Mobile Game Review of "Burger Rush"

Burger Rush is basically another variation on Diner Rush and Cake Mania, except this time, instead of just spinning plates, you have to play "connect-3". You know the gameplay from Bejeweled... Slide something over so you form 3 in a row. If you do 4 or 5 in a row you get bonus. Well, you have burger ingredients here... Except they all want 8's. 8 pieces of lettuce, 8 pieces of meat, 8 slices of tomatoes... you get the idea. Some customers want cheese and lettuce, some want meat and pickles, you get the idea.

As you play, you get more ingredients, like sauce, pickles, and so on. You also get sweet treats which you can use to calm down irate customers (because you're slow in preping their order(s)!) You earn a certain set of "tokens" per level and you can use the tokens to buy expansions, such as soda and fries and sell those with the burger for more intake.

The idea is to make X amount of money in a set amount of time. If you can double the required amount, you achieve "expert win", which doubles the # of tokens you win. The tokens are spent on upgrading burger ingredients (and prices), as well as improving ice drink and fries regen speed (they take time to become available).

The initial levels are quite easy, and you can VERY EASILY achieve expert win if you have ANY experience in the connect-3 genre. However, once you go beyond level 10, the difficulty seems to rise exponentially, since more ingredients in the same playing field means you will spend MORE time looking for LESS combinations, and more time wasted getting rid of some useless ingredients before you find the ingredients you need. It is simply NOT balanced, once you progressed beyond "burger stand" level. Drinks and fries should be sold automatically. Instead, you actually have to press buttons to put them on the tray, AND still complete the burger.

I have nothing against Connect-3 gameplay. I still play Bejeweled sometimes, and I played Puzzle Quest: Warlords all the way through with all four professions. However, this one seems to lack the actual testing at the higher levels that makes the game actually WINNABLE (unless there are some tricks I'm not aware of). There's also NO HELP SCREEN at all. You weren't told what those ingredients are. The game also fails to utilize the wider screen on my LG VX9900 enV, instead cramming stuff onto the top, leaving the playing board VERY VERY SMALL and ingredients almost impossible to distinguish.

All in all, Burger Rush is a derivative game that fails to balance itself, and its lack of a help screen along with bad use of screen real-estate makes this game score lower than its cousins such as Diner Rush or Cake Mania. I have to give this one a 6.0 for all its failures. It has potential, but needs more "soul".