Katy and Bob: Way Back Home, a fast-paced time management game, finds us teamed up with two spoiled teenagers of the affluent type forced to work for the first time in their lives. With action-packed levels, picky customers, and a full bar menu to serve, this time management game will have you hitting replay again and again in order to hit expert rankings.
Katy and Bob: Way Back Home, a fast-paced time management game, finds us teamed up with two spoiled teenagers of the affluent type forced to work for the first time in their lives. With action-packed levels, picky customers, and a full bar menu to serve, this time management game will have you hitting replay again and again in order to hit expert rankings.
Didn’t I just do this? I had no sooner finished Burger Bustle: Ellie’s Organics, when I spotted Katy and Bob: Way Back Home and knew I had to try it. It seems lately there are a lot of time management games in the new release list, and I have to say that I’m surprised that most of them have been pretty worthy of the hours and hours I’ve devoted to them.
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Katy and Bob: Way Back Home has a somewhat played out story. A frantic father is desperate to instill some kind of work ethic in his two spoiled teenagers, Katy and Bob, and, as a last ditch effort, he maroons them on an island and gives them 60 days to earn the cash needed to come back home to papa. I’m thinking maybe he shouldn’t have just given them everything they wanted in life and spare us the dramatics, but hey, where’s the fun in that?
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Forced to earn money that doesn’t come on a plastic American Express card, Katy and Bob go to work at a local bar. Katy waits tables and does most of the work, while Bob chills out behind the bar and occasionally makes a cocktail or two. Seriously? The kid can’t even do a bar trick or two? Where’s Tom Cruise when you need him?
Anyhow, the levels begin slow and easy. You have a certain monetary goal you have to achieve on each level and then a task of some sort that usually involves serving a certain amount of people in a row or setting off some fireworks as entertainment. At first, I didn’t have too much trouble meeting the expert levels. Then somewhere around day 10, I started losing my touch… or the levels started to get really hard. Let’s go with the latter and spare my poor reflexes ok?
What was the problem? Well, the first issue I was having, and this seems to be a problem with me and time management games, was that I wasn’t focused entirely on the tasks. They started getting pretty difficult, like serve 7 people in a row. Well… there are only 5 tables, so you really have to focus on getting that task done at the right moment.
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While I was busy serving customers, waiting for that right moment, the amount of tasks started to snowball. All of a sudden, there were a bunch of different options for people to order with all different kinds of crazy combinations.
Some people wanted their cocktails chilled. Others, chilled with a lemon slice in it. Some people wanted an orange. Some wanted orange juice. Others wanted orange juice with a lemon. And yes, with my over 30 eyes, it was sometimes a challenge to see that little slice of lemon in their order bubble… which resulted in me screaming at the person, “Why won’t you take this!!! This is what you ordered!! Oh wait...”
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So, as you can gather from my struggles, Katy and Bob: Way Back Home is a pretty challenging time management game. The gameplay is very similar to the Diner Dash games – a click and serve kind of play.
Your customers’ patience will vary depending on their type, so you have to make sure you serve the people who lose their patience quickly first, like surfers, divers, and snotty teenagers. If you don’t, their mood will begin to affect the other customers, and the only items you have to combat angry bar patrons is water and fireworks… yeah, I’m not sure that makes sense to me either.
I mean, I don’t know about you, but if I’m cranky at a restaurant, and you bring me water as a way to calm me… there’s a chance I flip out. “Hi mam, we know that the food was cold, and you found a hair in the quiche, so to make it up to you, we’re bringing you this ice cold glass of water… on the house.” Really? Bring me free food, yes. A free cocktail, even better. But water? Does not compute.
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Despite my issues with the water, for the most part, Katy and Bob: Way Back Home was a fun little time management game that entertained and challenged me. There were moments when I felt the levels starting to get a little monotonous, but then they added a new menu item or garnish to frazzle me all over again. Of course, the margarita I was sipping as I played could have something to do with that too… what?! Don’t judge me! The game made me thirsty! Cheers!
