Summer Rush

Review

You play as Jennifer and you’re tasked with building up a successful beach business. However, this is just a front as she is working undercover for the FBI, in the hope that this will weed out a kidnapper. It’s a dangerous mission and you have the right to decline (well, you don’t really). Upon accepting the undercover mission, Jennifer starts her beach business with a few sun lounges and one changing cubicle. There is also a bin for the disposal of any litter left behind from those who visit your sandy beach.

On the top centre of the screen you’ll find the objectives for completing that level. These objectives will vary depending on your current level. These can range from earning a said amount of money, maintaining the happiness of certain visitors, applying sun cream and various others. On the left side of your screen is a timer bar, which will deplete as time goes on. If the time runs out for completing all objectives, then you’ll fail and must re-do that level. The top right corner will show you how much money you currently have and which you’ll be able to use so you can buy new stalls, such as food and gift items, as well as new attractions like skiing, rubber rings, slides and sand pits for the kids.

Below the objectives is where your visitors will walk by your beach from both the right and left sides of the screen. You will need to select a passer-by, inviting them to your beach. To start with you only have one cubicle for people to change and three sun loungers. You won’t be able to invite another visitor until the last one has exited the cubicle. You’ll need to fill your sun lounges as best you can, and just like the cubicle, you won’t be able to add more visitors if they are all full.

Once visitors have changed into their beachwear, you’ll need to take care of their needs. A speech bubble will appear above them indicating what they desire. At first, you can only put sun cream on them but if you do a good enough job, you’ll earn some pennies. To do this you’ll must click on the speech bubble for that visitor to apply the sun cream, which is easy enough.

However, as your beach grows and you add other buildings for food and drinks, sand pits, slides etcetera, your visitors will require more from you. If someone orders a burger, then you’ll need to select the burger icon at the food shop and next select the visitor who ordered it, to whom you will deliver said burger once it has been made. You can select two types of items at a time and then select two visitors who want those items; this will allow you to save some time and get around to other visitors and their needs. This is extremely useful when dealing with food and drinks as they take time to prepare.

After visitors have finished with their time on the beach you'll be rewarded for your efforts (if you’ve taken good care of them). They will then leave opening another slot for a new visitor to take their place. Don’t forget to clear up any mess after they leave, as no-one wants to relax on a sun lounger with leftover rubbish on it. You clean up the same as you would when fetching items and delivering them to someone, although with rubbish you’ll need to select the rubbish icon and then select the bin to have it disposed of.

As your beach and wallet grow you can decorate the beach with palm trees, flowers, arches, along with new buildings if you have the bank balance for it. At times you may need to have a certain building before you are able to move on to the next level, and these are indicated by an exclamation mark. Make sure you pay attention to the level's objectives; it's no good filling the beach with just anyone. Sometimes you will need certain people to visit and make happy so that you can complete an objective.

Before you know it, you’ll have a beach full of sun-loungers, and attractions with visitors running you ragged as they vie for your attention. To help you keep everyone happy there are some blue stars (experience points) to use towards new Skills. These stars can be obtained by completing levels, and also when you buy new buildings and decorations. Once you have bought a building, you’ll be able to make use of those stars after completing the next level. The skills available to you are Improved Walking speed, the ability to scare off a shark for a longer period, increasing clients’ wait times, clients coming to the beach faster, and some others which will help you as you progress.

While trying to sort everyone out you’ll have some pesky sharks that keep visiting you trying to scare folks off, so you must deal with those as well. There are also a few hidden object games which you’ll need to complete.

There aren’t many settings in the options for you to fiddle about with. Sound and Music volume sliders, Full screen On/Off and Animated Cursor option. You’ll also find the Credits for the game here, and that’s your lot. There’s no resolution or quality settings; the game resolution plays at 1080x768 (according to the screenshots I took) and is centered in the middle of my 1920x1080 screen.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!