Features

I step into the role of Meg, who left the city for a quieter locale to open a flower shop. Though I’ve played the owner of a similar game that took place in a bakery, it didn’t prepare me for this one. Hence, it was good to have a tutorial guide me through the game to get started. As I warmed up and found my way around, the game added more features and explained what to do.

The game contains over sixty levels and each level represents a day in the life of the florist. The game provides a goal to reach in order to advance to the next level — actually, two goals. One for advancing to the next level, and the other, “Guru” goal, for the extra challenge. Whenever I reached the Guru goal, I earned a star on the map that appears between levels to show Meg’s progress. The number of stars I earned is puny, but it was exciting to win them.

I prefer running a bakery to a flower shop, but this game played better than the bakery version. Halfway through the bakery game, I got stuck on a level and couldn’t get past it. With Flower Shop, I failed to meet the goal a few times, but made it on a second or third try. This one also contains bonus rounds for a change of pace and bonus points.

A level typically involves taking orders, fulfilling them and grabbing the dough. Starting was easy as I planted flowers, bundled them and gave them to the customers. With each advancing level, I had more work to do before I could complete an order. Some flowers require watering before blooming and others require watering and fertilizer to bloom. I’ve never been a fan of daisies until this game because they don’t require anything to grow — thank you, daisies.

The bakery game involved buying and upgrading equipment. This one takes care of the upgrades for you, which was fine with me as my mind was spinning from trying to do loads of tasks. I could give Meg many steps to do before she actually does them. Occasionally, I would hear a rude buzz when I tried to do something that I couldn’t do – even when it was a legitimate move. During the wildest moments, my brain felt like it was doing multiple processing at once, but that made the game stimulating and fun.

As if growing flowers and serving customers wasn’t enough to keep me busy, I had to watch out for flying clocks and flying creatures as an opportunity to get more time on the clock or more cash. One annoyance: The bugs. I could do without them, but they’re a real problem for gardeners and florists, so I understand their inclusion in the game. On the bright side, I’m thankful the game didn’t include eight-legged web-making creatures — then an arachnophobic like me would never play it.

System Requirements
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
800MHz or faster Processor
128MB RAM
3D video card

Other related games

• Cake Mania

• Diner Dash Flo on the Go

• Diner Dash 2 Restaurant Rescue

• Diner Dash