Apparently, each year the average American consumes 4 pounds of potato chips, 30 pounds of cheese, 56 gallons of soda pop, 75 pounds of sugar, and 221 pounds of meat. Yikes! Anyone getting indigestion? Around 2.4 million people are employed the grocery stores that provide this food, and supermarket cashiers earn a about $7.90 per hour on average. It might not be the best paying career on the planet, but hey, it's a living.

In Supermarket Mania, it's time to earn your salt. The big conglomerate Torg Corporation is everywhere, and so you hesitantly decide to get a job working in the Torg Supermarket as a stock girl. You thought you did so well! Well, Mr, Torg did not agree. After being retrenched and replaced by a team of robots, you are lucky enough to find work for the tiny, run-down grocery store owned by Mr. Clarence. The question is, can you help him defeat his old nemesis and run the best supermarket in town?

Throughout the game, your primary goal is to keep the shelves of the supermarket stocked, so that customers can gather all of the items they require without losing patience. As the customers buy items, the shelves deplete, and need to be restocked. Stocking the shelves is done by clicking on them. A shelf does not need to be completely empty in order to be restocked, so it pays to keep up.

You can fill up five stalls with a full food cart (seven with an upgrade). Once empty, you need to refill your cart. To fill your cart, click on the stockroom and wait until the gauge is full. The cart's stock is shown by a gauge on the lower right side of the screen.

In addition to stocking shelves, you must clean up any trash that might trip your customers, and drop it in the recycle bin. If you want a boost of energy, a cup of coffee will really boost your speed...

WHEW!!! Whether you're a food service employee, a grocery chain manager or simply a person who goes shopping, Supermarket Mania from Alawar Entertainment and G5 Entertainment is the time management game for you!! After playing it all the way through (several times), I discovered that there were a lot of things I didn't know about my neighborhood grocery store -- and Supermarket Mania lets you manage ALL of them!

Are you eager to do well on your first day of work? Work as fast as you can and you'll be rewarded! Are you looking for more responsibility? Maybe you want to generate more sales? Work a little harder (and smarter) and you'll be rewarded! Do you want to make your store the best store and take pride in your work? Keep at it -- all the way to the end!!! Just try to get an excellent on all of the levels. (It's not easy!)...

With the price of groceries going up by the minute, Supermarket Mania offers a great deal in keeping you busy for hours avoiding a trip to the grocery store. Like the coffee shop on every corner, Torg has supermarkets all over town giving Nikki little choice but to go work there as a stocker.

Nikki doesn’t like the looks of Torg when scary-looking robots greet her on her first day of work. After four days of excellent work, Mr. Torg fires her and her cashier friend. He activates the robots to run his stores. The girls find a better place in a run down pop store (well, there’s no mom as far as we can see) run by Mr. Clarence. He trusts the girls to run the store alone.

The girls deal with different types of customers who have different styles of shopping. Granny takes her time and has plenty of patience while teens have zero patience and move quickly. Kids tear up the place until you have your security guard friend, Mr. Barefist (I wonder how they came up with that), blow the whistle to stop their antics. Barefist also comes in handy in stopping brazen thieves.

You have two ways to catch a thief. Notify Barefist while the thief has a circle over his head to stop the thief who moves on to the next attempt or leaves the store. Or be patient and let the circle over the thief’s head fill and shake — alert Barefist at that time and you earn a cash bonus. However, the shaky thing doesn’t happen every time so waiting for a full circle could lead to thief getting away with … well, theft.

Upgrades are present ranging from better products that sell for more money and a gumball machine for more tips to a faster loading stockroom and the most expensive one, a bigger cart. As you advance levels more upgrades show up to help keep customer patience from spiraling when so many require your time in stocking the shelves...

Never ever think of managing a supermarket. Its unbelievably hard! And to understand this, you have to try it by yourself in the brand new time management game Supermarket Mania.

You might already know, that in time management games you have to serve customers. But in the Supermarket Mania they can serve themselves pretty well. Well enough to make you busy.

In this game, customers just come to your supermarket and take what they need from showcases. And your job is to keep the showcases full of goods. Because if customers can’t find what they want for a long time, they just leave and you lost the money.

Different customers have different preferences on food. For example, grannies just love sausages. Especially with a milk. Teens are usually don’t get too much. They prefer soda, cakes and the ice-cream. Ladies are buying many different groceries, but just a few from each of them. And gentlemen are always love to buy a lot from almost every showcase...

I could never do an air traffic controller's job - imagine the stress of having to schedule the flight paths of hundreds of giant flying pieces of metal so that they don't crash into each other, run out of fuel, or get behind schedule. South Winds Games and Reflexive figured out the fact that all this coordinating and juggling could make a decent time management game, and as it turns out, they were right.

Airport Mania: First Flight offers a nice change of pace in that for once you aren't controlling a pretty young girl. Instead, gameplay takes place in eight different airports across 84 levels where you'll be directing planes as they land, unload and load passengers and take off again - as well as painting, refuelling or making repairs as needed.

These actions are accomplished through some deft mouse-clicking and planning ahead. As a plane circles the airport, you can get it to land by clicking on a free runway. Then, you must taxi the plane over to a gate to unload passengers and pick up new ones. If the plane needs refuelling or repairs (as indicated by the appropriate icon flashing overhead), then you can direct it to the appropriate garage area. When finished, click on another free runway to make the plane take off and collect the last of your cash.

If things get especially hectic you can direct a place into a layover area to wait until a runway or gate frees itself up. Like Diner Dash, where you get bonus points for matching customers of a certain color to tables of the same color, you get a bonus multiplier in Airport Mania if you match a plane with the same colored gate. In later levels you earn the ability to paint planes a different color to keep your multiplier going. You can also pull off combo landings and take-offs by doing more than one of them in rapid succession on the same runway.

In between levels you can buy upgrades for the airport such as new and improved gates, runways and layover spaces, the ability to play an in-flight movie to make all circling planes happier or to serve food to please all grounded aircraft, short- and long-range radar to see which color of planes are approaching, and a fan to blow fog away. Interestingly, you can also sell back anything you've purchased at any time if you realize you don't need it after all or want to try a new strategy.

Airport Mania from South Winds Games is a time management sim that drops all the trite settings and food-related themes we've grown tired of in the genre. Instead of serving cake or pizza or sandwiches, your job is to direct airplanes, load passengers, and make sure everything runs smoothly. All of this is accomplished with a simple interface and airplanes that are too cute for their own good. And unlike real airports, you can actually have flights arrive on time or even early!

Planes appear at the top of the screen, flying back and forth until you tell them which runway to land on. After touching down, direct planes to an empty gate where passengers are unloaded and new passengers boarded. Then it's back to the runway to take off once again. Sometimes a plane will need to re-fuel between groups of passengers, in which case you simply direct it to the repair station.

The basic structure of the game is simple and only a few events come along to change things around. Sometimes a plane will be carrying urgent cargo and must take priority over other flights, while other times weather conditions will alter your plans. Between each of the game's 84 levels you'll visit the store where you can buy new structures for your airport or upgrade existing ones to be faster/better.

You will get money rewards everytime you land a plane, and service it on time without any problems, which one can use to upgrade the airport with more runways, VIP areas, and passenger’s dispatch areas.

There is a lot of variation of planes which a user can get in the airspace of the airport which have individual patience level, if you leave airplanes in the flying on top of your airport or you leave them waiting for a long time in the airstrip, you will loose the sale which will stop you from reaching the daily quota.

LucidLAN recommends this game for the full fun and enjoyment that Reflexive Entertainment has put in Airport managment all packed in the upcoming Airport Mania. Airport Mania is schedule for release in April 2008

So, hopefully, you are ready to take up a job with a high responsibility level. You are going to be an air traffic controller. You'll work in 8 different airports that take over 80 levels of crazy and hectic dicision making.

Your job is to land the planes on free runways, that you get it to a gate to unload the passangers and pick up the new ones. The planes may sometimes need some repairs or refueling. In this case you take them to a special garage area.

I guess you understand that this all becomes very chaotic soon. It means that you are to plan ahead and make quick decisions. You can line up the actions by clicking on the appropriate items. Whenever you change your mind you can cancel the action any time.

I admit, I was worried that a sequel to Build-a-lot could not recapture the ambience of the original game, which I truly love. However, developer HipSoft managed to keep all that was good about the first game and add some fantastic new features that only increase the overall enjoyment. Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year really delivers the goods. (Or is that materials? Ha! A little Build-a-lot humor there...)

For those who have not played Build-a-lot, let me explain a little about how the game works. The story takes place in a series of towns where the locals want to expand and improve their properties. As a contractor, you'll spend time in each town completing assignments that meet the requirements of the local leaders in order to progress to the next level. Completing the goals quickly earns a gold ribbon.

In this real estate development simulation, the local leader of each town will give you a set of goals to accomplish as well as a time limit in which to complete the level. Goals can include building certain homes, raising the town's appeal rating, earning significant amounts of cash and more.

You will build various houses, buildings, shops and parks according to the goals of each level. The houses range in style from small bungalows to giant palaces, featuring brand new designs from the first game. You can earn rental income from the homes you build, or sell them for huge profits.

Support buildings, such as workshops and recycling centers, can help you along the way, providing deep discounts for training new construction workers and super cheap building materials. Other structures, like the coffee shop, can give you an added income. A variety of parks, including a play park for the kids and elegant Zen parks, increase the overall appeal rating of your towns while providing lovely scenic touches.

You will need to learn how to manage your cash carefully, since you'll have to spend money to make money. Materials can be expensive but there are several ways you can earn income. Selling homes that you own can give you quick financial boosts, but leave you short on properties in the end. The bulk of your income in most levels will come from the rent you collect from your homes. Shops, like the coffee shop, will pay you every month with the new profit sharing feature and banks can dish out significant amounts of interest. Finding the right balance for each town can be challenging.

Build-a-lot 2 boasts several new features and improvements over the original game. You now have the ability to custom paint any homes you own or build. This may not sound like much, but I found that it really broke the monotony that can set in when building several homes all in the same style. Painting the houses also gives you a nice bonus to your town's appeal rating, increasing the overall value of your properties...

I think most of you have at least tried the first title of the series - Build-a-lot. And most of those who tried couldn't stop playing. Well, for me it was like this. So I am really happy to tell you about the sequel to our favorite strategy game - Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year.

This time the Mayors of 8 towns taking part in the Town of the Year competition will invite you to complete their projects and help them get the towns ready for the contest. From Maple Creek to View Haven - you are welcome to build the town of your dream! Surely, each Mayor has his own plans and vision of his kingdom development, so your tasks on each level will be absolutely different. But all of them challenging, that's what I can say without doubt!

The game play is basically the same as in the first part - you draft blueprints, construct or buy houses, upgrade them (meet a great new feature - paint the houses in any colour you wish to increase social appeal of the vicinity), repair if necessary, than sell them for profit or demolish if they are no more needed - whatever you like. You will also build parks, shops and other buildings making every neighbourhood much more attractive for citizens...

Late last year HipSoft released Build-a-lot, a casual real estate tycoon sim where you buy and construct houses, raise their value, and stack piles of cash behind your desk. The successful paring down of a complex subject matter was a huge hit, and we learned just how fun it can be to have the power of bulldozers and million dollar incomes at our disposal. The sequel, Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year, has just been released, and a critical question immediately came to mind: why not call it Build-a-lot-more? Ok ok, so I'm no marketing genius, but according to this game, I might be a real estate whiz.

The over-arching theme of Build-a-lot 2 is to improve each town's value by meeting goals set by each area's mayor. Tasks range from building a number of houses/buildings to earning a set amount of cash or increasing rent income to a certain level. All the while you must manage three things: cash, workers, and materials. Money rules them all and is used for every action you take. With money you must ensure you have enough materials to build new houses or upgrade and repair existing ones. Workers are necessary to carry out your plans, and the more you have the more jobs you can undertake at once.

Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year doesn't deviate much from the formula established by its predecessor, which is a very good thing. With a few simple mouse clicks you travel from town to town buying up empty lots and building houses in their stead. After drafting the right blueprints you can build several types of houses, each requiring more upkeep, materials and resources to construct. Bigger houses bring in more rent, and in order to meet each level's goal, you'll have to rake in as much cash as you can...

It’s quite amazing that our review of the first Build-a-lot game immediately took place after we transferred here at Casualicious dot Com (coming from Blogspot). And now, I guess it’s just like an anniversary as we get to review HipSoft’s much awaited sequel to the real estate Time Management simulation game. So without further ado, I now present the Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year game review.

The Build-a-lot 2: Town of the Year game, as well as the first Build-a-lot game gets you to fill in the shoes of a real estate developer, whose task is to satisfy construction requests from your local clients. And on the case of this game, your clients are the mayors of each of the town you get to have projects on, themselves. Fulfill the requests, learn the ropes of real estate planning, and of course, earn money and reputation in the process. And if you’re good enough (or fast enough since this is a Time Management game), you get to have some of those shiny badges too for all your efforts...

Don't glance at our 3 out of 5-star rating for this game and write it off as a waste of time - on the contrary, we had fun with Ice Cream Mania - but it plays just like the other five dozen time management games available today. In the end, it's simply an average yet entertaining downloadable diversion that, at the very least, is worth playing the 60-minute free trial.

In the comic book-like presentation you learn that ice cream magnate Henry Rich has died, leaving the family to fight over his wealth. But according to Rich's will, each of his two daughters must start a business from scratch, and whoever makes the most money within a year will inherit the entire family fortune. You play as Cindy, whose honorable intentions are to keep her father's ice cream legacy alive, while her greedy sister simply wants her father's cash to spend it frivolously.

As you can tell, Ice Cream Mania starts out with a promising premise, but the developers don't run with it. In fact, you don't hear about the other sister while you're playing the game, therefore you lose your motivation to keep going. It would've been great if additional cut-scene story sequences showed your mean sister's progress to help give you more incentive to win. Ah well.

In the game-play department, though, Ice Cream Mania, while predictable, is fun. Not unlike Cake Mania-style restaurant games, here you're in charge of an ice cream stand and must serve ice cream to suit a customer's taste. Customers will belly up to the counter and a visual representation of what they want can be seen about their head. So after you give them a menu you might see that a headphone-wearing girl wants a yellow scoop of ice cream (lemon gelato?) in a regular cone and with chocolate sauce. In this case you'll click the yellow button on the ice cream machine (instead of blue, red or green), then click on the appropriate cone from a list of cones and cup styles, and then on the topping station select the brown button for chocolate sauce instead of vanilla or strawberry. Give it to the customer before they lose patience and they'll leave a tip, which you'll click on to pocket...

This time-management game gets you involved into the race for the fortune. But, of course, there's so much more than that.

So according to the story you are one the two daughters of an ice cream magnate Henry Rich. According to his will you need to compete with your sister now for the wealth he left.

The one who will eventually run her own business most successfully will get the entire father's fortune. But it's all about money for the other sister only, not for you. Your character isn't like that - she wants to keep her father's business alive. While your sister is doing it just out of her greed and desire to get the cash...

The casual game industry has unearthed another farm / gardening game. Magic Farm - not to be confused with Magic Seeds - makes a nice entry into the world of sims and role-playing games (RPGs). Gameplay and scenery resemble both the recently released Bloom Busters and Grimm's Hatchery, but although the game isn't original, it offers many elements to avoid being just another clone with a new theme.

Magic Farm charms and enchants especially thanks to Robin, the dragon help mate. Robin helps a young girl with no name find her missing beloved parents. To find her parents, she needs to work on a farm to raise money for trips and trades with the townspeople. Finding her parents only takes up half of the game. The other half sends the girl on quests where she completes a variety of tasks.

The town folk guide the girl on her journey, buy plants from her, and sell items to help her. Managing the farm requires staying on top of food and water supplies, beating off monsters and bugs with a stick or whatever tool at hand, feeding plants, and gathering bloomed flowers. A level lasts for one day, so a clock appears to show how much of the day is left. The timing of a day changes - it's not clear how this works.

Robin helps with all the tasks and, unlike other games involving a helper, does a great job of not crashing into the girl while working. He's a pleasure to have around as company and never annoys while the two work hard cultivating the variety of beautiful plants. The two travel from farm to farm and discover new plants and more aggressive bugs and monsters...

Bloom Busters, Magic Seeds, Alice Greenfingers … now Magic Farm — another another farm / gardening game. Unlike the others, it has a touch of role-playing games (RPG), but it won’t turn off those not interested in RPG — I promise.

If you’ve played Bloom Busters or Grimm’s Hatchery — you’ll notice some similarities. However, I’d say this one offers more adventure and variety than Bloom Busters. Grimm’s Hatchery runs a different type of business and both games have features the other doesn’t have.

The game brings many features that you can’t say it’s another clone with a different theme. In fact, it has its own special charm because of the dragon help mate named Robin. The girl (whose shoes we fill) in the game has no name.

The amazing Robin does as many tasks as we do and does a better job of it than other games with a helper. Robin rarely clashes into our character and works hard. As the dragon gains experience, his skills improve making him faster and stronger in doing tasks.

It’s nice having company on their travels from farm to farm where they also discover new plants and battle more aggressive bugs and monsters. The two start with a journey to find the girl’s missing parents. Along the way, she needs to earn money, which she does by raising and selling plants...

Magic Farm is a sim game in the style of Alice Greenfingers and others where your time management and business tycoon skills are tested in building a thriving business.

This game certainly has it's challenges, with the flowers needing water being the most important task of all. If they don't get enough water you get a minus amount and your savings goes backwards...

Introduction & Game details

Before starting the game you have to setup your profile, once this is done you can gain access to the main menu, which has four buttons Campaign, Options, a blank one, and Exit. A this point I’m assuming that the blank button may give rise to an arcade option once you’ve played a specific part of the campaign mode, though searching the net for information at this point was fruitless as apart from one reference that points to today’s giveaway there’s no other reference to this game yet, which would indicate that it’s a new release? There seems to be no ability to set up multiple profiles of this game, so only one person can play the game at a time unless you are willing to install the game to different locations on your computer, or better still on more than one computer. The options menu allows you to control the music and sound effects (see the notes section below) and gives you toggles for Full Screen/Windowed mode, a 3D Accelerator (see notes for a link to an explanation) and a Special Cursor, all of which are on by default.


The Game

Despite there being no help menu or how to play instuctions, you do get ‘on screen’ prompts and information windows. When in town if a a character appears in the foreground, and your cursor changes to a mouthjust click on the character for dialogue. The initial story you get from the first person you meet tells you to earn some cash so that you can hire a detective to find your parents (the main character is a young woman). Once the dialogue ends you have to click on the button above that says “To the Farm”. Clicking on the character in the foreground again, once this has passed does initiate another response that basically says “have you brought the cash” and “try to earn it faster, as time is of the essence” Whenever you are in this particular dialogue screen you can return to the levels map, or as it’s called in this game, ‘The Global Map. Anyway, here’s where the actual game play starts. It’s on the same lines as Funky Farm (though much more entertaining)whereby you have to earn cash by creating produce; in this case it’s flowers rather than cattle. It’s as simple as that. The game play is relatively easy (or so I thought). You work day by day. The time of day can be seen with a quaint looking clock to the top left of the screen. To pause the game click on the space bar and to exit or return to the options menu click on Esc. Your game is automatically saved when you exit. On returning you are given the option of returning to where you left off, or starting a new game. If you choose the latter you have to go through the whole dialogue process again as the Go to Farm button remains inactive till you’ve scrolled through all the dialogue...