Snack Mania – At the Theaters Review

Picture this. You’re at the premiere of that really big movie everyone’s been jawing about for months. You arrive at the theatre five minutes before the film’s set to begin. You’re cutting it close, but you decide to get some snacks before you sit down. Alas, the line is long. Worse, there’s a single clerk stationed at the concessions counter, and she’s so harried, that she’s totally messed up your order. Burnt popcorn! A hotdog without relish! Flat pop! Do you rage and throw it all back in her face? No. You play a bit of Snack Mania – At the Theaters and develop a little sympathy for the snack vendors of the world.

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Now Playing: The Same Ol’ Time-Management Experience.

Picture this. You’re at the premiere of that really big movie everyone’s been jawing about for months. You arrive at the theatre five minutes before the film’s set to begin. You’re cutting it close, but you decide to get some snacks before you sit down. Alas, the line is long. Worse, there’s a single clerk stationed at the concessions counter, and she’s so harried, that she’s totally messed up your order. Burnt popcorn! A hotdog without relish! Flat pop! Do you rage and throw it all back in her face? No. You play a bit of Snack Mania – At the Theaters and develop a little sympathy for the snack vendors of the world.

Snack Mania – At the Theaters is a time-management game that puts you behind the (probably sticky) counter of a movie theater’s concession stand. There are hundreds of hungry customers to contend with, but only one of you. Man, these corporate cutbacks are getting ridiculous.

Snack Mania - At the Theaters

Snack Mania – At the Theaters plays like most other time-management games, so if you’re familiar with the genre, you’ll have seen this film before. You stand behind the counter as customers slide in and demand snacks. Things start off slow and easy: at first, all you really have to offer are hot dogs that need to be garnished with ketchup or mustard, depending on your customers’ demands. But as you continue to play, the orders become more complicated. Soon enough, your clientele will begin ordering popcorn, double hot dogs, drinks, chocolate, and candy. Man, where are they putting it all? 

You need to serve up the goods swiftly and correctly. You flip between available foods by tapping on icons, which means your sense of timing needs to be razor-sharp. If, for example, you put hot dogs on the grill and then switch to the popcorn popper, you need to know when it’s time to flip back to the hot dogs and take them off the grill before they turn into piles of ash. You also need to serve up the popcorn before it burns, and get your customers’ orders down pat. If a movie-goer wants ketchup on his hot dog and you hand him a wiener with relish, there will be hell to pay.

Snack Mania - At the Theaters

Snack Mania – At the Theaters doesn’t do much to distinguish itself from the mountains of time-management games already available on the App Store. The scenery and customers occasionally change to match up with new theatre themes  (you serve vampires and zombies popcorn and candy at the horror theater, when you should be feeding them eyeballs and brains), but otherwise, the game doesn’t present a whole lot that’s new and exciting in a genre that’s already been done to death.

That’s not to say Snack Mania – At the Theaters isn’t a decent experience. If you’re into time-management games, it’ll certainly keep your attention for a little while, especially when the challenge ramps up and you’re expected to get more done at a faster pace. If you adore time-management games, become a patron of Snack Mania – At the Theaters. But if time-management games give you awful flashbacks of your years in customer service and make you want to cry, skip it.

The good

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      60 out of 100
      In the early aughts, Nadia fell into writing with the grace of a brain-dead bison stumbling into a chasm. Over the years, she's written for Nerve, GamePro, 1UP.com, USGamer, Pocket Gamer, Just Labs Magazine, and many other sites and magazines of fine repute. She's currently About.com's Guide to the Nintendo 3DS at ds.about.com.