Giveaway of the Day - Bistro Stars

well this one is a slightly better offering, but still a boring match 3 game. surely there are other offerings out there

Twenty One minute and 16 second review:

This was given away back in October 2006, with no comments and only 5 votes (80% thumbs up)

Here is what others from Alawar’s own comments section had to say about this game:

http://www.alawar.com/games/bistro-stars/comments/

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Introduction to the Game:

This is your match three of the same by swapping two pieces on the board style of game. You have Campaign and singleplayer modes. Each has a Classic and a speed mode. As well as the single player mode having an unlimited mode. The difference between the classic and speed is that in the classic mode you have 5 minutes to score as high a score as possible, wheras in the speed mode you are timed (obviously). In this mode there is two line gauges at the bottom of the playing field. Whenever you make a match one of the indicators (yellow) increases. The other one is the timer which whenever you make a match will increase so as long as you make regular matches you should easily beat it. The unlimited one has no gauges or timers. I’ve just taken delivery of some games that I ordered online which I’ve been excited about so today my review is going to be cut short.

As a match three goes it’s okay, but seems to be no power ups, although looking at the list of things Alawars says the game offers there looks like there is. Bear in mind I only checked one level of each of the different modes apart from the unlimited one as I really want to get to my new games :D. There’s no help button in the main menu menu, but you can have in game hints turned on or off via the options menu. These hints can be turned off in game if you feel you no longer need them. There’s also a windowed toggle and a custom cursor toggle to be found in the options menu.

That’s it. I didn’t particularly find the game inspiring, but it was okay. It’s not really worth more than 6 out of 10 in my estimation and then only because it has several game modes. If the developer was thinking of spicing this game up I would definitely think of adding some power ups and perhaps a couple of mini games as it seems a little bland as it is. As we all know there has been some excellent match three games of this type in the Brilliant Treasures of Montezuma which I’m still playing, although not every day at the moment as well as the equally excellent Sky Bubbles Deluxe. I think this one will be a little bit of a disappointment to those who liked the other two.

Follow the link below for some Googled images of the game:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Bistro+Stars&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

Hardware requirements:
- Windows95/98/ME/2000/XP
- Pentium II 300 or higher processor
- SVGA card with 16Mb and Direct3D support;
- 64 MB RAM or above.
- DirectX 8.0 or higher

Thankyou though goes to Alawar and the game giveaway team for such an excellent project that always brings a smile and a little bit of excitement in that butterfly feeling in the stomach, just before you open the page to see what is going to be given away. I didn’t get that this morning though I actually thought with the title that it was going to be one of those dinner Dash clones, lol

Have a great day folks. I’ll be back to my normally long reviews tomorrow. or

Summary taken from Alawars page dedicated to this game:

One-handed gaming; just click your mouse!
Creative gameplay rules and bonuses
New mental challenges for action-puzzle fans
Two hearty campaign modes: Classic and Speed
Three Single Game modes
Bright, colorful graphics
Delightful sounds and music
In-game hints
Hall of Fame board