride calling you, and Party Puzzle) while also copying similar features found in other games first (Apartment Puzzle) and finding a bunch of one item in scenes (eggs, arrows, etc.). Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan still provides a pleasurable adventure for fans of the series. It’s also a good one for those new to hidden object games and may not challenge the seasoned players.

Download Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan from your favorite game site:

• Big Fish Games
• Amazon

The third Hidden Expedition game of the hidden object game series takes on many new features to take the series to new heights. Hidden Expedition: Amazon promises fans a bigger adventure with more to do and it delivers.

In the latest expedition, the only thing you receive is an old beat up map with a reference to the legendary Beetle Temple to aid your search to find a missing professor. As you delve deep into the Amazonian jungles, you discover pieces of the professor’s journal to learn more.

The heart of the game comes in finding many hidden objects and crossing them off your list. Of course, these Amazon-themed scenes surround the hidden objects in hopes to make them harder to find while staying true to the theme.

Two new twists join this edition while you hunt for objects — some move into your inventory for later use. You also can click any item on your list of hidden objects to see a silhouette of the item. Does this make the game too easy? Or does it help a lot considering some objects blend in too well with the scene? Hints are still available where a circle appears around the object’s location. Seeing silhouettes doesn’t count as a hint.

But I say the game is what we make of it. If you want it to be hard, don’t look at the silhouettes period. Who says you have to use hints? We can control how easy or hard we make a game.

Seek out five beetles per scene to receive one shiny new hint added to your hint pack. If you find only four beetles when you finish the scene, no hint for you even if you find one in the next scene. The beetle count starts over with each new scene.

Puzzles. That’s the best new feature in Hidden Expedition: Amazon. Who cares if Mystery Case Files uses this? I love these puzzles and take ‘em where I can get ‘em. No, no… these aren’t jigsaw puzzles, but bona fide brain puzzles where you must figure out what to do. I figure out most of them and accidentally passed on one of them not realizing I clicked “Solve” when I thought it was “Hint.” So if you get stuck, you can kind of skip it.

You also hit “find 20 of something” scenes. Another copy from Mystery Case Files. While some elements look familiar, Hidden Expedition: Amazon offers original puzzles plus one extraordinary feature: a symphony. According to the game’s press release, this game contains the first ever, live orchestra music score for a downloadable casual game. The music rings from the Berlin Film Orchestra instruments.

The game’s press releases heavily promoted this feature. Well, beware some of us are not easily impressed with such audio. The music sounds lovely, but I couldn’t tell you that it exceeds some other casual game’s high quality audio as they won’t sound sharper or better to me. To me, I look for the rhythm and tone — whether they annoy or complement the game play. Here, the audio lovingly pairs up with the game and its top notch scenes.

Hidden Expedition: Amazon deserves a spot on your computer even if you play a select few hidden object games.

Playfirst has a hit with its Dash series, so it makes sense for the company to capitalize on more Dashes. This time the action occurs on a farm. Even Diner Dash‘s Flo appears in Dairy Dash, but that doesn’t help Dairy Dash win me over.

Oh, Dairy Dash still entertains and adds a component few have: multiple characters. We’ll get to that later. In the meantime, we meet the Smith family consisting of Mom, Dad, Emily and Ethan. They’re not quite the farming family. In fact, they’re the opposite and enjoy technology as much as any other modern day family.

One night, they go out for a family dinner at — where else — Diner Dash Flo’s place. Dad hears from Uncle Bill who reports his farm could go under if he doesn’t get more help or buyers. After talking to Uncle Bill, Flo tells the family she knows restaurants in need of good organic produce. Being the supportive family they are, the Smiths leave city life behind for the quiet and hard-working farm life.

Dad Smith starts feeding the animals, milking them, gathering eggs, making cheese, and growing crops. Mrs. Smith joins him and the two work in sync. The action feels frenzied from the get go and chaining feels unnatural. A little practice helps, but chaining doesn’t work as well as the other games. Furthermore, the game won’t let you cancel an action. At least, you can click a few actions ahead.

They call Emily to help when they discover Uncle Bill has another farm, but she refuses. Mom and Dad continue working on their own. Eventually, Emily and Ethan join them. The later farms don’t change much — things shift a little, but not drastic. In fact, drastic describes the fourth farm, which looks like something from 2010. Oh wait, that’s less than two years away.

A mini-game enters every few levels for a break from running around. One uses match three to sell produce, another involves picking good apples before they fall, and another catching fruit in a basket. Nothing spectacular, but not boring as some mini-games can be.

Story mode works as expected — hearing a story and making your way around four different farms for 52 levels. To move to the next level, you need to reach the goal score before the rooster crows. You can also challenge yourself to surpass the goal score and aim for the expert score.

Also, Flo calls from time to time with a request, so you never know when the phone rings. Mr. Smith occasionally has to stop farming to fix the truck so they can deliver the goods. These factors keep the game from becoming predictable and repetitive.

Endless mode provides three levels of difficulty. This one’s endless mode should please plenty as it begins with a goal score. When you hit the goal, a new goal appears along with more elements to increase the challenge. I’ve never been a fan of endless mode, but this one has a good set up instead of having players play until they falter.

The Smiths can fill up on lemonade for a boost of energy to move faster. Unlike most time management games, you can’t bribe the animals to make them happier. The game requires little strategy as the best thing to do is click and act as requests come. Because of this, Dairy Dash might be an easier game for the youngsters than other Dash games.

The animals look pitiful when they’re hungry or thirsty and not much else. In other Dash games, the characters ooze personality. Dairy Dash doesn’t have the charm or personality that we’ve come to expect of a typical Dash game. Moreover, farm-themed games have been milked to death, so Dairy Dash feels ordinary by time management standards. Nonetheless, time management fans will find it a joy to play thanks to its multi-characters and variety.

We have our first winners in this whole 8th blog birthday shebang in our first drawing for two copies of Magic Farm. The winners posted comments in 7 Things You Must Know Before Moving Your Blog. Random.org did the hard work in drawing the numbers.

eDrum roll, please…

<eDrum rolls>

Yuwanda Black

Ecommerce Newsletter

Congrats, you two! I will send you an email with the details.

I’ve been a fan of James Patterson’s work since first reading Along Came a Spider. It was the first time I enjoyed something with a “spider” in it though it was figurative. Since then, I loved reading Alex Cross stories. Maybe I appreciated it more because the stories took place in Washington, DC — the only place I’ve lived outside of Texas.

I don’t read fiction much these days with my focus on reviewing and abstracting non-fiction books. But that didn’t stop me from checking out James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club TV series. I liked it, but its network canceled the show. Gosh durnit.

Nice seeing Dallas resident, Angie Harmon on the show along with her cool buds including the one that looks like Oprah Winfrey. The platinum blond lawyer was a little much, but you adapt to her. Besides, they didn’t match the book’s characters, but the game does. From what I understand as I haven’t read these books, but they’re on my long list of fiction books to read if I ever make it to the list.

The show didn’t win raves, so I wasn’t optimistic about the computer game. Good thing my “judging the book by the cover” didn’t stop me as Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet proved creativity is still possible in hidden object games. With hidden object games coming out daily — sometimes more than once a day — casual gamers wonder if any originality remains. “YES!” The evidence is in this game. I’ve seen all the TV episodes and the game doesn’t copy any of them or the books.

Of course, the story starts with the discovery of a young woman’s body. After a little analysis, we learn someone poisoned her and branded her chest with Chinese letters. Detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends set off to search for the woman’s identity and her murderer. Forensic examiner Claire Washburn, newspaper reporter Cindy Thomas, and ADA Jill Bernhardt help Lindsay with her investigation. We not only do Lindsay’s job, but we also do Cindy’s and Claire’s job. Jill doesn’t appear much, but she’s around.

The game tells the story through short dialog — something that should be a standard in games. It can be hard to read a lot of dialog in one sitting especially on a screen. I think we absorb the story better in pieces. Occasionally, the game updates us on the story through well done comic strip style cartoons between scenes.

The “Skip” and continue buttons appear at the bottom of these scenes. However, these sometimes show on top of the dialog and you can’t read some of it. I moved the mouse all over the place trying to hide the controls to no avail. This problem occurs off and on throughout the game.

While finding hidden objects, some items go into your inventory for later use making a true connection between the found objects and the game’s storyline — something few hidden object games pull off. Sometimes you pick up a cotton swab for collecting evidence and parts of an object that you need to put together.

As a kid, I loved doing logic puzzles where you had to figure out the order based on the information given. A mini-game takes place in Claire’s lab where you first pick up all the supplies you need (bottles, Petri dish, eye dropper) and then sort the bottles based on their instructions.

After putting the chemicals in order, you use the dropper to describe the substance such as red foam, blue fizz, and purple none. Kind of boring after the first couple of times. But it involves you in the investigation making you feel a part of the action. The computer processes and reports the results of the evidence. I don’t know a better way of doing that. At least, it’s better than playing Memory!

Another mini-game involves sorting microfiche covers so you can look up articles in the newspaper archives. Sort the covers by color and a common theme. Once you finish, you’ll pull out one of the microfiches, do a search using keywords (which you must figure out — another cool feature), and read the article for more inside information on the story.

Though you return to some scenes a few times, it never feels like you’re looking for the same stuff again (except in the lab, but it’s justified). The objects — even the small ones — almost always pick up without a problem (some hidden objects make it hard to pick up the right items). Some hidden object games don’t do a good job of describing or naming more obscure items — not an issue here.

Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet does a beautiful job of integrating hidden objects, sound, art, mystery, and detective work. I believe it deserves recognition as one of the best hidden object games.

It won’t surprise me to see another one come out considering all the Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes games that keep popping out. Women’s Murder Club: Death in Scarlet surpasses those in all-around production values. An almost perfect game.

It may be this blog’s birthday, but the presents will go to readers like you. All the birthday details here. Here are the games up for winning!

• Reflexive contributes a total of 10 copies of three games! Some are for Mac.
  • Big Kahuna Reef 2: 4 copies (2 Mac and 2 PC)
  • Ricochet Infinity: 2 copies (PC)
  • Airport Mania: 4 copies (2 Mac and 2 PC)
• One full copy of Orchidia PC game from Joyboost. See Meryl’s Orchidia review.
  • One full copy of Spinword PC game from Joyboost.
  • One full copy of Astraware Classic Collection, which includes Astraware Sudoku, Astraware Solitaire, and Astraware Board games. Astraware is one of Meryl’s favorite — if not the best — developer of handheld software.
• Two full copies of Magic Farm Game PC games from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93.
• Unicorn Castle from PC game from Oleg Kuznecov of Meridian’93.
• One copy for a reader and one copy for a guest blogger. My Magic Farm review.
• One Alawar PC game package including full copies of Virtual Farm, Curse of Montezuma, and Alex Gordon.
• Full copy of First Class Flurry PC game from Chanon Sajjamanochai of Viquagames. Meryl’s First Class Fury review.
• Full copy of Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper PC game from Mark Kanter of Bang Out Games. Meryl’s Lex Venture: A Crossword Caper review.

We give the casual game industry credit for not going flower crazy. Flower Stand Tycoon doesn’t have the distinction of being the first flower-themed game, but it won’t be the last. At least, we don’t see flower-theme games come out left and right like other themes. Players and reviewers appreciate it when the themes don’t come out in droves.

Anyway, Flower Stand Tycoon reminds me of Fairy Godmother Tycoon without the wacky and quirky characters and comedy. Don’t let the fact Flower Stand Tycoon doesn’t quite measure up with Fairy Godmother Tycoon stop you from smelling the roses. Fairy Godmother Tycoon stands out from the tycoon crowd, so I don’t expect to see one come close to matching or surpassing the game.

In typical casual game fashion, the game starts off with the story of Uncle Potts who wants to grow a flower business. However, he has no business acumen as he specializes in bioengineering and would rather discover new flowers. He hands off what little he has of his business and lets you take over beginning with picking your avatar.

As you begin, the game guides you through the features and how to manage the business. Figuring out the game its controls involves a learning curve, but the competition doesn’t enter the game for a bit giving players time to feel comfortable. While you can build up to buy more stands, it’ll take time to get to that point as you need to upgrade, discover new flowers, and take over several areas of the city.

Stock up your inventory, set the prices, and let the day play it out. You can speed up the day (as you don’t do anything except watch customers, their reactions, and the profit numbers climb (you hope). So often, I just end the day and not bother waiting around. Is the game still playable when I do this? Yes. There are lots to do — I have to figure out which upgrades to buy, study reports, determine how much cash to invest in research and marketing.

I also study the areas to see where I want to sell next. The game provides population, demand, and popular item information. Reviewing this information makes an impact on your sales, one big plus about Flower Stand Tycoon. Make decisions do matter and you see the results of those decisions. News and reports also aid decision-making.

You have a say in how many of each product you want to sell. However, the numbers jump as they get larger beginning with 20, 40, 60, 100 and then 200. No 75 or even 150. At one point, I had customers buying an average of 70 to 80 of a flower, but 100 is a waste. Whatever they don’t buy doesn’t always carry over — a big problem in the game. While it makes sense for flowers to do before we can sell them, the game isn’t consistent in its handling of leftover inventory.

When competitors come to play, the neighborhoods receive different colors based on the company that holds the leading share of the market. Between competitors and all the information available, players have plenty to think about and decisions to make. The game’s strength is its ability to let you go in almost any direction. The only thing you can’t jump around on is buying certain items. Some items call for buying something else first.

Unlike many business games, you don’t deal with goals for every level. In fact, sometimes I’m not sure where I am going except to overtake the competitors and earn lots of profits so I can upgrade everything and discover new flowers.

Flower Stand Tycoon runs for a long time and offers many upgrades and other options. While it doesn’t win gold medals or green thumb awards, the journey of managing a business complete with marketing and reporting makes the game a worthy play.

Alice Greenfingers is an original and creative game that mixes the strategic with the simulation, and the diner and tycoon genres. It most reminds me of the lemonade stand game I played years ago in black and white. Some report the game resembles Harvest Moon and SimFarm, which I haven’t played.

“Greenfingers” indeed refers to the gardening theme of the game in which players help Alice plant, grow and sell fruit, vegetables, flowers and eggs. I wasn’t sure I could survive Alice Greenfingers since I don’t even do a good job with my front yard. Amazingly enough, I didn’t kill anything and earned a profit each day. I love what the developer’s game tips says about playing the game, “… unlike traditional arcade games you can not ‘die.’ So, take it easy and do things at your own pace to enjoy the game to the fullest!”

Do I hear hemming and hawing about the inability to die or “win” the game? Don’t despair; you can still win awards such as going a whole day without the game reminding you to water the crops and sell 80 boxes in one day. Alice also earns points for health, knowledge, popularity, and wealth. Challenge yourself to get those numbers high as possible.

You’re in charge of your land. You can build crops with a lovely design by adding a duck pond, fence for animals, trees and fountains. It’s a delightful way to garden without the sweat, heat or fear of killing living things. One of the game’s strengths is its replayability. With so many things to buy in the market, you can design your farm in a variety of ways. If design isn’t a big deal, then you may lose interest once you’ve discovered and tried everything.

Alice begins with a shovel, a small water pail, tomato seeds, and a box that holds four crops. As she earns money from sales, she can buy bigger water pails, boxes, other seeds, animals, fence, and anything to help her enjoy her garden. As in the real world, Alice must decide what products to sell and how to price them based on current demands. As time passes, the store adds more products for Alice to buy and add to her farm. Players eventually unlock all the items in the store and must rely on their own imagination to stay engrossed.

To keep things unpredictable, you receive a message that asks if you want to sell boxes of a product for a proposed price, go see the doctor or take out an ad in the local newspaper. I wish the game came with a way to hire workers to pick the crops. My hands got tired from moving the mouse like crazy to grab a box, pick up four crops and carry them to the storage shed, repeat, repeat, repeat. By this point, the game becomes tiring and loses some luster especially after the store stops adding new products.

It’s nice having a game where you can take your time and relish the experience. The only timing that enters the game is that each day lasts about 15 minutes for 30 days. After 30 days, some features, like the ability to sell eggs, disappear. That’s a shame. Alice Greenfingers should continue with all features intact allowing players to maintain their farms for as long as they want.

P.S. JayIsGames has great tips and spoilers for playing Alice Greenfingers. Most spoilers hide behind a button labeled “Show Spoiler.”

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• 10MB free hard disk space
• 300MHz or faster Processor
• DirectX 3 or higher

System Requirements: Mac

• OS X 10.2 or higher
• OpenGL video card

Evil villians, Crowbeak and Cornix, have taken over the peaceful town of Orniland. The villians have developed a delicious potion that will turn even the nicest person into a Warrior of Darkness. The only hope to restore its tranquility is to send the hero Plumeboom in to save the day. Help Plumeboom destroy the jugs of evil potion and rid the village of evil.

Download Plumeboom: The First Chapter

Trapped in a magical puzzle book, the adventurous Titus needs your help to release him from his spell. To do this, you must solve the tricky puzzles of Azada. Crack the series of puzzles and fill in the missing pages of the enchanted book to free Titus from his prison.

An Azada Strategy Guide is available.

Download the game from your favorite site

• Amazon
• Big Fish Games