|
|
Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Graphics & Sound:
When I first saw that Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas! was up for review, I was thinking it would end up being more of a time management game a la Wedding Dash, which is Diner Dash, but with a wedding planner theme. I was figuring on a cartoony look, but when I booted the game up, I was in for a surprise. Instead, the graphics are more realistic looking and the characters in the wedding party look just like regular folks. Well, except for Debbie, the mother of the bride, who wears a ridiculous hat all the time. The graphics do look good though.
Ok, so I didn't read things carefully and I also discovered this is not a time management game, but a hidden object game. That's ok. I've played a few of those in my day, and while they aren't my favorite genre, I like them enough if they are done well, as I spent more than my fair share of time as a child reading Highlights and circling hidden objects. Well, Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas! certainly goes the extra mile here. Little details are present everywhere and the map area is just gorgeous, such that you can even see cars whizzing by in the background past the glittering lights.
Sound is also decent, but not quite as good as the graphics. It gets the job done, however. Background music is there and works for the different areas, but is forgettable once you turn the game off. Aside from that, the game has the appropriate sounds for clicking on objects or when your cell phone rings, giving you another task. |
|
|
Gameplay:
Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas! is a hidden object/mini-game title boasting 60 challenges in 29 locations, however it didn't really seem like that many as I was going through the game and beating it. The storyline is that you are planning a grand wedding for David and Kelsey, the groom and bride-to-be. Of course, nothing can go completely smoothly and as wedding crisis after wedding crisis pops up, it's your job to handle them and keep things on an even keel. What I really liked was the fact that each hidden object game or mini-game actually furthered the story and the objects you were looking for made sense in relation to the story. Some other hidden object games I have played didn't make sense at all, (cough, cough Pretty in Pink). Some challenges had a hurricane blowing in and trashing the reception area and you had to retrieve items. Others had the wedding invites being scattered all over the lobby and in need of retrieval. One even had a distraught bride locking herself in the bathroom after hearing her dress had been sent away to another wedding and you had to gather items to calm her down. Other challeges had you creating culinary concoctions from recipes, matching jewelry for the wedding party, finding differences in wedding cake designs and sometimes even making repairs to casino machines! From time to time, when you would click on an item in a confined area like the bathroom, a phone booth, or an elevator, you would become "trapped!" and you'd have to use adventure game skills to escape. Since I am not a seasoned adventure gamer, at least not like JR Nip, I didn't come across the answers as swiftly as he did, but they were still relatively sensible.
Your goal is to create a "dream wedding" and as you progress, you'll collect casino money to spend on the affair. Sometimes you'll be presented with situations and you can blow off the person asking for help or be kind to them. Usually, these will yield more casino dollars, which means better upgrades for your clients. Your money can go to purchasing music, flowers, a customizable bouquet, dress and cake, plus a myriad of other goodies. It's actually fun, in a very Barbie Dream House way, to watch as your reception area transforms into a magical wonderland under your guiding hand.
|
|
|
Difficulty:
Overall, Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas was pretty simple and had just the right amount of difficulty. You were given ample time to solve each challenge and I never found myself running down the clock. When you were presented with mini-games, you had the option to skip them, at a cost of 4 minutes off your timer. This is a nice feature because if you start to get frustrated, you can trade some time for your peace of mind. However, personally, I never felt the need to do this simply because I was given ample time.
Some of the puzzles would ramp things up a bit by forcing you to locate objects in a particular order and some even had the lists in a foreign language. These were really fun. However, even then, you could always find a language dictionary in the level which would translate the words for you.
As I mentioned earlier, all of the puzzles made sense and none were overly frustrating. For a casual gamer, this difficulty level is just about perfect. If you want a tougher challenge, you can turn off the ample tutorials and hints or for an easier experience, turn it to Carefree Mode which has no timer. |
|
|
Game Mechanics:
Controls in Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas! are as simple as they get, and that's a good thing. You'll use your mouse to click on things and that's about it. You click to select an object in the level that appears in a list of items to locate. That scratches the item off your list. When you become trapped, you may have to find objects in the area that can then be dragged over to the left area and combined to make them more useful for the task at hand. Creating dishes from recipes is as simple as finding the ingredients and combining them in the right order, again using your trusty mouse.
If you are a fan of hidden object games, then you at least owe it to yourself to check out Dream Day Wedding: Viva Las Vegas! You can play the demo for free for an hour and this will definitely tell you if you want to keep on playing. I had a lot of fun with it, personally, much more than I anticipated. There's a good amount of production value in it and it's a pleasant casual game. |
|
|
-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
Minimum System Requirements:
Windows XP/Vista, Pentium III 900 MHz, 128MB RAM, 64MB Video Card, 135MB free hard disk space, DirectX 8.0, DirectX 9.0 recommended |
|
Test System:
Windows Vista, 2 GHz AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor, 8GB RAM, Realtek High Definition Audio On-Board Sound, NVIDIA GeForce 8300 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
