My perfect Valentine… might be over, but the fun goes on!

Hi Cooks!

Did you have a lovely Valentine’s Day? :) Did you manage to decorate your restaurant for the perfect romantic Valentine’s Day celebration? I’m so pleased with all the beautiful items coming out lately to play with. It’s always fun redecorating my restaurant!

So… what’s new this week? Let’s take a look…

First up, the Challenges in Restaurant City are getting more and more exciting. Did you manage to collect Heart Candies last week to claim the rewards? If you enjoyed that, you’ll be glad to know there’s more to collect this week and you’ll get a great reward, too!

But if you’re tired of collecting Heart Candies, there’s a special challenge waiting just for you! Take a look at this beautiful bridge, out today, along with some other functional items:

If you add this bridge to your restaurant, you’ll get to watch customers walk over it and turn into animated frogs!

The really fun thing about this is that the frogs will do everything a normal customer will want to do – sit at a chair, eat their meal… even go to the bathroom! You’ve got to admit, that’s going to be fun to watch… I’m not a cruel person, but I’d love to see my entire restaurant crawling with frogs, hahaha…

Ahem, anyway! But, I have to point out… they didn’t get turned into frogs by choice. Oh, no! There’s a naughty troll under that bridge and he’s been misusing his magic. So, it’s up to you if you want to help turn the customers back into their true form! If you do, you’ll get a nice reward. :) If you enjoy challenges, you will definitely enjoy this one!

Next, here’s a quest for all of you cooking enthusiasts!

Master the Apple Tartin recipe and you’ll unlock the Sleeping Princess. But everyone looks so sad! Whatever could have happened…? Well, master the Princely Fruit Confit and you’ll awaken her from her deep slumber, and look! The item changes, too! :)

I quite like this one – because it reminds me of one of my favorite fairytales. Which is your favorite fairytale?

I know you’re all raring to go and start learning new dishes and want to see what new items will be out this Thursday, but before you go, cooks, be sure to check if you’re signed up to my newsletter! Check your settings at www.playfish.com/accounts and see if the correct email address is set up to receive messages from me. :) I’m always giving away nice gifts with my emails and I wouldn’t want you to miss out!

Enjoy this weeks catalog and keep cookin’ up a storm!


Lots of love,

Maggie x

Its Ninja Saga time

Most Facebook games are free to play and make their money by trying to entice you to spend real-world cash on virtual items and other perks. Ninja Saga is a free-to-play action role-playing game (RPG) that takes the concept a little too far, however, and doesn't really have enough content to warrant the costs associated with it.

The story is a bit convoluted, based on the game's official website, involving the theft of a magical scroll containing powerful mystic beings. While the intro shows this event, the plot itself really isn't referred to much afterwards. Players take on the role of young ninjas in a village, honing their skills while going through a series of near-identical missions that seem to have little to do with finding the missing scroll.

The gameplay gets old pretty quickly: missions are all based around turn-based combat. Basically, you have a number of slots in which you can equip your various attacks and abilities, and you'll then engage in a certain number of battles against varying amounts of enemies. An action bar at the bottom of the screen has to be filled before you can take any action.

There is multiplayer available in the game, but it's impossible to tell how well it plays: the PvP arena was unavailable every time I tried to get in. At the present time, there are only two servers available for PvP combat, with the option to play against friends or find a stranger to battle. Unfortunately, these servers apparently aren't all that large, because a few dozen attempts over different days resulted in the same message: "The PvP room is full. Please come back later."

At first glance, Ninja Saga seems like it's got some impressive graphics: the intro movie is great, showing off some beautiful cel-shaded Flash work. There's a nice little avatar creation system, too, allowing you to choose from a wide variety of colors and hairstyles.

The graphics never look bad, but they don't look terribly original, either. Many of the characters you're likely to encounter often look a little too much like those we've seen in shows like Naruto or games like Final Fantasy VII. Many of the characters that deliver missions or instructions have the signature headband and spiral design seen in the former, and there was an early mini-boss battle with a "Battle Cat" that looked exactly like Red XIII from the latter.

The other problem with production values in the game is its audio: generally, you don’t have to deal with much.

The game still has some bugs to work out, too. In two separate incidents, I suddenly was told that I had failed a mission mid-battle. No explanation was provided, so it seems like the battle engine isn't a hundred percent stable. That said, these failures were random and weren't a regular irritation at all.

Also, at random times, the mouse would disappear when it was over the game itself, though it would still register with the Flash client. If this happens, you have two options: flail around with the mouse until the on-screen item you want is highlighted, or refresh the page and log back into the game. This happened somewhat regularly, in both Safari and Firefox.

Ninja Saga's biggest problem, unfortunately, is that it doesn't really feel fun if you try to play the game without spending any cash on it. Earning in-game gold is easy, although high-level items and abilities cost a lot and it takes longer and longer to earn enough to afford them through standard missions.

Instead, Saga Tokens are necessary to speed up gameplay. It should be noted that there is no actual requirement to spend money on Ninja Saga, but you're not really going to get the full game experience if you don't. Saga Tokens can be converted into gold, are necessary to buy certain items, and can be spent to instantly learn a skill (if you're playing for free, higher-level abilities take increasing amounts of real-world time to learn).

Permanent game account upgrades can be purchased by spending $19.99 on a "Ninja Emblem", which is what gives players need to access the full content of Ninja Saga. Buying an emblem allows you to play with more than one character per Facebook account, control more than two elemental types, hold more items in your inventory, grants access to special missions, learn skills instantly, and acquire premium pets/items in the game's different stores.

This whole system is incredibly frustrating for someone who doesn’t want to actually pay any money for a flash game on Facebook. Normally, such games are expected to be slower and a more difficult to play through when you're using a free account, but they system used in Ninja Saga seems a bit extreme. Maybe if the gameplay was more varied or there was more content available, shelling out some money wouldn't be such a bitter pill to swallow. As it stands, however, there are better –and less expensive–games on Facebook that deserve your attention.

Mike Thompson

Restaurant City Review

They say that the key to running a successful restaurant is to be hands-on. And that's certainly true in Restaurant City. The restaurant management game rewards players for being dedicated and returning to the game on a regular basis, making it a perfect fit for Facebook. But while the core mechanics are fairly simple, the game quickly becomes very addictive, something which is aided by some terrific production values and great social networking features.
You start out the game with a small restaurant and just a few staff members. You'll then assign jobs to your employees, and the key is to find the right balance between chefs and servers. Too few of either and your customers won't be served in a timely fashion, and will instead leave without paying their bill. You'll also have to keep your employees happy, which is done by feeding them. Each employee has a timer, with a maximum of four hours, and as soon as it runs out, they will pass out and stop working. Feeding them refills this meter. This mechanic makes coming back and feeding your staff central to the gameplay, since, if you don't return every four hours, your restaurant will simply shut down until you come back.

As you progress you'll earn experience and at specified intervals your restaurant will level up. This lets you hire more employees, expand the size of your establishment, and, of course, earns you more money. Money is necessary for not only keeping your staff fed and happy, but also for decorating your restaurant. The sheer number of decorating options is pretty astounding, giving you plenty of opportunity to customize your restaurant however you like. Some items are purely decorative, while others, like toilets, tables, and chairs, are necessary in order to have a smoothly running eatery.

You can also use your hard earned cash to buy ingredients, which you'll need to upgrade your menu. Ingredients can either be bought at the market, traded with friends, or grown in your very own garden. Once you have all the right ingredients, you can learn new dishes. The number of dishes you can offer increases as your restaurant levels up, and you can also improve dishes so that you earn more money from them.

Restaurant City frequently has limited-time offers, usually based around a current holiday or theme. For example, over Christmas you might be able to learn how to make egg nog or display a Christmas tree in your restaurant. Since these are only available for a short period of time, it creates a lot of incentive to hurry up and earn the money or gather the ingredients necessary to acquire these items.

The game also includes some great social features. Each one of your employees is given the name and likeness of someone from your friends list, and, if you want to earn some extra cash, you can help out at a friend's restaurant. You can clean up the place by shooing away pesky sleeping bears and fish stealing penguins, or even by putting out the occasional fire. Trading items with friends is also almost mandatory, as it's one of the best ways to get new ingredients. There's also an element of competition, as the game ranks all of your friends in terms of experience level, providing much incentive to get your establishment to the top of the ladder.

Restaurant City doesn't feature ads, though you can spend some real money if you want to fast-track. There are two kinds of currency in the game: regular coins and Playfish cash. The coins are used for purchasing pretty much everything, while PF cash is only used for certain "special" items. Both can be purchased using a variety of payment methods, including PayPal, credit card, and Facebook credits. But while coins can also be earned as you play, PF cash can only be purchased with real-world money.

Unlike most games on the platform, Restaurant City both looks and plays great. It sports delightful and colorful cartoon style visuals, and the sheer number of things you can do is impressive. But since much of it is optional, it makes the game much more enjoyable in quick play sessions, making it a perfect example of a how games can work on Facebook.

Andrew Webster

Hotel626 inn have a sweet dreams

With the Video Game industry commanding a healthy sector in the entertainment industry, horror games just sound like a winning combination. Like thar be gold in them thar hills! Unfortunately, we've ended up with long running-epics like Resident Evil and the like. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not knocking the Resident, it just isn’t scary. Most of the games out there just aren’t scary. Bloody? Yes. Scary? No.

Silent Hill was the first game that freaked me out beyond words, and part of that little show had to do with the long, dark hallways in my basement and the spooky stairwell of my apartment! Still. Scary game? Love to see it.

Doritos, the hallowed master, the lovely snack goodness that has absolutely nothing to do with scary whatsoever, has heard our cries and released Hotel 626 as part of their live it, love it, like it experience.

Hotels have always been spooky. I don’t know if it is the years of motley clientele or the potential for absolutely horrific events that are quickly sanitized with casual indifference. I suspect it is the long hallways, the murdered children, the long winters that lead to one helluva spooky place. Not since the Overlook has a hotel captured absolute terror. Enter www.hotel626.com, an online game that is more an experience than a game. Hotel 626 is a true nightmare that any horror fan should not only experience -- they should try to endure it.

Hotel 626 is something of a cross between "Paranoia" and "The Ring," with all the terror of Kubrick’s "The Shining," sans gushing elevators and spooky chick in the tub. Hotel 626 will definitely leave an impression.

Hotel 626 can only be accessed in evening hours between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Do yourself a favor and play this at about 3 in the morning. Make sure everyone else is asleep, the lights are off, and there is no possibility of being interrupted. Trust me. This is something you want to experience alone. It will scare you that badly, and it does so in such a delicious way! The game instructs you to put your head phones on and adjust your volume. Do this without fear of the annoying screaming photo. The only thing jumping in this game is your heart -- into your throat! Fill out the guest registry and you are whisked off to your room.

I won’t provide any spoilers here. The game uses a shaky cam approach. While not a fan of shaky cam (honestly it is something like the poor man’s 3D and has been woefully overdone in Hollywood), I must say it couldn’t be done here any other way and the producers use it with glee and to maximum effect. The game functions with your mouse as a pointer. All mechanics of the game center on the mouse, so don’t worry about going through a contortionist fit to make this work. Be sure to pay attention. In fact, play the game a couple of times. The level of detail is amazing, and the imagery is wonderful, a real credit to a company that took the time to give a damn and offer a fun and exciting product.

Give www.hotel626.com a spin. You will not be disappointed. If you are a true fan of horror (and not a sissy), then you have to play this game. Oh, and before I forget, be sure to plug in your nightlight BEFORE you play the game. Once you get under your covers, you won’t want to peek your head out again.

Enjoy! As they say, you’re room is ready.