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Genre: Arcade

Developer: Big Fish Games

Minimum System Requirements: 400MHz G3, Mac OS X, 128MB VRAM

Price: $19.99

Demo: 26MB (must provide e-mail address)

While at work the other day, I got a call from my wife. This is not a rare thing, as she'll often call me with a grocery list or some interesting story about our kids. ("Did you teach Sophie the lyrics to Spider-Man?" she'll ask. "She won't quit singing it." "No," I'll lie, "she must've picked them up from the TV.") Imagine my surprise, then, when Tieraney had no stories or requests, but just wanted to ask, "Why didn't you tell me about this Mystic Inn game?"

Now, first of all, I had no idea Tieraney ever bothered to turn on my computer during the day. Second, I'm glad to see she's comfortable enough with OS X to navigate her way to my games folder. Third, who knew she had time to play games with a two-year-old and two-month-old at home. But, like me, she's apparently found a way to make time for the things she wants to do. Right now, that's play Mystic Inn.

Mystic Inn is the latest title from Big Fish Games, the company that's been bringing Mac users a lot of shareware games as of late. Most of them are pretty good, and Mystic Inn is a bit better, but with a caveat. When I first played Mystic Inn, I thought it reminded me of an old arcade game called Tapper (later renamed Root Beer Tapper to avoid the accusation that it's teaching kids to serve and drink beer, I guess). But then, while watching SpongeBob SquarePants with my daughter (not that I need her around to have a reason to watch SpongeBob), I saw a brief ad for an online SpongeBob video game that featured gameplay just like Mystic Inn. I've since learned of a game called Wild West Wendy that's pretty much the same thing, and even Big Fish Games has titles for the PC called Diner Dash 2, Cake Mania and Snowy Lunch Rush that all look very familiar.

That Mystic Inn is a copy of a previous game is not a big deal (Ambrosia made their name by copying old video games and giving them their own flare), I just want readers to know they may have played this game before.

The premise here is that a woman named Daphne takes a job at the Mystic Inn, and she finds herself ensnared by the enchanted establishment. Trapped, her only hope is to raise money serving patrons so she can buy enough upgrades to break the spell. If that doesn't sound all that interesting, don't worry about it. The fun's in the gameplay, not the premise.

At the beginning of each level, a party of customers will arrive at the hostess station. Daphne seats them. They order. She takes their order. Their order arrives at the bar. Daphne retrieves their order. She serves the customers. They leave. She retrieves their payment. Repeat.

Again, this doesn't sound like much, but as the number of customers and tables starts to grow, and as their orders (potions, defined by color) become more complex, and as the owl arrives for takeout orders, and as dragons come to steal the potions, things start to get quite frantic. You'll find yourself juggling multiple parties at once, queueing up your next steps as you try to stay on top of the impatient customers.

All of this is handled with the mouse. As customers show up, you click on them and then click on the table where you want them seated. After they indicate they're ready to order (they raise their hand and a stopwatch appears above their head), you click on them to see what they want. If you don't do this before the stopwatch reaches zero, they leave and you lose their business. After you click on them, a type of potion and the quantity they want will appear. You then click on the corresponding potion the proper number of times in the order interface, and the potions will begin to flow around the bar. Click on the bar to pick them up, then click again on the party before their new stopwatch reaches zero to deliver the potions. They'll drink them, then either leave or order more. At the end of each level, you've hopefully raised enough money to advance to the next.

You need to do all of this quickly not only to serve them in time, but to clear them out for the next round of customers. When you start to get behind in later levels, there are various devices you can use to keep the customers distracted, such as a juggling frog or some nice music on the harp. I can honestly say I'd be more likely to deal with the wait outside of Red Lobster or the Olive Garden if I could watch a juggling frog while waiting to be seated.

These power ups and others (such as the ability to speed up or to freeze time) are acquired in the potion building mini game that comes along every five levels. Here, graphics float quickly up the screen. You must click on the corresponding graphic on your potion shelf before it disappears off the screen. This is kind of a stressful task at first, but because it doesn't vary much as you repeat the game, it actually becomes quite easy after a couple of rounds.

Aside from a couple other surprises, that's pretty much it to Mystic Inn. Arcade games like this don't need much more than that, though. They're supposed to be mere distractions, simple enough to pick up right away but complex enough to be addictive. I didn't find it all that difficult, making it through about twenty levels before it became challenging. My wife became quite addicted to Mystic Inn, however, and played it enough to finish all 50 levels in two days. (What were my kids doing while she was playing, I wonder?)

Whether you need to download and pay for a version of this game rather than playing it online, though, depends upon what you want with a game. If you're looking for nicely refined graphics and good music (although somewhat disconnected from the game's setting), buy Mystic Inn. If you're happy with SpongeBob, play it online. If you're not sure, download the demo and give it a run. I think you'll make the right decision.

Just be sure to tell your spouse about the game so you don't get yelled at later.

Download Mystic Inn.