Avenue Flo

Poor Flo, she always seems stuck picking up everyone else's slack and single-handedly saving the day, yet she still manages this with a skip in her step and a cheerful smile. The greasy apron-adorned, hard working star of the Diner Dash series is about to embark on a whole new challenge-filled journey in her first adventure game. Gamezebo recently sat down for some hands-on time with Avenue Flo, and we're pleased to report this new twist on the series is going to be a blast.

In Avenue Flo, the daughter of corporate mogul Mr. Big is set to marry Tony the local pizzeria owner when everything goes horribly wrong. Quinn has been hired to put on the wedding, but an uncanny plethora of problems arise at every turn. To save her pal's good name and get to the bottom of all the suspicious mishaps, Flo steps in to get the wedding preparations back on track. She's got her work cut out for her.

Though the gameplay is very different, and slower paced, from the frantic time-management waitressing the Diner Dash series is known for, many familiar faces and locations appear in Avenue Flo game, and the series' distinct personality still runs strong. The hand-drawn graphics are crisp and consistent, and this is the first time all of the characters will be fully voiced throughout the game.

A large portion of the game focuses on exploring different locations and shops around DinerTown, interacting with and helping local residents, and searching for items and puzzles to complete. The underlying goal is to save the wedding from falling apart, but there are a lot of different kinds of tasks you must tackle. Some of the first major objectives Flo faces include repairing the destroyed wedding dress, collecting butterflies (which were to be released at the ceremony) that have escaped, and tracking down Miss Big's pet poodle Snookums who was meant to be the ring bearer.

Avenue Flo features a lot of variety in the types of challenges you'll face. There's a fun hidden object element that appears regularly where you'll have to find certain kinds of objects scattered throughout the scenery, like dollar bills, butterflies, and plastic bottles for recycling. You'll often have to fetch items for people or figure out what they want in order to help you out. We also stumbled across some rotating color matching puzzles, a rhythmic aerobics mini-game, fridge organizing activities, and more. There's a lot to do, and players will be pleased to learn completing the game will unlock an activity mode where you can enjoy all of the mini-games any time you choose.

Many of the game's more complex puzzles can only be solved after completing multiple tiers of tasks. For example, repairing the wedding dress requires finding the missing beads, fixing the robotic beading machine by finding and using the right tool, inputting the proper code to restart it, and then using the machine to play a mini-game game where you must lay out beads along patterns in the proper order. They're tricky and fun without being frustrating.

With three large areas of town to explore, countless puzzle challenges to dig into, and a colorful cityscape populated by charming and funny characters from the Diner Dash universe to explore and interact with, Avenue Flo is bound to attract new players to the series while giving current fans something new to enjoy.

By Nathan Meunier