Earn Some Dough, Make It Show!
Ah, your good old uncle Roy. He's always been such a nice guy and now he's been nice enough to hand his old gas station over to you. Unfortunately, Roy isn't the rich uncle that everyone dreams about. The gas station isn't exactly in the best of shape, so it's up to you to raise some funds to help dress the place back up. Thankfully, Roy has made a lot of friends in the neighborhood and these fellow business owners are more than happy to lend a helping hand.
In exchange for watching over their stores for the day, you get to keep all of the receipts! Their shops can be quite cluttered, so the incoming customers will need some help looking for their things. They'll want everything from imported dolls to toasters, wind chimes to pelicans. Yes, pelicans.
After collecting a certain amount of money, you'll be able to upgrade one portion of your uncle's gas station. The first step is a fresh coat of paint, providing a whole new look to an otherwise old and drab building. From there, you'll get a whole series of fun upgrades, transforming the gas station into quite the looker in no time!
Five Customers At a Time
Each day, you'll be taking over the helm of one of the local businesses or a local event of some sort. These can range from craft fairs to beach shops, with the products available at these sales will vary accordingly. For example, the craft fair may be home to all sorts of interesting trinkets from the four corners of the globe, whereas the beach shop is where you may find a flipper, sunscreen, and a duck.
In order to pass each day, you will need to serve at least 10 customers within the time alloted. To earn a gold star, you'll have to serve all 15 customers within the same time period. The challenge can be quite great, because the illustrations in this game are among the most detailed I have ever encountered. Keep an eye on the clock in the upper-right corner so that you know how much longer you have to find all of these items.
It's also quite notable that while your goal is to help 10 or 15 customers, only five clients will appear at any given time. They'll chime in at the bottom of the screen to tell you what they're looking for, whether it be a compass or an open book. This is based on a word or words, so use your imagination in interpreting their requests. For example, a "king" may refer to an actual person or to a chess piece.
A Little Visual Stimulation
Unlike other hidden objects games that you may have played in the past, the "hint" tool in this title is a little different. Instead of automatically highlighting one of the items on the screen, it instead replaces all the customers' words with actual images of the products they seek. This can be infinitely helpful for things like gloves that can be of any color. Knowing that you're looking for a red glove is very useful. From what I experienced, this "hint" is time-based -- it expires after a certain time has passed -- and will show all five customer requests.
To collect more hints, simply seek out the hidden question marks in the scene. Every stage will have at least one for you to find.
