Game update: 24/03/17

Just when you thought Restaurant Story had turned sour...

Notification for Citrus Crate

The Citrus Crate has been introduced, with a 24 gem gamble resulting in one of a number of floor decorations being given to you at random. As ever the higher ranking prizes are the hardest to come by, with only your luck to decide your fate.

This is the first update of any description since the St Patrick's Day sale landed 10 days ago, and the first addition of completely new content since the Mardi Gras goals at the end of February. In truth it feels like longer, but I guess that's a consequence of us being programmed to expect weekly updates at the same time every week.

On that front, I believe this crate was added at around 20:45 GMT, which is more than two hours after the typical update time. Plus Bakery Story also enjoyed a new box but a short while before Restaurant Story did, when it's usually the latter that gets its update first. So things are a little upside-down, but given how sparse updates have been recently I think we can all agree that this is small fry.

So getting on with business, what do we make of the Citrus Crate? Well, naturally the Storm8 Blog has been somewhat neglected recently, meaning that we don't have the usual sneak peek of the box's contents. That means that analysis is difficult, but with thanks to Creme and also DragonWished over on the Storm8 Forum, here is a nearly complete distribution list:

First Prize

• Citrus Partiers

Second Prize

• 'Citrus Snacks'
• ?

Third Prize

• Lemon Cat
• Lime Cake

Fourth Prize

• Citrus Tree
• Grapefruit Tree
• Orange Tree

The 'Citrus Snacks' which appear in the popup window is still awaiting an official name and confirmed position, while we appear to be missing a second prize. If you have opened the Citrus Crate and can fill in any gaps or clarify any information we'd all be greatly appreciative. Just type away in the comments at the bottom of this post!

The Citrus Partiers looks fabulous. Being a first prize it is inevitably very desirable, but of course is very difficult to obtain. Bots seated around a table is nothing new, but the characters seem to be very well crafted - we've got a suited gentleman at the head wearing spectacles and a luscious beard, girls adorning original clothing and a smart black guy showing off a white suit, bowler hat and smoking a pipe.

That last bot is particularly cool, not least because of his ethnicity, with darker skin tones neglected so much over the years. And smoking a pipe? That's not very Restaurant Story-ish, but I'm loving it! Little twists like this are superb as they provide a twist to something which could otherwise be described as predictable.

The 'Citrus Snacks' is also catching my eye. Although it is difficult to see clearly from the notification alone, this prize features three characters seated on a comfy white sofa and tucking into a number of citrus themed treats. Again we've got some nice customisation, with another black bot wielding a glorious handlebar moustache and a walking stick. The pink flowers in the hair of one of the girls is worthy of mention too.

Further down the ranks the quality level does unfortunately drop off. The three trees provided as fourth prizes are all very diminutive and underwhelming. They are much smaller in size than the potted trees already in the market and won't do much to fill your diner.

It's far from the first time that we've seen a situation where there's a gulf in calibre between the leading prizes and the lower ones. However, given the turbulent period we're going through at the moment, I'm mightily impressed that we have any worthy decor at all. The little touches applied to the bots in the top prizes in order to give them a unique quirkiness deserves a lot of recognition. With new stuff of any description far from guaranteed presently, we should praise the gamemakers for not only adding fresh content, but very well designed content.

That does it for now, but I can go into this weekend hopeful that the future is still bright for our favourite game. There's no telling when anything resembling normal service will be resumed, but even if we're left in a position where there's only one update every fortnight, much like we've seen in March, I'd be reasonably happy. We've had it so good for so long that we shouldn't be too greedy.

Finally, watch out for a special edition of the Suggestions Box tomorrow in which I provide some thoughts on how Storm8 could and maybe should handle what is undoubtedly the toughest period Restaurant Story has had during it's exceedingly long run. See you there!