I don't understand why so many casual PC games style themselves as "addictive." To me, that term indicates a "can't put it down" drive to finish the whole darned thing at once — a level of compulsion that video games generally have to be fairly epic to incite. Games that involve popping colored bubbles or lining up jewels may be fun, and I may like playing them, but rarely do I feel forced onward. Casual games should, instead, be enjoyable in segments — bright spots of entertainment that fight off those little holes of boredom lurking in your day.
Big Islands Blends is such a game. While it's not tremendously deep, it's brightly colored, straightforward fun that has a soothing soundtrack and a relaxing setting. I mean, you make people happy with fruit smoothies while they're at the beach. If that's not a simple, happy vibe, I don't know what is.
Here is the process by which people achieve fruity nirvana. They arrive at your stand and you hand them a menu. After a short period of decision-making, the customer orders a drink, which appears in a speech bubble by their head. You quickly activate your tiki-glass cutting machine, which carves out a happy monkey's head, a hurricane glass, a fishbowl or some other "tropical" receptacle. Next, you ferry the glass to your smoothie machine and fill it with the appropriate beverage and cart the concoction to garnish row, where you might add a flower or a lime wedge. The finished product then is served to the customer, who leaves your money on the counter. This very straightforward chain is the building block of the game; as you may imagine, it becomes more complex when multiple customers are involved.
You see, your counter only has four spaces, and customers won't step up to order until there's a slot free — and I mean free of everything, including the money from the last customer. Unfortunately, you only have three machines to cut glasses and three machines to pour smoothies, so there's going to be a certain amount of drink juggling as you move through the steps of creation and delivery. You only have one garnish machine for every particular garnish, but there are four varieties, so this is much less of an issue. Four customer lines and only three assembly lines? Oh, no!
As you may guess, each customer only waits around for so long before getting irritated and leaving, so it's not just a matter of how fast you can crank through drinks — you also have to pay attention to the urgency required for each current customer. Aiding you in this is a popcorn machine that cranks out bags of anger-leeching, customer-distracting popcorn. If someone is getting cranky and impatient, hand them a bag of munchies, and they happily crunch away for a few minutes while you hook them up.
OK, so we have our basic problem established. How shall we wage war on the persistent thirsts of our voracious clientele? With UPGRADES! I bet you knew that was coming, didn't you? Faster smoothie machines and glass cutters decrease the time needed for their respective steps. Beach sandals make you run about your smoothie shack like a sprinter on steroids. Trade in your popcorn popper for a Pop-matic-25k, and get even more bags of snacks to keep customers at your stand. Faster garnish machines are more a novelty than anything else — but I suppose every bit helps. Do these change the fundamental nature of the game? Not really. Your first popcorn machine is a bit of an added dimension ... but after that, everything is fairly static — just accelerated.
The only remaining wrinkles are "storage" trays — where you can pre-make smoothies and try to lure customers into buying a pre-made drink for fast money — a particular client that requires a bit of extra handling, and Big Island Mojo that makes certain customers award you bonuses for serving their drinks. None are particularly noteworthy, though a smoothie-mogul that can manage her storage trays well DOES have a big leg up.
The rest of the game is all about learning customer management. Mermaids are impatient jerk-heads, but (of course) they tip well. Fat guys are surprisingly patient, and beach jocks are much less 'roid-raged than you'd expect. (I'm trying to fit more steroid jokes into a smoothie game review than a baseball game review ... I think it can be done.) Pirates are probably your best customers from the standpoint of money to impatience ratio. Aiding you with your particularly ornery customers is a trusty parrot companion. You can charge his food bowl with snacks, and giving him one will cause him to serve a drink to one of your customers instantly. You can't really choose which one, but I guess it's better than NOT getting a drink served instantly.
Big Island Blends has 40 levels, each with a target and an "expert" target. I played all 40 relatively quickly and discovered that there's nothing past this content — at least not that I can tell. I'm generically pretty good at this style of game, and not much challenged me through level 39. That said, I enjoyed what I played, and I've gone back and played through the game a bit more since. It's a soothing thing, this process of slinging beverages to happy beachgoers, and I DO especially like the cheerful soundtrack and sound effects. Everyone just seems so enthusiastic about their frozen fruit drinks! Still, at a standalone cost of $20, I'd have liked to see something a bit deeper.
Big Island Blends will last you longer than movie tickets for two — but not a whole lot — and your hours of entertainment aren't going to stretch that much farther, either. If you're looking for a great way to kill 10 minutes a few times a day, though, Big Islands Blends is a lot of fun.
I'm a volleyball playing nomad who's been blowing up aliens, scoring touchdowns/goals, dogfighting, slaying dragons, mowing down hordes of enemy tanks, headshotting, and saving damsels in distress since my dad brought home the very first Atari system. My game-tastes are very diverse, as I enjoy street racers, sports games (especially "hyper" sports games like, say, NFL Street), shooters, RPGs, a good MMO here and there, and pretty much anything else that doesn't involve a Pokemon!
Oz,
I think your definition of casual games is right on. Personally, I don't think there is such a thing as a "casual" game, only casual gamers. But if there is a definition, you've found it.
Bravo.