Parking Dash Review (Preview Build)
Posted on September 13, 2008 - Filed Under Preview, Puzzles, Review, Time Mangement |
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Imagine living in a small, crowded apartment and receiving a call that states you have been left property in a will. You really aren’t sure who your uncle Henry, the person that left you the property, is, but you are glad you inherited property and can move out of your cramped apartment. You are all excited, but then let down by the cruel reality of the situation. The property is an empty lot and does not contain a better place to live.
Luckily you have great friends, such as Flo, and she suggests you turn the empty lot into a much needed parking lot. This is exactly the scenario in Parking Dash, the next big release from PlayFirst. Players help Karma, the main character, run a parking lot from the ground up. Players start with a few spots and turn into a grand parking lot.
I got a chance to play a preview version of Parking Dash and it was a great twist on the time management genre. Players have to manage a parking lot and keep the customers, whom drop off their cars, happy to get bigger tips. But, the twist is the puzzle part of the game. Each customer has a certain amount of time their car will stay in the parking lot. With only so many spaces and a lot more customers than there are spaces, it becomes challenging to manage all of the cars.
Customers show up at the parking lot and you have to take the customer’s car and park it in a spot in the parking lot. The customers all stay for different amounts of time, which is displayed by a clock with a shaded area above their heads. There are only so many spots and many more customers. When a customer comes back to get their car you can click on them and the car they own will be highlighted. The player gets the car and returns the car to the customer. The customers leaves a bigger tip the happier they are. The level is complete by attaining the allotted amount of money.
Parking Dash has different levels of challenges. Players have to deal with the time issues each customers have. They have to deal with Limos and other vehicles that take up two spaces and the fact that cars need to be moved around, which means you need to leave one space open so you can shuffle the cars around. As you can see, there are a lot of things that need to be thought about before just parking a car in a space.
The other challenge, besides the ones that have been mentioned, are the customers. The customers that would like their cars parked have all different personalities. Some customers are patient and other ones are in a hurry and needed their car yesterday. The cell phone guy is back and just as annoying as ever. His car makes noise, which makes all the other customers angry. Luckily, you are able to hit the car to make the sound stop.
As players complete the levels, they can pick upgrades for their parking lot. The upgrades make your parking lot look better, others help Karma move faster and some increase the customers patience. One upgrade is chosen at the end of each level, until all of the upgrades have been used.
The graphics are similar to other PlayFirst time management games, a mix between real life and cartoon looking. The parking lots look like parking lots and the upgrades make them look more aesthetic and more like a parking lot with cones and such.
Parking Dash was a lot of fun to play and the added puzzle element to the time management genre kept it interesting, but also added more challenges to the game play. Not only does the player have to keep the customers happy, they have to manage the space limitations of the parking lot. I recommend trying out Parking Dash, you won’t be disappointed.
Parking Dash will be released this month (September).
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[...] Casual Gamer Chick “…The graphics are similar to other PlayFirst time management games, a mix between real life and cartoon looking. The parking lots look like parking lots and the upgrades make them look more aesthetic and more like a parking lot with cones and such. [...]