Trial Review: Teddy Tavern
Teddy Tavern: A Culinary Adventure was recently released on PlayFirst. I’m not sure of its availability on other sites that feature game downloads, so you should check into that. So, now for the beginning of the actual review on the one hour I was allowed to play during the trial period.
Teddy Tavern (don’t you just love cutesy alliteration) is about as cute as the title makes it out to be: sickenly so. The main character is a teddy bear aspiring to become a great chef (sadly, he works as a short order cook in a popular teddy hangout). All of the customers are also stuffed animals come to life. Well, more specifically, teddy bears.
In order for your teddy to get out of the drudgery of his short order cooking job, he needs to earn medals from restaurants around the world! Thus, each stage is in a different country with different dishes that the teddy bear must serve. While this is starting to sound an awful lot like the set-up for games like Diner Dash, Believe in Santa, and Cake Mania, the gameplay is original enough to merit this title some recognition.
Each level is set up in the same way. For the ones that I’ve played, there are three ingredients on the bottom of the screen with which the teddy can make different dishes. Usually, dishes are made with two of the three ingredients. For example, hamburgers were made with bread and beef. Then you need to send the food up into the air so the appropriate customer will catch it. Yes, you effectively play with your food by flying it in the air. Then you have to clean up after your messy customers by throwing sponges at dirty tables. No kidding!
Although this game is satisfying solely due to the fact that it goes against all conventional wisdom: don’t play with your food, it also has some great game play mechanics. It’s quite simple: everything, from mixing ingredients to throwing food to your customers (I guess “bounce” would be a better term) is done with the mouse.
The simple game play is offset by the frenetic pace that begins quite early in the game. Soon, I had to keep track of ordering teddies, angry teddies, and dirty tables. It is actually harder than it sounds, since much of what you need to do is on the bottom of the screen, and much of what the teddies are demanding that you do are on the top of the screen.
I thoroughly enjoyed Teddy Tavern, but I don’t feel like I absolutely need to buy the full version to fulfill myself. It’s a great download on the trial run, and enjoyable while it lasts. The cute factor may turn off some guys, though.
Posted on February 16, 2007 Under Happy Rating, Not Free, Downloads | |
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Yes, now if they had scantily-clad women washing bikes and huge monster trucks with engines that run on pure testosterone, I’d be willing to play that one.
I don’t even know what to say to that, Rylan.
i down load the game for my son and the game did not come out my son is 4 years old and he loves the game but some sights to long to dowlooad it need inprove ment or help'’