by Emily Gee

Created on: May 18, 2008   Last Updated: November 12, 2011

In Yard Sale Junkie you take on the role of Shirley who, rather than join the family business, dreams of opening her own boutique in Beverly Hills. In order to do this the young entrepreneur needs to raise $50'000 and has decided to use yard sales to do it. The game which follows is a mix of the ever popular 'hidden item' concept and simulation games such as Diner Dash, whereby you must search for items in order to serve customers and make money.

In some ways, it has a little of the charm of both these types of game; the satisfaction of finding things as well as a sense of progression as funds grow. On the other hand, it has also lost something in the translation. First off the graphics let it down. The items are not densely packed games and, as they are a higher resolution than the background picture, mostly stick out like a sore thumb. There are none of the artfully drawn scenes, more like Polaroid snapshots of items pasted onto a slightly blurred background. Also, as you are only clicking and dragging each item to the customer the game quickly becomes repetitive. There are new challenges with each level; smaller items which must be magnified, bonus customers who pay more if served quickly and so on, but essentially the game play remains the same, with only occasional interruptions for a piece of the story.

Shortly after I downloaded the trial version, the editor released a comment saying that the game had been improved with better sound and picture quality as well as resolving the problem of two customers looking for the same item or confusing item names, such as clock/wall clock, lamp/light etc. I downloaded the newer version in order to give it a fair review but have to admit I was pushed to notice major differences. The images were still relatively poor quality and the only way they were hidden was to be so small it was impossible to make out. There seemed to be less cheesy sound effects but the overall music still sounded like something you would hear in an elevator!

All in all the game is a great concept but fails in its execution. Instead of photo images they should have taken the time to use the drawn ones which feature in other hidden object puzzles and put a little more thought into the backgrounds. Also the main character does not feature on screen during the actual game, only a pointer to select the item and drag it to the corresponding customer icon. This belies the simulation element of the game. I played out the 60 minute trial but wouldn't part with the $19.99 to buy it as I think I would loose patience long before the end.

Overall, I would give this game a mark of 2 out of 5, mostly as I am hoping other companies will take on the concept and bring out better versions.

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