This article was originally published for Site of the Gaming Dead, a now-defunct video game blog, on August 13, 2010. I have done my best to recreate the article here, including images (where possible).
The fourth installment in PlayFirst’s Wedding Dash series sees the return of wedding planner Quinn, along with her roomie and familiar face Flo, star of the best-selling Diner Dash series of games. Quinn’s own wedding with photographer hottie Joe was called off in the last game, but her well-meaning mother Lynn, a former Miss Texas, hasn’t heard…and Quinn’s terrified of telling her. While avoiding telling her mother the truth, Quinn and Flo have to put up with Lynn interfering in their joint wedding planning-and-catering business, for better…or for worse.
Wedding Dash 4-Ever is fast-paced fun, combining hidden object fun with time management strategy, thoughtful puzzles, and a humorous, romantic storyline with good replay value.
If you love Diner Dash, Wedding Dash 4-Ever has all the best elements (including Flo herself!), plus a lot more action; in WD4, you control both Flo, waiting on wedding guests at the reception, and planner extraordinaire Quinn, responsible for everything from seating guests at the ceremony to starting up conga lines. There are precious few milliseconds when you won’t be glancing somewhere, clicking on something, and formulating your next move.
The game is divided into levels, with each level representing an exclusive wedding venue. Quinn, Flo, and Lynn move their way through that one venue and several wedding ceremonies, receptions, and even conga lines. While there, Quinn also has to locate a few misplaced items, speed up the chef’s preparation of the meals, and aid with anything else that may come up, whether it’s guest requests or party crashers.
You get points for quickly responding to the guest or wedding party’s needs: seating people near one another, eating a certain meal, or groovin’ on the dance floor. Once you reach the goal for the stage, you can keep scoring to reach the Expert Goal. Both reward you with tokens that you can use to upgrade your wedding services, including speedier sneakers for Flo, faster food prep, or prettier wedding decorations. If you manage to locate the bride and groom’s lost items before you send the last guest to the dance floor, you can also earn a “gift” for Quinn’s own wedding…yeah, the wedding with Joe that she called off. THAT wedding.
Thankfully, unlike some of the other Dash games, Wedding Dash doesn’t have a steep gameplay curve: you can easily progress your way through the levels without getting abruptly stuck on one in the middle, because it went from “fun and fast” to “ridiculously challenging” in the space of one bouquet toss. There’s still a challenge to be had in every single play-through, whether it’s figuring out how to seat impatient Mei Ling when she doesn’t want to have anything do with speedy eater Maricruz, or how to get every guest in the conga line for maximum token acquisition.
The game can be abysmally slow when you’re waiting for new stages or levels to load, or, if you’re in the mood for a “story,” watch the comics that keep Quinn’s personal wedding story flowing. Besides that, the game is decidedly fun to play and is almost addictive in that you can’t really just play one stage. It doesn’t have all the same features as previous Wedding Dash titles, such as helping the bridal party pick out things like the cake and decorations, but it replaces that one tiny element with challenges that last a lot longer and add more replay value to the game. It’s not ridiculously easy meeting every goal, let alone getting Expert Goal status or finding all the collectible items that Quinn needs to earn her own “big day.”
If you enjoy casual games, Wedding Dash 4-Ever is sure to please; without the constant need to save, it’s a joy to play again and again…whenever you feel like it, till hard drive failure (heaven forbid!) do you part.
Wedding Dash 4-Ever is available via PlayFirst’s website, or their download partner Big Fish Games, for $6.99, for both Mac and PC.