by Currie Jean

Created on: June 13, 2008   Last Updated: June 23, 2008

Expect to emerge from a few rounds of Dairy Dash with a satisfying case of dry eye: while the game is slow and easy to learn at first, it soon picks up, demanding unblinking attention and top rate mouse accuracy. It's the player's job to fill produce orders and tend crops like pumpkins, corn and tomatoes, as well as feed and water every living thing on the Smith family farm, including chickens, goats, cows and sheep. Times are tough - the Smith's grandpa, who owns the farm, needs all the help he can get.

Dairy Dash is a recent addition to the line of Dash games, which started with Diner Dash and its sequels. Dairy Dash works of the same premise: one must rush to complete tasks, queing them up with quick clicks and executing them via the game's characters, with intent to rack up enough points to pass on to the next level. It is a creative take on an old theme, changing the scenery and mood while maintaining a familiar style of play.

Visually, the game is two-dimensional: the entire playing field is viewed at once, as cartoon characters skitter between food stores, the shed, the animals, the garden and the well. Rightfully so. If the visuals were more complex, it would be hard to focus on the job at hand.

The music of Dairy Dash is cute but unremarkable, which is fitting, since players aren't likely to listen to it. The sound effects are the important part: dinging bells, animal calls, and the rumbling and hissing of machinery all help the player to stay organized while multitasking through this fast-paced farming trial.

An addition to the gameplay is that, between the game's main rounds of intense concentration, players must also complete simple puzzle levels, in which pictures must be joined three in a row, or apples and oranges must be quickly picked from a tree before they fall.

Dairy Dash offers 60 minutes of free playing time - enough to figure out how addicted you are to the gameplay, and whether you want to purchase a complete download of the game for $19.95. Since the game is a download, it can be played when not connected to the internet, which is handy if you have an unpredictable internet connection.

Computers younger than five years old should be able to handle Dairy Dash. PC users need 17 MB free hard drive space, a Pentium IV 1.2 Ghz processor, and 17 MB hard drive space. Macintosh users need OS X 10.14 and 10.5, a G4 800 MHz processor, and 26 MB of free hard drive space. Both computer types require a screen resolution of 800 x 600 or higher, and 256 MB of RAM.

If you're interested in playing a hyped-up version of the classic console game Harvest Moon, look no further than Dairy Dash. The catchy title is misleading: as a farmer hopped up on speed-inducing lemonade, you won't only take care of goat's and cow's milk, but eggs, wool, crops, and automotive repair, all within a strict time limit.

Rating: 5/5

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