Diner Dash 2

"One of the most addicting games I have ever played"

Wow, Diner Dash 2. Diner Dash the original was already a nice peice of work, but Diner Dash 2 is twice as good as it was. Diner Dash 2 introduces fun new features, customers, locations, and objects. Those of you who played Diner Dash and liked it, this is a must buy. For those of you who know nothing about Diner Dash, it's still a must buy, but you can see why it is in my review.

GAMEPLAY- 10/10
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Diner Dash 2's gameplay is a lot more sophisticated than the original. The gameplay basically is this; seat customers at tables, take their orders, drop their tickets, give them their food when it's ready, drop their check once they're done eating, clear their dishes, and drop them in the dish rack. It may sound pretty dull, but you don't think that just one group of customers will be sitting in the restaurant at one time, right? You'll have more tables and more groups of customers to deal with. You'll also get help from different objects around your restaurant- put customers in line on the bench to give them a happiness boost, serve drinks from the drink station to cheer seated customers up, give highchairs to families so that the baby won't make noise, and stand at the podium to increase the happiness of customers in line. You'll also probably remember the snack station from Diner Dash 1, but now there's also a dessert station! Later on, you'll get to call in one staff member during the shift to help you keep customers happy and do your work. As you can already tell, this game is very sophisticated. But what about the types of customers? If you played Diner Dash, you'll remember three of the customers from there that now appear here; young ladies, business women, and kindly seniors. However, there are 4 new customer types that are introduced: joggers, families, cellphone addicts, and bookworms. Each one of them has a mind of their own; cell guys make noise constantly, families don't mind noise but will make noise when they're unhappy; bookworms hate noise very much (because they always in their books!!!!); and joggers don't mind noise at all because of their headphones. Young ladies are default customers, seniors are more patient but don't tip as well, and the business women are the opposite of seniors. As you've noticed, now you'll have to be careful about how you seat customers, unlike in Diner Dash 1, because of noise levels. So, as you can see, this game is intense, but lots of fun. And it's a lot better than the original, with many new gameplay features. You can also try your hand at Endless Shift; see how well you can do there.

GRAPHICS- 9/10
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You may remember the graphics from the original Diner Dash to be a bit... well...... let's just say that they're not near as nice as the ones in Diner Dash 2. Now customers will make gestures while they're in line (different ones for different customers, and different gestures for different moods- people look around when they're happy, they begin tapping their foot or rolling their eyes when they're getting impatient, and when they're angry, they shake their head or give you a death stare). They also move their hands at the table when they want something and they shake their fists at customers who are annoying them. Flo looks a lot better in Diner Dash 2. Customers look better too..... even the objects look better. The locations look even more real, and speaking of locations.....

LOCATIONS- 9/10
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With a switch from the original to the sequel, there are some new "types" of places, or different themed places. I won't spill the beans on the surprise restaurant at the end (although it's hard not to, because it's my favorite restaurant of all), but you'll get to serve customers in a Japanese grill, an Italian parlor, and a Mexican cantina. You also now get to upgrade your restaurants by your own choice; at the beginning of almost every level of the game, you'll get a choice of three different types of upgrades to use on your diner. The last one is only unlocked with the expert score from the previous level though. Sounds like fun, right? And each upgrade is themed for its restaurant. For instance, in the cantina, you'll get to choose from suns, festive curtains, or pinatas on your wall decorations at the beginning of one level.

STORYLINE- 9/10
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Almost perfect. The only reason why this looses one point is because it's almost too simple. Simple is good, because some games are way to dramatic, but this one could use a bit more facts about what's going on. Without telling you too much, it begins with a guy named Mr. Big who plans on demolishing 4 restaurant to build his giant food complex. The 4 owners of the restaurants can't pay the rent because Mr. Big tripled it on them, so Flo comes down to help her 4 friends get their restaurants back into business. A nice sequel to Diner Dash 1, right? Oh, and there's also a surprise restaurant at the end. If you want to learn about it, it's at the bottom of this review, in case some of you don't want to know about it.

CHALLENGE- 9/10
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That's right, the challenge is pretty high, but one thing about this game is that even if you keep failing a level over and over again (which will probably happen once or twice), you never get too frustrated to quit. The challenges are pretty obvious- cellphone addicts make constant noise, customers get unhappier the longer they wait, customers in line will also get unhappy, you'll need to serve a lot dessert, try to get color seating bonuses, etc. But this game is a lot of fun even if it's very challenging, so don't quit on it because I said that, you know?

MUSIC- 8/10
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The music is good in almost every restaurant of the game. In the first restaurant, you'll get some pretty boring music, but not annoying. In the Italian parlor, you'll obviously have Italian music, which is pretty cool. In Margarita's Cantina, there's Mexican-themed music, which is sort of fancy, in my opinion. The worst music of the game is in Toshiro's Grill.... it makes you feel like you're in a jungle, but the best music of the game to me is in the surprise restaurant (see down below if you don't want spoilers). Overall, the music is pretty nice. There are also cool sound effects in this game, too.

OVERALL- 10/10
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An excellent game, that's my opinion. Sure, I may be overdoing it, but when you put together just the great feeling of playing this game, it equals to 10/10 overall. Here are both the positives and negatives of this game (and you'll notice that I only have two negatives):

+ Very fun
+ 4 new customer types and 5 new objects
+ Tons of replay value
+ New decor upgrades
+ 5 new locations
+ Surprise restaurant
+ Nice storyline
+ Greatly improved from original
+ Superb graphics
+ Customer animations
+ Cool locations
+ Most music is nice
+ Addicting

- Some levels are very hard to get through
- Some of the music is annoying

SUPRISE RESTAURANT CAUTION: SPOILERS!!!!!!
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The surprise restaurant (after Toshiro's Grill) is my favorite one of the game. After Flo saves her 4 friends from their restaurant being destroyed, Mr. Big regrets having tried to demolish them, and now he's in deep trouble and plans on retiring. Flo, on the other hand, tells him that she has a better idea, and then Mr. Big goes on to turn his tower lounge into "Flo's Skylight Lounge!" This is a fancy restaurant (complete with fancy music) where lobster is served, and all of the customers dress up in dress and tuxedos. And what's ironic is that Mr. Big becomes your assistant waiter, so you can carry 4 THINGS AT ONCE!!!!!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/08

Game Release: Diner Dash 2 (US, 2007)