Year in review 2017

It was a long and rocky journey but we reached the end of another year in Restaurant Story. There's been high points and low points, but as we head into 2018 the game is still chugging along, even if a few splutters can be heard.

The year began with four consecutive updates of the winter variety, which included the Winter Animals crate and two goal sets. The first of these came with only eight days on the clock, while the second afforded us 15 days. In both cases it was unprecedented - quests had always been stretched out over three or four weeks, giving us plenty of time to unlock all the hidden goodies and start work on mastering the new recipes.

Items from second winter goal set as shown on Storm8 Blog

It was the start of things to come. Every goal set since has provided at most 15 days for completion, with a few mini editions giving as little as five days. It's been a hugely significant change in the game's dynamic, with plenty of occasions throughout the last 12 months where players have been unable to finish a quest before the deadline. The shorter goals have laterally involved the focus being placed upon a particular appliance of yesteryear, with new recipes added and high demands in the accompanying tasks.

Year in review 2016

From fancy high end dining updates and the ultimate Christmas sale to mysterious pop art crates and combining together chimps and pizza, 2016 has been another stellar year in the life of Restaurant Story. In this gargantuan post I'm going to take us on a nice little cruise through the last 12 months of the game.

According to my doom-mongering at the end of 2015, this was to be the year that Restaurant Story came to a end, fading into obscurity in favour of the sequel title, Restaurant Story 2. How wrong I was. Instead RS2 has endured a substantial slowdown while the original has chugged on, belching out more steam than ever before as it travelled from update to update.

The journey started with several seasonal updates in January revolving around New Year (both Gregorian and Chinese) and winter, with the latter providing wedding based goals. It was the winter themed update which offered the most notable addition, with the Laurel Leaves breaking new ground in the game.

Year in review 2015

Happy New Year everyone! It's been another year of ups and downs in Restaurant Story, with a wide variety of updates and new features. And as I will look to demonstrate in this review, it's been a 12 months which can really be looked at as a tale of two halves.

We'll start this nostalgic look back at 2015 at the very beginning. Being the 30th anniversary year of the theatrical release of Back to the Future, Storm8 decided to provide a commemoration of sorts, with the Time Machine and Mad Scientist released into the market for a limited time. It was a pretty cool way to begin the New Year, and would be a sign of things to come in the following months.

The first update itself was goals orientated and focused on Winter. It was here that the Ice Rink was added as the final prize, and it has gone on to be a very useful item.

Winter section of The Garlic Tree in January

Year in review 2014

Another 12 months have passed, and now it's time to take a nostalgic look back at some of the highlights (and lowlights) of another year in the life of Restaurant Story.

With January 1st landing on a Wednesday, we opened up the year with a New Year celebration. Headlined by the New Year Party, this update was welcomed by most despite coming after the real world festivities. This was because we'd been starved of New Year themed content the previous year.

Following on from this was the first goal set of 2014, which revolved around Chinese New Year.

Chinese New Year themed section of The Garlic Tree

The January goals can sometimes be a little lacklustre since they fall between big themes, but this one was fantastic. I've never celebrated Chinese New Year before, but with the Dragon Dance in full swing in my foyer section I was certainly getting involved this time!

Year in review 2013

As we near the close of 2013, here's a review of the goings on in Restaurant Story over the last 12 months...

We opened up with plenty of drama in January. Just as we were recovering from the New Year blues, TeamLava announced a removal of all holiday themed content from the game later that same week. There was much anger at this, with frustration both at the short notice and the lack of clarity over exactly what would be removed. My range of countdown to content removal posts in recent weeks will hopefully make the next removal less stressful!

To further anger the players, the game's developers decided to add a new set of goals which had no prizes! The winter goals were bizarre, making use of old recipes many had already mastered. A lot of people believed that it was all an attempt by TeamLava to distract from the content removal. I'll let you form your own opinions.

Things soon picked up though with the release of the Valentine's Day theme. Both iOS and Android got a shiny new app unexpectedly on a Friday, with the goal set coming on the Sunday. This, incredibly, was the last time that iOS got a seasonal edition app. The initial update included a remarkable 10 new recipes, most of which were freely available on the regular appliances.

And we were feeling the love when all of the 2012 Valentine's content was re-released shortly before Valentine's Day itself. There was a lot of stuff, however my attention was elsewhere, as it was on the same day that the Restaurant Story Adventures blog was launched!