Lemonade,
Inc. by Hexacto $19.95
Reviewed May 2002
Who hasn't sold lemonade to make a buck
when they were kids? If you have, Hexacto's Lemonade Inc.
will bring back those childhood memories. If you haven't
this could be your chance to try your hand at making it big
by selling lemonade.
Lemonade Inc is a strategy game that's
suited for both adults and children. You start out with a
small pushcart lemonade stand and just enough money to buy
some stock. Since you don't have fridge or a big stand, you
can only buy a daily supply of lemons, sugar, ice and cups.
You don't want to over stock because you'll loose money at
the end of the day; yet don't want to under stock on a promising
day either. You have a street corner in the suburb to start
your business, and it's up to you to build popularity and
customer satisfaction. As you grow and make more money, you
can upgrade your equipment from Power Juicer to Ezserve Cash
Register, from Mr. Fridge to the Ultimate Lemon Stand. The
equipment will speed up the service and allow you to stock
supplies more freely.
Once you have a lemonade stand that can
handle more customers, you can move your business to downtown,
or the beach or the mall where you can get more customers.
There is a daily forecast that you need to pay attention
to before the start of a day. You'll want to make your recipe
to suit the day's temperature. There is a daily new flash
that updates you with the events around town, which also
affects your decision about where to put your lemonade stand
for the day. For example, the park will get crowded if there's
a little league final today; or a rock star might be signing
autographs at the mall or it's a day off and workers are
staying home in the suburbs.
The design of this game is so creative
that the game can keep you hooked for hours. The graphics
are superb with excellent animation. The sound effects and
music compliment the game well. One of the very unique features
of the game play is stats. You get to see some very detailed
stats about your profit and loss, your balance sheet and
business charts at the end of a virtual day, month and year.
There is also a Challenge mode where the game provides you
with challenges or hints like "try some advertising
to attract more people to your stand". The AI works
very well to make the game interesting. There are some general
rules like hot days almost always bring in more business.
But there are always surprises like the postal workers are
on strike; the tax refunds are not being delivered. So all
of sudden, everyone is complaining that your price is too
high.
Lemonade Inc. is very addictive. I played
it for 2 days straight (equal to a virtual 2 years and 3
months) and ended up with all equipment upgraded and 5 thousand
dollars in my pocket. You can submit your high score to the
Lemonade Stock Exchange on Hexacto's site.
The depth of the game could be deeper.
After you upgrade everything, you can't buy more equipment
to further increase the speed of lemonade serving.
Lemonade Inc. is currently available for
both Palm and Pocket PC, and will soon be released for wireless
phones running Microsoft Smart Phone 2002, J2ME, BREW and
Symbian OS.
Playing Hints and Tips
Buying the right equipment will allow you to advance faster. You don't need
to follow the hoopla in town or the beach when you can't yet afford to
set up your stand there. Save your money and build a reputation in the
suburbs and buy all the new equipment as soon as you can afford it. Once
you've got all the possible equipment, move to the beach or the mall. You'll
make money much faster this way. |
