Game Time! Megaplex Madness

Megaplex Madness

Last Updated: 2011

Company: Big Fish Games, Inc.

# of Levels: 50

Price I Paid: Free

Time Spent Playing: 4 hours and 23 minutes 

Story Line: Repair five theaters and get them bringing in money again.

Review:
+ You get to choose to play either normal, hard or extreme mode (For this review, I chose hard).

+ If you get a "master score" in each level, then you will receive a theater repair for the beginning of the next level.

+ During the game when you have a 5+ color combo on a location than a coin appears above it and when the next person is placed on that location you get the coin. When you have enough coins you can play 5 different old school arcade game (see pictures 4 & 5).

- The "start", "continue" and "ok" buttons don't work as well as the rest of the game does. I have no problems throughout the levels but I do with the screen buttons in between the levels. The best way to combat this problem is to tap slightly above the button instead of directly on the button.

- After the countdown is at 0, the movie will start and you will be able to double tap all of your remaining customers to hurry up at their stations and get to the movie. I'm not a fan of this. I would rather you have to beat the clock and get all the customers inside before the movie starts or they will run inside themselves when the clock hits 0. Still being able to let the customers go to multiple stations and gets points pretty much makes the whole countdown clock pointless.

- I also wish that the customer forecast that lists the people and the colors for the upcoming level would come BEFORE you get to pick your upgrades. Then if it's kids, you know to get the video game. If it's elderly people, you know to upgrade the washrooms. etc.

- When customers ask for something you don't have, you have to tap on them to hold them in the air and shake them back and forth. I hate this. It would be much nicer that if I haven't upgraded something or I don't have something they want that they just wouldn't ask for it. Having to shake multiple people is annoying especially when I couldn't pick my upgrades based on the customer forecast.

- It's possible to get all of the theater repairs done per theater but it's not possible to get all the upgrades done, which seems silly. I'm a person that likes to max out all the upgrades before moving on to a different location but here it's not even possible. There are so many upgrades that you just don't make enough money throughout the theater run to buy them all. 

Overall (Would I recommend it?):
I really enjoyed playing this game for many reasons with the first one being the concept. I love playing the game set in a movie theater. I also love that the graphics are bright and clear and the game play is great. Even though it give you the option to choose which mode you would like to play the game in and when you collect coins you can play them in a different arcade section there are still a few problems I came across. The buttons that you have to select in between the game levels are finicky and work better if you tap slightly above the button then on it and having the countdown to movie time is pointless if you can still play the game the same way after the time has expired. Having the customer forecast before your upgrades would be helpful so you can see what is upcoming as well as not having so many upgrades per theater so by the time you are finished and moving on to the next theater, the one you are on can be totally upgraded. I chose to play the game in hard mode, which I had no problem with. I made it through the whole game with master scores so next time I will have to see just how extreme the extreme mode is. 

A-

Game Play Tips
- Color combos are KEY in this game. The dollar amounts per customer are added by how many stars (how happy they are), with how many color combos are on the location (how many people have previously visited this spot). Keep in mind that the combos only go up to 5 before you get a coin and they reset.
- You get bonus points if you do a swap. For example if someone standing at the popcorn counter wants to buy a movie ticket and the person standing at the movie ticket counter wants to buy popcorn, then move them on to each other's spaces and you will receive extra points.
- Stick with one color per location. If you have two movie ticket counters, then make sure that only the red people go on one spot and only the blue people go on the other spot. Don't mix up the colors or you will lose your combo points.
- Only buy what you need. If you are only dealing with two colors at once, don't go and buy three ticket counters until you are dealing with three colors. Use your money to upgrade what you already have to make it faster or purchase things like the gumball machine or the pinball machine which gets your color combos and earns customer's hearts back.
- You can always hold customers in the air so they don't lose hearts. I don't recommend doing this with every customer because it will take awhile and you will get bored but if there's an emergency, it's better to hold someone in the air until you can move them rather than them loosing their patience and walking out of the theater.
- Focus on buying enough items so every color has their own spot rather than buying servers to work all the spots. So for example if your choice to upgrade is between an extra ticket counter so you can collect yellow combo points OR buy another sever to help with your popcorn/pop/candy stands, make sure you buy the ticket counter. When customers are waiting at the other stands and all the servers are busy, they won't lose any hearts. I'm not sure if this was the intentional way they wanted the game or if this is a glitch, but take advantage of it and always go for what will get you the color combos.

**Check back every Tuesday for another game review and feel free to tweet me @popculturedlife with any time management games (that I can get from the iTunes App Store) that you would like to see in a future review!**

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