Paradise Pet Salon is a part simulation, part puzzle, part strategy casual PC title. It's a fairly simple, nonviolent game suitable for the entire family. And, of course, it centers on pets.
The premise is simple: You were originally hired by Petcorp to work in one of its pet salons. But you did too good of a job, and so Petcorp fired you. Apparently, happy pet owners never come back to Petcorp. Taking the grim lessons Petcorp has taught you, you take some starting cash and open your own pet salon.
Gameplay is simple and easy to learn; everything is controlled by the mouse. In fact, there are very few actual movements to be used. It's great if you have issues figuring out those crazy controllers for the PlayStation — not so great if you're looking for a deep complex game. Movement and control are done with the mouse; you have a choice of go there, switch pets around or go there again. While control is simple, the game itself is deep enough that the simplistic controls help rather then hinder.
The settings also are simple: You're the proud new owner of a pet salon. In the salon, you can do a variety of things: wash, groom, medicate, massage and finally spa your customers' pet anxieties away. Each station can be purchased over time with the money you earn serving your customers, and each station is upgradeable, making it faster and more efficient. You also can purchase furniture to help keep your customers patience up and a few other goodies that help refresh the pets. Eventually, you'll also be able to afford an assistant to help you out.
As you play, owners and their pets — cats and dogs are the only critters you'll be helping — come in during the business day. Each "set" has their own requirements of what they want, shown by a set of colored symbols that handily match the stations. It's your job to grab a pet and rotate them through the stations until they're finished and then send them on their way. Each successful action results not only in a cash reward for you, but it also adds progress to a combination meter. Do enough successful actions and you'll fill the combo meter, resulting in a cash rewards. As you fill the combo meter more times, you'll get bigger cash rewards — be warned though, if you make a mistake, the meter will drain out, and you'll have to start filling the meter from the bottom again. Once you've earned enough cash, you can upgrade your equipment or, if the moment strikes, you move on to another location.
Sounds simple, right? Well, it mostly is — until you have customers lined against the walls, and you're busy switching pets back and forth. As your progress through the game, there will be special days that give pet owners preference to one type of station over another; it will be your job to juggle the pets around and successfully get them out the door before they run out of patience. As you work your way through your customers, more will appear until the day ends. It can go from quite simple to quite hectic "quite" fast.
Visually, the game isn't that great: There's a series of set screens for a backdrop, and the only real movement that takes place is your avatar, the pets, the stations and your assistant. While this might seem to be lacking, it's actually a blessing when things start to heat up. Also of note is the fact that there's very little background music. There is one track that constantly plays — instead of constant variation; you'll be able to hear the meow of unhappy cats and the barking of unhappy dogs. When you hear these things, you'll know that the critters are getting impatient and that it's time to help them. You also can tell how ready the pets are by a series of hearts above their heads. The more "hearts" they have, the happier they are. Don't let either the lack of music or graphics keep you from trying the game.
Eventually, as with all games, it's time to move up. Earn enough money, and you can purchase a new pet salon. From this new pet salon, you can completely outfit the store how you want, and each customer has a little more cash to spend on their pet. Combos pay more here, and you'll eventually be able to rise high enough to take over Petcorp.
As you progress through the game, you'll earn awards. These awards are mainly bragging rights and serve no other purpose than showing milestones that you've achieved. Some examples: you can earn awards for serving 500 pets in total, and for raising various amount of money. You're not penalized for failing to earn these awards while you play — but there's no gameplay advantage to achieving them, either.
I enjoyed this game, and found it to be both addictive and stimulating. Each "board" can be completed fairly quickly — usually 10 to 15 minutes each — and makes a great game to take quick little breaks on. It's varied enough to keep you playing long after your break is over, however.
It's also a great game for kids. The lack of complicated controls and lack of violence means that your children won't need constant supervision while playing — unless you enjoy watching them play. It's easy enough for the younger children to understand while remaining complex enough to challenge any of us.
I had only two issues with this game — both minor. One was that there could have been more upgrades put into the game at higher levels. As it stands, what is available at the lowest level of the game is the same that's available at the highest level. The second issue I had was that the game tends towards monotony fairly quickly. You'll eventually be playing just to make more money so that you can buy that next shop to continue the pace until you have enough money to buy yet another shop, etc., until you take control of Petcorp.
Other than that, Paradise Pet Salon is a great little game.
Got started in the gaming industry with the beta for Asheron’s call. From there I’ve pretty much done a huge amount of beta’s for the industry. I’ve beta’d games, worked in customer service for games – been a game cop (kinda like a higher level gm…), written articals for games, about games, hint’s and tips for games.
It’s probably pretty safe to say that I have either beta’d or played every MMRPG game that has come out onto the market since 1999 – And I’ve played muds, moo’s and mush’s as well. My likes about the game industry. Oh so much creativity! So little time. Dev’s doing what they say they will. Hmm, What else do I like about games. Well, I do like to explore… Some dislikes. Well, I really, really hate buggy games. Especailly buggy games that are actually really interesting. There’s nothing worse then having this super-hyped game that’s groundbreaking in many new ways – only to have it unplayable due to stupid little bugs that should have been cleared up waaaay before release.
