Build It! Miami Beach Resort Review

Posted by britney on January 31, 2012 None comments

Play a sim game creating and building a resort town, Miami Beach, to entice tourists to come and spend their money at your location through the decades Mac game. Build It! Miami Beach Resort will allow you to do this in a timely and fun fashion starting in the early 1900s.

An overbearing and ruthless supervisor fires Miss Claire Parker in the beginning of the 20th century, but all is not lost since she becomes the sole heiress to her Uncle Pete’s vast fortune when he passes away. There’s just one condition to receiving the money, Miss Parker must go into the hotel business in Miami and build up a tourist trade.

This sim play starts in 1921 with goals to meet in order to complete a level. You must build bungalows, hotels, recreational and leisure sites for people to come and visit your city. There must be a balance of hotels and recreational places to attract enough people to come and visit. You will make money from your hotel guests. The money will allow you to build more things and upgrades.

Stats are on the bottom, buildings are at the upper left, and at the upper right you will get announcements for your tasks. It will sound off and you can quickly look for which site needs your attention. This will keep you busy with cleaning and upkeep of your properties. Your goals of number of guests, bank account and attractiveness is challenging to meet after the tutorial, but fun to keep at it in order to pass the level and continue on in the years. The Riot Mode is only available when you reach 1930 so meet all your goals of a beautiful Miami resort.

Rating: ★★★½☆

You may also enjoy: Build A Lot, Build in Time and Plan It Green.

Farmers Market Review

Posted by britney on January 30, 2012 None comments

There are farmers markets everywhere nowadays. If you have enough space, a farmers market will go up. I’ve been to the Union market in the middle of bustling Manhattan, in the streets of sunny Santa Monica, train station in New Jersey, at the San Francisco pier and in a parking lot in Torrance, California. There’s a lot of fresh produce, baked goods, crafts, entertainment and prepared foods. In the Mac sim game Farmers Market you can create the same type of shopping experience for people.

Play this sim game either Relaxed or Challenge (untimed and timed). Maribel will be your assistant and will help you through a simple tutorial. The left upper corner will show the money and the number of people in your market. Across the top displays your goals for the day. Completing your goals will move you to the next level. You begin your adventure by clicking on a vacant spot, the bottom screen will display Farmers, Vendors and Special. Clicking on the farmers will display another screen with the different type of produce, meat or dairy. Click on one of the needed farmers and the hired man will appear from the office to build the booth. Vendors will offer cooked or produced items such as hotdogs, hamburgers, waffles, baked goods and more. The Special icon will reveal the drinks booth, band stand and judging booth.

After building all the booths, you will need to supply ingredients to vendors when you see the red explanation point. You click on that vendor to see what they need, then you click on the worker at the bottom of the screen to fetch the ingredients. After you click on him, you’ll see booths with green shields showing you which vendors can provide the supplies. You click on the green and if a worker is available, he’ll deliver the goods to your person in need. If you didn’t build the right booth, you will either need to upgrade a booth or teardown and start again.

As the levels increase so does the needs and wants of the different vendors. In addition to all the demands, you must provide enough workers to meet the many needs. The labor is always one of the highest expenses but you have to hire a worker or you will be stymied in your play. While one worker is delivering ingredients, another can be emptying trashcans to keep customers from leaving.

Farmers Market has a lot of activities but is not a crazy, frantic play like Diner Dash or a complicated sim game like County Fair. If you play it in the relaxed mode, you can get things done on your time. The artwork of all the different scenes from desert to the pier is nice and the music is pleasant. This game is not for experienced sim gamers but for most casual and young players, it is an enjoyable game to pass the time.

Rating: ★★★½☆

Bejeweled 2 Review

Posted by britney on January 29, 2012 3 comments
Bejeweled 2
  

Wow, playing Bejeweled 2 is like meeting an old friend you haven’t seen in many years. I played Bejeweled many years ago and loved it. This Mac game has the same familiar feel of the first game, but with more bells and whistles.

The game consists of 4 parts: Classic, Puzzle, Action and Endless. Classic, which has no time limit, is played by matching 3 or more gems in a row to garner points which will advance your play. It will move you to the next level when the bottom meter fills up completely. Puzzle mode moves you to the next level after all the gems have been cleared. Unlike Classic mode, Action is timed and you are up against the clock. Like Classic, it moves you to the next level when the meter at the bottom is full. Endless is exactly what the name suggests.

It was like getting 4 games in one. I liked them all except sometimes Endless was…(for lack of a better word) endless. The special effects are artfully done but after the first time you see them, they become a little annoying since you want to proceed to the next game quickly. The exploding gems and hyper cubes are added extras to make your game more interesting and fun. The step-by-step instructions are really helpful if you are new to the game.

So relaxed or intense, it’s up to you. Bejeweled 2 is a Mac game for everyone.

Rating: ★★★★★