Soap Opera Dash

With all the Dash casual time management games PlayFirst has created, you almost have to wonder what the company could possibly come up with next. The answer is Soap Opera Dash, a frantic time management simulation where players have to help Rosie work with the residents of DinerTown to put on a successful soap opera. Unlike some of the other Dash entries, Soap Opera Dash basically throws you into a frantic situation with a few tutorials, hoping you pick up enough from the brief introduction to make it through frenzied episodes of a new series. It’s fun, but you better be ready to work and have a reliable mouse if you want to succeed.

Rosie wants the soap opera life

Rosie wants to create a soap opera, but can’t seem to find someone to give her a chance. Her prospective producer loves her script and ideas, but won’t help her out because he think she doesn’t have the star power necessary to make it work. As she’s walking away from the studio, she runs into Simon the celebrity, a high school friend she always idolized. He’s just been fired from the show he was on. Rosie sees her opportunity and uses flattery to convince him that he’d be the perfect fit for her show as the star.

She then starts a grass-roots operation to make her own soap opera, enlisting the help of Flo, Quinn and a number of other DinerTown residents to make her show happen. It starts out being filmed in a garage and shown on Dinertube and, with a little luck, could end up becoming a hit.

Frenzy on the set!

Rosie’s schedule in Soap Opera Dash makes Flo and Quinn’s jobs seem like playtime. She really goes to work. There is tons to do in each level. Rosie has to deliver scripts, take people to makeup, do their makeup, take them to wardrobe, pick out their clothes, take them to makeup, do their makeup, perhaps bring them ice tea, send them to a waiting chair while the scene is set up, place the proper props and get the camera man to start shooting a scene. Which means lots of dragging, dropping and then clicking people to get the actions at each station done. The bottom of the screen shows how many scenes must be shot, so you know how much longer you have to play. Plus, there’s a color-bonus for dragging similar colored actors to the right color stations. When an episode (level) is done, judges grade you on your performance.

Soap Opera Dash is a lot of work, even early on when you only have two colors of actors (red and blue) to worry about. Especially since you can’t just drop an actor at the next station and expect him or her to automatically get her hair done or so on. You have to drag them there, then click them, to make things happen. When you’ve got eight or more actors in play, and you’re trying to manage all of them, it’s easy to forget to go back and click on them while they’re at the stations. Which means you fall behind, they get mad and you risk producing a subpar episode. Especially when you have to take extra time to personally pick out the right hairdo, outfit or makeup for certain actors. It’s a very involved game that won’t tolerate slackers. This means you have to be familiar with time management games and the general Dash gameplay if you want to succeed.

What is neat is that PlayFirst really tried to add some elements to make it feel like Rosie is working on a show. Before each season starts, you place actors to cast them in certain roles. Each level is referred to as an episode, as well. And, for the season finale, you pick the two main stars and the theme for the episode. After a season is done, you can visit a town square area to see bulletins and ads advertising the soap. It’s a nice touch that makes things a little more fun and unique.

Fun, if you can keep up

Soap Opera Dash, despite being well organized, still manages to be one of the most complicated entries in the Dash time management series. Rosie has so much to do and players have to be constantly dragging, dropping, clicking and scanning the area to keep up with the constant flow of actors. It’s more difficult in the introductory levels than games like Diner Dash and Wedding Dash are around the halfway point. It’s still very well made and a lot of fun, but it’s the kind of game consummate Dash fans are going to enjoy most, since they’ll know right away how to play and keep up. It’s a lot of work for a casual game!

Review by Jenni Lada