Let's Take a Road Trip!

The Little Shop series has brought us a lot of fun. It all started with Little Shop of Treasures, where you had to throw a huge garage sale to earn enough money to fix your shop up. Then, in the sequel, you were helping out stores all over town sort through their cluttered messes. Along came another sequel that had you running an even bigger store! Your character deserves a break, wouldn't you agree?

Well, it's finally happening! You've packed up your stuff, picked up a cheap trailer (you always had a keen eye for bargains) and headed off on a road trip across the country. However, it's not all fun and games. The workaholic that you are, you just can't help but think of your shop while you're supposed to be relaxing! So here you are, venturing across the country, hunting down unique objects for your store back home.

Heck of a road trip, right?

Get Back to the Hunt!

This franchise has always had top-notch gameplay and this latest installment only improves on an already amazing formula. In each stage, there's a large assortment of stuff for you to find. You have to find at least 10 of the objects on your list, but if you find 15 you'll earn a gold star and receive more points. The way the list format works here is that you're given five items at a time to search for, which are listed in bubbles at the bottom of the screen. Once you find something, another bubble pops up to replace what you've found, until you've found all 15 items.

However, there's more to search for than just what's on your list. For example, if you find any question marks, click them to get extra hints. Hints are also handled in a unique way. Instead of revealing the location of an item, it will turn all five things listed at the bottom of the screen into pictures of the objects, making for easy reference. It's only those five items, however, and it doesn't last long.

Among the listed pieces and the question marks, you can also keep an eye out for license plates and squirrels. Finding all of these in the game will unlock special trophies. The trophies themselves don't do anything, but trying to collect them all ensures that you'll be enjoying this game for a while.

Finally, each stage hides at least one magnet and thermometer, which can help tremendously if found. Each will help you locate five items; the magnet will point in the direction of nearby items and the thermometer will tell you how hot or cold you are to each.

Best of the Series

Little Shop: Road Trip is the best installment so far in the already great Little Shop series. It retains all of things that made the earlier games great while continuing to add unique and clever twists to the genre. It's incredibly addictive - but I'll leave you to decide whether or not that's a good thing.

If you've ever enjoyed a hidden objects game, I can guarantee that you won't regret picking this one up.