Wendy's Wellness

[Pater Alf]

"Wendy's Wellness" is a nice time management game from Sugar Games (the developers of "5 Realms of Cards". Help Wendy to build up a chain of 10 fully-equipped wellness centers, serve the customers, buy new equipment and hire employees.

There are 50 levels and 12 minigames you can play. Game progress will be saved automatically after each level.

Developer: Sugar Games

Download: http://www.freegamepick.com/de/games_we ... lness.html
Or here at CWF: http://www.curlysworldoffreeware.com/games/view/514

Download size: 30 MB

Year: 2009

Status: Freeware (license in folder)

[Chroelle]

Looks a little like cake Queen... Same type of gameplay?

[Pater Alf]

Yep, typical time-management gameplay. Serve customers before they get angry and leave, get enough money to survive the day, buy new equipment etc...

Difficulty is similar to "Cake Queen" as well, which means you can probably survive the first 10 levels without any problems.

But it's well-made and fun to play!

[Chroelle]

Excellent use of different skills, where you could really feel the positive effect a learned ability gave you. But... When you place a segment about buying stuff, then it is vital that you do not run out of things to buy when you are halfway through the game, and then force the player to visit the shop every other round more or less. That had me bugged, and it might not have had such an annoying feeling if I was not forced to remember every second round that there were no more upgrades.
More upgrades could easily have been assistants at the tubs and the treadmill. You still had to move people around and it would have given the option of getting even more people through the doors...
I loved this more than Cake Queen, but Cake Queen had lots of stuff to buy right until the end...

[Drasir-Vel]

It is quite stressful to play this this. You have to drag and drop a lot, and that can be quite tedious. And it was also annoying that you have to install a toolbar when starting the first time, even though you could remove it afterwards. But otherwise a good game.

I like Cake Queen Better

[Pater Alf]

And it was also annoying that you have to install a toolbar when starting the first time, even though you could remove it afterwards.

You don't have to install the toolbar. You can refuse to install it when the installation program asks you about it and it will still set up the game without any problems.

[Drasir-Vel]

You can install the game alright. But when you play the game for the first time you have to have "install ask.com toolbar" checked on. Otherwise the "Play" button will be grayed out.

I later found out that the executable you have to use to bypass that dialogue is in the program folder. But it is hidden. It's not all users that know how to find that.

[Pater Alf]

I installed the game the normal way, didn't install the toolbar and was still able to play the game without any problems. Will download it again to see if they changed something...

[Pater Alf]

I installed the game again and it worked fine. If you don't accept the toolbar's license, the installation program won't install it. You will still download the files, but you won't install it. And for me it doesn't affect the game in any way.

[Drasir-Vel]

Strange. After installation, when you click the game icon it creates on the desktop, it comes up with the window seen in the attachment. When i remove the checks for any of the three, the "play" button will be grayed out. This is done with a version of the game i downloaded just minutes ago from here: http://www.freegamepick.com/de/games_we ... lness.html
Just to be sure, remove the game, find the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SugarGames" and delete it. Then reinstall the game and see if it doesn't come up. It could be because you've installed it in a previous installation.

Edit: It's not when installing the game that it's the problem. Its when starting the game for the first time.

[Chroelle]

What you need to do to be specific is locate the game folder, and use the file Game.exe instead of Wendy Wellness.exe. That makes i totally possible to play it without installing the Freegamepick toolbar.

[Drasir-Vel]

Yes.
I'm just a bit concerned that it's not all people that know how to find that when it's hidden

[Pater Alf]

Strange. After installation, when you click the game icon it creates on the desktop, it comes up with the window seen in the attachment. When i remove the checks for any of the three, the "play" button will be grayed out. This is done with a version of the game i downloaded just minutes ago from here: http://www.freegamepick.com/de/games_we ... lness.html
Just to be sure, remove the game, find the folder "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SugarGames" and delete it. Then reinstall the game and see if it doesn't come up. It could be because you've installed it in a previous installation.

Edit: It's not when installing the game that it's the problem. Its when starting the game for the first time.

I never use any desktop icons (I delete them right after they were created, so my desktop stays more or less clean for important stuff), so that might be the reason why I never encountered this problem. Maybe we can write a small hint in the game description, so people know how to bypass the problem.

[Drasir-Vel]

Both the shortcut created on the desktop and in the start menu links to the Freegamepick wrapper in the program folder: WendysWellness.exe.
So you should know specifically that it's the hidden game.exe you need to use.

[Pater Alf]

I like it better than "Cake Queen", because it is much harder. In "Cake Queen" I never failed, but in "Wendy's Wellness" I have to repeat levels quite often, because I don't make enough money to survive the day. There's also more freedom in choosing which equipment you want to buy. And the minigames bring some extra fun to the game.

Sometimes I had some problems when it comes to drag and drop the customers (most times when I tried to perform an action with Wendy at the same time), but accept for these minor control issues the game is technically well-made.

Certainly not very innovative when it comes to gameplay and design, but still a very good time management game.

[Chroelle]

Wendys Wellness can now be downloaded from CWF.
http://www.curlysworldoffreeware.com/games/view/514