Most games require fast thumbs, but in Flower Shop, you need only a green one.
After Meg has a hard day at a noisy design firm in the city, she exits the building, screams, and sits down on a park bench amid the traffic and construction noises. What’s this? A newspaper advertising a florist shop for sale on a remote island? Just what the doctor ordered.
And so Meg flies to this isle and begins to take orders at her own outdoor flower shop: Meg’s Meadow.
Most games require fast thumbs, but in Flower Shop, you need only a green one.
After Meg has a hard day at a noisy design firm in the city, she exits the building, screams, and sits down on a park bench amid the traffic and construction noises. What’s this? A newspaper advertising a florist shop for sale on a remote island? Just what the doctor ordered.
And so Meg flies to this isle and begins to take orders at her own outdoor flower shop: Meg’s Meadow.
Similar to other micromanagement games, such as the Diner Dash series, your goal is to please customers by processing orders and making a predetermined amount of money before the day is over. The process works something like this: customers come in and place an order, such as a lily and a rose (which you’ll see in a kind of speech bubble above their head). You must then click on the correct seed and walk it over to some soil. After you plant it, you must wait until it blooms (which may require a watering can, depending on the type of flower). When it’s done, you cut the flowers and bring them over to the wrapping machine, hit the switch, and wait ’til it wraps the bouquet in an attractive fashion. Now you give the flowers to the customer and collect money.
Sounds tricky, no? But once you develop a kind of rhythm – and also be sure to start the process again quickly for new customers who come into the shop – it’ll be second “nature” in no time. Some flowers require fertilizer before it can grow, such as roses and orchids. If you accidentally click on the fertilizer bag but no flowers require it, you can toss it into the trash can. Similarly, if you cut a certain flower out of the soil and realize you don’t need it, you can temporarily store it in storage bed that holds a half-dozen flowers or so.
Similar to Diner Dash, players will receive bonus points for chaining moves together, such as clipping two flowers in a row or picking up money from three customers consecutively. You can also receive a speed bonus for delivering flowers quickly.
New customer types will begin to pop into your shop, including “nerds” who order bouquets because they have a crush on Meg, old ladies who have a lot of patience and tough guys who don’t want to be caught in a florist so you must take care of them quickly before they leave.
Mini-games are peppered throughout the more than 60 levels — the first of which challenges players to click on advancing bugs that want to ruin your colorful flower bed.
After a while, Meg will move onto other locations on the island, and she’ll be able to afford luxuries such as a bug zapper and tranquil water fountain.
Aside from the game’s unoriginality, Flower Shop suffers from two other issues: One is some tedious tasks, such as having to click on the water can in between every single flower instead of being able to water each flower on the screen one after the other. This is both silly and annoying. Another problem is that on some computers, the game doesn’t run too smoothly (likely due to the attractive graphics!).
Niggles aside, you’ll “dig” playing Flower Shop – especially for flower fanatics or for those who enjoy challenging micromanagement games.
