Betty's Beer Bar Review

You're a girl who grew up in the country as a farmer's daughter. But you didn't want to live in the verdant green pastures, no no. You want to own your own island in the Caribbean someday. So when you turn 18 (or 21), you move to the city, and somehow stumble into a crummy local bar that needs a barkeep.

And the saga begins.

If you are a Cake Mania or Diner Dash fan (or junkie), aside from the plot, this game is hardly any different from those games. Stop reading this review, go download the demo, and judge for yourself if the story is worth buying.

For the rest of you, Betty's Beer Bar is a service game. To explain, basically your obective is to fill beer mugs with beer, wait for customers to arrive, serve the beer to them until they leave, and collect tips from them. The faster you serve, the bigger your tip.

Clean glasses (you have a sink) give you extra tips. Coffee is used to wake up passed out customers so they can drink more and tip you.

There are three ways to play, and win.

In story mode, you save up your tips from your days' work. Once you save up enough tips, you get to advance to a newer, cleaner bar counter, until eventually you get to the Caribbean, your ultimate goal.

In timed mode, you serve customers as fast as you can to make the most money you can. Once the timer's done, your score is tabulated and entered into the high score charts on the BBB official site.

Free mode is a relaxed version where you can serve beers all day, all night, as long as you want. No official score counters or anything, but it's supposed to be fun.

The graphics are cartoony, but not in a charming way. Then again, I'd hardly expect a prison inmate or a belly dancer to look particularly cute. There's not really anything adult about the game except the beer, the occasional cleavage from a belly dancer. Nothing serious.

On the plus side, there are indeed a wide array of characters who come to your bar. You can see prison inmates, nuns, lil old women in black dresses (a death in the family that needs recovering from?), bears (what a surprise), societal underachievers in tank tops, superheroes, pirates, and even aliens! It is mildly interesting to note your customers and their actions. And there are only more and stranger in future levels.

The sound and music are decent. Nothing pushing the envelope or anything. But then again, it's more about the game than the graphics, or the music.

While it's not very original, it is made very well. And it's worth playing all the way through, especially if you want to know how Betty does in the end get that Caribbean Island!