To add to the tension customers range from the elderly whom have a little more time on their hands to the businessmen who whom want to have their food delivered and get out as quickly as possible. This certainly adds to the franticness and ensures that the player cannot take their eye off the game for a second.

 

The game is divided into a career mode which spans forty levels and certainly offers pretty good value for money and should take even the most hardcore gamer quite a while to complete. In this mode as you progress the diners change and offer more seating and more requests from customers such as serving drinks in addition to food. Whilst this may only seem like minor progressions let me ensure you that this soon sees the difficulty increase rapidly and mistakes are guaranteed as you are bound to let your concentration slip for a second at some point.

 

 

If career mode is beaten or if you simply fancy a change there is also an endless mode on offer which simply offers the same gameplay only this time over one single shift. To me this mode seems much less rewarding yet with less breaks proves more intense and throughout my time playing the game I found that the career mode was where the game really stood out.

 

An interesting aspect of the gameplay was how the game would make the switch from the point and click or touch screen controls as seen on other systems to the Xbox 360 pad. If I am being honest the developers have adapted the game pretty well although it can be much more awkward in some respects and prove far more fiddly than the controls seen on other formats.

 

Whilst the controls are a little hit and miss I will say that this is only a minor niggle and certainly should not put off players from this very addictive and absorbing game.

 

Unquestionably one of the most interesting inclusions is the local and online multiplayer games which includes ‘Time Wars’ which is a head to head against the clock, ‘Team Dash’ which requires you to play in teams with friends to take on other teams and finally ‘Tip Wars’ which is a battle to gain the most money in a set time.

 

 

All of these modes are fully customisable and allows players to set their own rules such as difficulty, time limits, controls and the diner in which the game will be played.

 

Undoubtedly the multiplayer certainly brings something very new and welcome to the game and can prove very enjoyable particularly when needing to work together rather than against each other and this ensures that the superbly addictive gameplay can become much more intense as you do not want to let team mates down by making simple mistakes.

 

Without question "Diner Dash" is presented in a very family friendly way and whilst this may look too cute for some players it should be noted that this is one title which offers gameplay suitable for all.

 

Diner Dash is by no means a perfect game but is one of those titles which is perfectly suited to the Xbox Live Arcade service and at a cost of 800ms points represents good value for money particularly as it now includes a very welcome multiplayer mode.

 

 

 

 

+ Very addictive gameplay
+ Multiplayer a good inclusion
+ Suitable for gamers of all ages
+ Pretty good value for money