Barstar has a simple premise; sell beer and keep your customers happy. The story begins with Chase and Arty being asked by their uncle to open up and look after his bar whilst he is away. It is their job to make heaps of cash by serving the punters quickly and getting the drinks orders correct. Similar to Diner Dash, it involves you helping Arty pour the drinks and Chase being the dutiful waitress. The first few days are spent training by serving one of Arty’s friends. This involves checking his ID, pouring his drink, putting it on a tray for Chase to collect and serve and all this must be done within a time limit.
It all seems easy, but as you progress through the game there are more customers who want all sorts of different beverage. From a simple beer to complicated cocktails, the skill is in learning all of the ingredients to make the desired drink. As your bar gets more popular, you will unlock new attractions for your bar such as a Jukebox and Toilet!! These need looking after to (the toilet often needs unblocking!), so you must keep a dutiful eye on all that’s going on.
Luckily the game introduces all the new drinks and attractions at a nice easy pace, meaning that you don’t have to worry too much about picking it all up straight away. Once a customer has had his/her drinks they will pay and often leave tips. These tips can be used to purchase items and upgrades to make Chase and Arty’s lives a bit easier. These include speed upgrades for serving and pouring drinks to robotic toilet cleaners.
The only real issues I had with the game is that as you get to the later stages, it can sometimes get a bit too much and you end up frustrated. There is also a slight issue of sore finger (but maybe that was just me playing it too much!!)
You will also find a Time Attack mode which as the name suggests involves serving customers and hitting your target in a certain time. And (as with most games nowadays) once you have completed the game you unlock the ’Zombie’ mode.
A fine way to pass the time, Barstar is great to play for just 5 minutes on the bus, or half an hour at home. You will probably get bored after prolonged periods of play, but if you are like me you will end up going back regularly.