Weddings are hectic. Months, sometimes years of work go into creating the perfect day. Rarely do things go perfectly; most of the time, they do not. Zoo Games attempts to capture the ugly side of matrimony in Wedding Dash for the Nintendo DS. In Wedding Dash, there are three ways to experience the madness: Story mode, Multiplayer or Endless Reception.
In Story mode, you take the role of Quinn, an accidental wedding planner with a busy new career. After Quinn helps a friend through possible wedding disaster, she becomes the most-wanted planner in town. Quinn must work her way through 50 levels of gameplay that take her from the backyard to the grand ballroom and beyond. In each stage, Quinn deals with a different couple, and each pair has their own idea of the perfect day.
Using the clues, you must select the correct flower arrangement, honeymoon location or appetizer. From there, the action starts at the reception, where you have to seat guests and get them fed Diner Dash-style. Quinn’s staff of one must serve the appetizer, followed by the main course and finally dessert.
When guests are finished, they head over to dance like fools at the DJ booth, and you continue this cycle of gifting and feeding until all guests are dancing. There are, of course, demands ... er ... requests that earn you extra points. These extra points are critical to completing the level, as Quinn must earn a minimum amount to advance.
The requests are different at each wedding, but be prepared to do a lot of creative seating. No one ever wants to sit by the snobby aunt or drunken uncle, and everyone wants to sit by Nana and the hot bridesmaid. Issues like fighting bridesmaids, kitchen fires and speaker problems require Quinn’s direct attention, and if a disaster isn’t handled quickly, Bridezilla attacks.
It wasn’t much of a problem to deal with these things as they arose, and they didn’t create a backup in service. However, the sensitivity of the stylus created some problems. If I didn’t take care to aim my touch, the server would also travel to the disaster in progress, which slowed things down a little bit and was a little irritating.
In the comic strip screens that tell the story, you discover that Flo and Quinn are friends. Every so often, Flo will even make an appearance at the reception. I guess the other server had the night off. There are upgrades offered after some of the levels, but you don’t have to earn them. The selection screen shows up sporadically. You can increase your efficiency with options, including faster servers, speedier cooks, larger serving tables or more comfortable chairs. These free upgrades are appreciated, but it would be nice to actually use the money Quinn earns rather than keep it as a symbolic deciding factor for advancement with no actual value.
Endless Reception doesn’t feature any of the background or levels of the Story mode. Here, you will be working the reception from wedding planning hell. It never ends, and you have to brave it as long as you can before the bride goes nuclear. There are increasing monetary goals, and as you reach each one, upgrades are made available. Multiplayer mode requires a friend with a DS and their own copy of Wedding Dash, so your options might be a little limited if you don’t have any friends who also own the game. Younger girls might not have issues finding friends to share a round of Highest Score, First to Serve or Survival, but as a 27-year-old, not too many of my girlfriends are begging for a Dash battle.
The graphics that create the images of Wedding Dash are the typical 2-D cartoons found in many of Zoo’s casual games. Gameplay is enjoyable but somewhat repetitive. The game is easy to pick up and play without a lengthy tutorial, and anyone who has ever been in or planned a wedding will definitely find the guests and mini-disasters amusing.
It isn’t necessary to spend long periods of time with Wedding Dash (unless you want to) to get ahead in the game or understand the storyline. It is a great game for the subway, doctor’s office waiting room or short car ride. I’ll even go as far to say that those who loved the PC version of the game may also enjoy this portable edition.
