Turbo Fiesta PC review

Turbo Fiesta follows Turbo Subs and Turbo Pizza, all of which have the same premise – you serve your customers by giving them the correct food items as quickly as possible, then collect your money (and hopefully a tip) as they leave. It’s a little similar to Diner Dash, but more so to Cooking Dash as you’re making and cooking the food then delivering it to the customers at your counter, rather than just waiting tables.

Your job is to help Rebecca and Robert with their new fast food venture – on a rocket headed into outer space! You’ll have out of this world characters coming to you for sustenance, and you must feed them varying types of Mexican food – pronto!

The ‘turbo’ part of the game refers to supercharging the game speed, which is great fun as the music speeds up and you watch Rebecca rush around the screen. You do this by collecting combos – that is, giving several customers in a row a menu, or their order, or collecting their money. Each time you do combos, you rack up some stars in a meter at the bottom of your screen and when it’s full – it’s Turbo Time! Even more exciting is when you fill the turbo bar three times in one level – you then achieve a Turbo Fiesta in which the game speed goes completely insane and everything takes on a Mexican theme – from the décor to the music.

Between each level you have the shop. If you’ve collected enough points you can then purchase things to improve your restaurant. These items vary from a better Coke dispenser, earning you extra money for each purchase, to faster ovens and even making Rebecca and Robert move more quickly. Some items are more exciting than others but because they all boost your game in one way or another, they’re all worth considering!

Every few levels you’ll get a bonus round. Unfortunately, this isn’t as exciting as it sounds. It basically consists of you being given a grid which has the electrics of the lighting on board laid out. Only it’s been sabotaged and nothing matches up. It’s up to you to rotate the tiles on the board so all the lights are once more connected to the electrics and normality is restored. You get a time limit to complete it, but it’s easy enough, so you probably won’t reach it. The next mini-game is in almost the same format, so there’s very little variation here and it doesn’t really have any impact on your game. On one occasion, I hadn’t completed the whole grid in time but I got a ‘never mind’ type message and was sent on my way as before. So a little pointless, but hey ho!

In terms of addictiveness, I’d have to say Turbo Fiesta is up there with the best. It’s one of those compulsive games that you have to keep playing until you’ve completed it. The graphics are good for what it is, the music is fun and not annoying and the gameplay is simple. Everything you could want from a casual game. With the exception of the half-baked mini-game, Turbo Fiesta is an excellent little time waster.

4 February 2009