Game update: 22/01/14

My heart's aflutter! Valentine's Day content is here in Restaurant Story, although this opening update is a small one.

Notification for Valentine's Day update

Just six items have been added, however there are two recipes which have also been introduced. Here's the usual list:

Tables:

• Cupid's Table - 3 gems

Chairs:

• Cupid's Chair - 5,200 coins

Floor decorations:

• Cupid's Arrow - 38 gems
• Love Pug - 7,700 coins

Wallpapers:

• Cupid - 4,900 coins

Counters:

• Cupid's Counter - 2 gems

So Cupid is making his mark on our diners this week, or at least some of us. At present, I believe that only iOS players are seeing all of this stuff. Androiders only have the two floor decorations, and are also missing the recipes. This is clearly unfair, but I do suspect it is simply an error in the publishing of this update. Hopefully Android players will get the missing items soon.

Update: Restaurant Story Valentine's has been released for Android! The new content should all be present on there. Remember that if you wait you may just get a goal to download this special edition for six gems! Meanwhile iOS players have to make do with the regular edition...

Even beyond the iOS-Android debacle, I'm thoroughly disappointed with this update. As I've said before, Valentine's Day is one of the pillars of the TeamLava calendar, but it's been a rather underwhelming start to this year's offering.

Now clearly the ongoing presence of the Chinese New Year goals (which were great fun!) is a reason why this first Valentine's update didn't come with goals. And because of that the update was always likely to be less rich with content. But even so I'm still struggling to feel the love.

The quantity of items isn't the only problem. The quality of the items isn't up to scratch either in my opinion. Let's begin with the limited time offer.

Cupid's Arrow limited time offer

Cupid's Arrow is a 3x3 floor decoration. Here it is previewed in my restaurant:

Cupid's Arrow

This looks a decent piece at first glance. I particularly like the way that Cupid is floating in the air - a floating piece is something I'm not sure we've ever seen before. But there's a couple of things putting me off this one.

The floor surrounding the happy couple is the first. I wish the gamemakers wouldn't put the floor in. By all means include the roses scattered around, but since we have no pink and cream coloured checkered tiles I can't give it a matching surrounding. The same issue well with the Old West goals final prize - the Saloon Card Table had a checkered floor which meant it looked out of place however you decorated the environment around it.

My other issue falls with the presence of an alternative option. Since I was around for Valentine's last year, I was able to unlock the Fondue Couple through the goals. It has a similar idea behind it, and although it's only 2x2 in size, it does have the flexibility when it comes to designing a theme around it. However I admit that many won't have access to this item, so at least the Cupid's Arrow provides a similar decoration.

Moving on, the other new content also fails to impress. The Cupid's Table looks outright strange. What's the tiny Cupid underneath supposed to be doing? Presumably hiding until an unsuspecting pair come along and are hit my an arrow. But it seems more likely that Cupid is holding the table up because it hasn't got any legs. Or even laughing at TeamLava for offering such a table for 3 gems.

The corresponding chair, the Cupid's Chair, doesn't match the table - that's a bad start. And again there are substitutes from last year which do the business. The Love Chair also has the heart-shaped back, but furthermore looks to have added cushioning and has a nice shiny base. The Red Heart chair again has the heart-shaped back, and is marginally cheaper too. Even the Love Chair is only 10,000 coins and best of all, both of these past Valentine's items are still available in the market!

Talking of heart-shaped things, the Cupid's Counter has that very shape. This is the one piece in this update I would consider purchasing. So trust it to be 2 gems a go. I'm passing for now, but will watch out to see what other options come our way in the coming weeks - I might come back to this counter later.

The Love Pug is a good price. Normally when a pet enters the market it's for gems. I may well buy this one at a later date, but will hold back for now as I'm desperately trying to save coins for expansions and want to assess exactly what I'm going to do to my place for Valentine's Day.

Lastly, the Cupid wallpaper is also affordable, but why the blue? For me Valentine's is about deep reds and fluttery pinks. Not a pastel blue that doesn't match with any other Valentine's Day item.

So the new decor gets an F grade, but what about the two recipes added to the Basic Oven?

New recipes on Basic Oven

From an aesthetic viewpoint, is that an arrow or a bone slicing through the cupcake? On a (slightly) more serious note, I'm beginning to get a tad annoyed with the number of baking recipes being added. There's Bakery Story for these, and considering how long it is since new recipes were added to the regular appliances there, it's all a bit of a mystery!

Now to the statistics. The Cupid Cupcakes take 1 hour to prepare. And in that time you could be earning 1,000 coins profit via the Portabello Mushroom (Basic Grill) rather than a very much below average 410 coins for the cupcakes. On the portions front only three dishes offer fewer servings, while the XP gain is slap bang on the average. For strong XP among 1 hour recipes stick to the Thick Cut Bacon (Old West Oven) if you can access it.

The numbers for the Cutie Pie are also poor. On a per hour basis the Cupid Cupcakes outdo this pie, which gives an indication of just how unappealing this one is. Among it's fellow 3 hour dishes, it takes a tie for fourth worst in the portions category, ties for sixth worst for profit, and is the joint fifth worst recipe with regards to XP. Pie. In. Face.

At least the short durations mean we can accumulate the four mastery gems relatively quickly. Remember that there is a chance that Valentine's Day content will be removed a while after the event, much like was the case for Halloween and Christmas.

And that brings a close to a long string of moody comments from me. An uninspiring update to get the Valentine's season underway, and I'm left hoping for much more next time.