Delicious is a series of time management casual games, developed by Zylom Studios, and published by Zylom. The games tell the story of Emily, a waitress who aspires to one day run her own restaurant, and who works in several other restaurants in order to earn the money to make her dream come true.
After releasing three first games, Zylom decided to "renew" the series by adding some factors to make Emily's world become more memorable and natural. As a result, from the fourth game, the series have been receiving high appreciation from casual game critics and gamers. The latest and seventh game, Delicious: Emily's True Love, was received a full 5-star review from Gamezebo.
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The idea for Delicious was thought of in 2005, by Jakko van Hunen, who was the game designer for the first two games.
Delicious was released on July 13, 2006, and challenged players to successfully run seven restaurants of five days each. The first delicious game did not have much of a storyline, and focused only on the game play. Restaurant decorations were also automatically rewarded.
In November 2006, a special edition of Delicious was released: Delicious: Winter Edition. This was essentially the first game, but with a special winter / Christmas theme.
Gamezebo originally rated the game 3.5 out of 5 stars.
In 2007, Delicious was nominated for the Best Casual Game of the Year 2006.
Delicious 2 was released on June 29, 2007 and offered players a number of new features, such as decorating your restaurant yourself, the possibility to put items on your plate ahead of time rather than when it was ordered, trophies for special achievements, and a storyline with cut scenes. Delicious 2 contained five 10-day restaurants to play through.
In Delicious 2, Emily is asked by her Uncle Antonio to help him when his son Marcello runs off and leaves Antonio with no one to run his restaurants.
Like Delicious, Gamezebo rated the game 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Delicious 3 or Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden was released on September 24, 2008. The game held on to the solid basis of Delicious 2, and mainly offered a bigger variety in dishes, reservations and a mini-game in which you collected mice.
In Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden, Emily wants to pursue her dream of running her own tea garden. In order to apply for a loan at the bank, Uncle Antonio helps her to get a waiting job at a friend's restaurant so she can earn the money needed. Through referrals, Emily gets to work at four other restaurants before she can finally open her very own tea garden.
Like other first two games, Gamezebo rated the game 3.5 out of 5 stars.
Delicious 4 or Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame was released on June 3, 2009. The game takes the series to the next level by challenging players with special events that change daily, and need to be completed besides the normal time management gameplay. For instance, while running a restaurant, you will need to take packages from the postman, help a lady find her pearls, or keep the place clean while a car mechanic is fixing your car.[1]
In Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame, Emily is offered a chance to host her own cooking show on television. Players follow her as she travels to the studio, but her car breaks down on the way and as she tries to find help getting her car fixed, she lends a helping hand to others.
One of the new features in this game, which is a first in its genre, is how the story is not told through classic cut-scenes, but during gameplay. Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame has a cast of more than 30 characters, the largest cast of talking characters and the largest number of emotions per character of any casual time management game.[2]
Gamezebo rated the game 4.5 out of 5 stars, marking the first critical acclaim for the series.
Delicious: Emily's Taste of Fame was nominated three times by the 2010 GameHouse Great Game Awards in these categories:
And won a 2010 GameHouse Great Game Award in the category "Top Time Management Game".
On November 18, 2009, Delicious 5 was released as Delicious: Emily's Holiday Season. Emily settled in a little town called Snuggford to celebrate the holidays together with her friends and family. Besides that, two handsome young men are being introduced to Emily’s life. The names of these young men are Paul and Richard, whom Emily finds herself having to choose between, as well as dealing with problems among friends and family.
Gamezebo rated the game 4 out of 5 stars, and praised the well-written story and dialogue. In fact, the story and the dialogue are not only a decoration to the game but an important part of it,involving actively the player into the dialogue. Emily becomes a character with feelings and hopes.
Delicious 6 or Delicious: Emily's Childhood Memories was first released as Premium Edition on February 3, 2011.
This time Emily is going to the house she grew up in as child because her parents are about to sell it. While there, she along with her sister Angela, father, mother and friend Francois remember all the things that happened to them at the house, from Angela's baby days till meeting Francois for the first time and until Emily's prom night.
At the end Emily discovers the real reason as to why her parents are selling the house - they have financial problems but after obtaining the money they need they still sell the house so a new family could create their own memories there.
Gamezebo rated the game 4.5 out of 5 stars, marking the second critical acclaim for the series.
Delicious 7 or Delicious: Emily’s True Love was released as Premium Edition on November 30, 2011. The new Delicious game takes place one year after Emily has opened her own restaurant. Her restaurant is doing all right, until a love letter arrives and turns her world upside down.
Gamezebo rated the game 5 out of 5 stars, and it is the first game in the series to do so.
In the Delicious games, players take the role of Emily, and are given the task to run a restaurant. Customers come in, alone or in a group, and choose to either sit down at a table or take out. Emily must serve them their order, and accept payment, before they become impatient and leave. Order sizes vary from 1 to 2 items for a single customer, and up to 4 items for a group. Fast service and entertainment, along with creative restaurant decorating, can keep the customers happy and result in a bigger tip.
There are a number of types of items that customers can order, which increases in number and complexity as the game progresses.
- Items that are ready to serve, and have no limit capacity. When ordered, these items can be served right away, without preparing or restocking.
- Items that need to be combined, and restocked after a few servings. Nachos, for instance, need to be combined with a dip before they can be served. The Nacho-machine holds only a number of servings, and needs to be refilled when or before it's empty, before nachos can be served again.
- Items that are first combined, and then stocked up to 9 items. Ice cream for instance is made by combining basic vanilla ice cream with a choice of fruit.
- Items that are first grilled or baked, and then prepared. Crepes for instance are first baked a few seconds, and are then combined with ice cream. Steaks can be prepared as medium or well-done, depending on how long it's grilled. These items will burn if they are baked too long though.
- Items that are prepared using a timer that must be stopped in time, such as crème brûlée or profiteroles.
- Tea is served by combining tea leaves with water. When Emily is out of a certain type of leaves, she must pick new ones and restock them.
Aside from serving customers their orders, Emily must also keep the tables in the restaurant clean, when customers have used them. If there are no clean tables available when new customers -that were planning on sitting down- come in, they will leave.
Although cleaning the tables is just a matter of one click, it does take up valuable time. During the later days of a restaurant, a help is hired to clean the tables.
Customers can be very impatient. This is why after a few days of a restaurant, Emily requests the help of an entertainer. When an entertainer is sent to a table with customers, this will make them happy and give them more patience while they wait to be served. Happier customers also leave bigger tips.
Aside from the profit Emily makes during a day, she can earn a certain amount of money that can be spent on decorating her restaurant. These decorations vary from new furniture, to aesthetic items like paintings and plants. A well-decorated restaurant keeps the customers happy and patient, and result in bigger tips.
Emily is a young woman with a love for cooking, who hopes to one day open her own restaurant. She is the game's main character, and is kind-hearted, though sometimes a little naive. No one would dare say she's not a hard worker though and when she has her mind set on something, she really goes for it.
Francois, a young man of about Emily's age, is Emily's best friend. Francois is an interior decorator, and he advises and helps Emily with decorating her restaurants. In Delicious 2, he also helps Emily in the restaurant by cleaning tables. In Delicious: Emily's Tea Garden, Francois takes the role as an entertainer, playing his flute for Emily's waiting guests. In Delicious: Emily's True Love, Emily puts him in charge of her restaurant while she is away. It is implied that Francois is a homosexual.
Uncle Antonio is a somewhat older man, uncle of Emily and father of Marcello. He owns a number of restaurants, but when his son bails on him, he needs Emily's help to get things back on track. When Emily wants to open her own tea garden, he helps her with advice and gets her a job so she can apply for a loan.
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