Delicious: Festival of Dreams Preview: Emily's Biggest Family Reunion Yet
Here is what I love about the setup of Delicious: Festival of Dreams. For twenty-odd games, the Delicious series has asked one question: can Emily keep the customers happy? This time the customers are soaking wet, the power is out, a child is crying in the corner, and the question is bigger. Can the whole town hold it together for one weekend?
Snuggford's Festival of Dreams is supposed to be the best weekend of the year, three days where everyone shows off what they are good at so the kids can see what is possible. Emily has big plans. Then the forecast turns out to be wrong.
Finally, Everyone Gets a Job
If you have been with this series for a while, you know the feeling of watching Angela or Francois wander through a cutscene and thinking, why can't I play as them? Festival of Dreams is the answer to that question, and it is the reason this one has fans so excited.
When the storm hits on Sunday, the festival splits into three emergency stations, and the game hands you all of them. Emily and Dr. Heart run the community kitchen. Francois shelves his own design comeback and turns his booth into a shelter, which means you are relighting heaters by twisting a knob and stringing up lanterns made from whatever he could salvage. And Angela, back in fashion after a long time away, is mending torn outfits and getting dry clothes onto shivering festivalgoers. The game cycles between the three every five levels, so just as you have the kitchen figured out, you are handed a needle and thread.
That switch is the smartest idea in the game. Time management games live and die on routine, and routine eventually goes stale. Swapping crews keeps resetting your muscle memory before it can get comfortable.
Small Town, Big Cast
The other thing fans keep bringing up is how many familiar faces turn up. Paige, all grown up, runs her own food truck with Evelyn Napoli coaching her. Patrick is out in the rain stacking sandbags. Vito Jr., nervous as ever, uses his drumming to lead people to safety, which is such a lovely little character beat that I would happily read a whole game about it. Emmy turns birdhouses into lanterns. Edward Napoli somehow ends up in a fashion show in the middle of a storm. Even Sally drops by.
And hanging over the weekend is the Light of Snuggford Award, which goes to whoever helps most during the storm. I am not going to tell you who wins.
The Moment-to-Moment
Underneath the storm, this is classic Delicious. Take the order, grab the items, serve, ring them up, clear the table, and pull the food off the heat while its timer is still green, because it will burn. What makes a level tense is the crowd. The very patient guests with blue hearts will wait all day. The forgetful teenagers' orders turn into question marks if you dawdle. And then there is the grumpy customer in grey, whose bad mood drains the patience of everyone around her. You learn fast: serve her first, and serve her quickly, or watch the whole room sour.
There is a mouse called Carl hiding in every single one of the 90 levels, and finding him earns you a diamond. It sounds like a throwaway detail. It is not. You will find yourself scanning the corners of a packed kitchen in the middle of a rush, half your attention on an order about to burn and half on a tiny grey tail, and that split-second greed is the most Delicious feeling there is. The diamonds go toward decorating your own festival booth, so there is always a little reward for looking.
Worth Knowing
The third location is where the training wheels come off. Players who like a challenge call it out as the moment the game gets serious, and those who would rather just enjoy the story mention an easier setting that keeps things relaxed. Pick your pace and you will be fine. My advice for everyone: put your first coins into the patience and speed upgrades. They make every level after them kinder.
Is It Worth Your Weekend?
Yes, and especially if Emily's family feels a bit like yours by now. Festival of Dreams came out on phones this summer and sits at 4.8 stars on Google Play from more than 2,400 reviews, and the people writing them are the ones who know this series best: players who have been here since the very first game, who own every chapter, and who keep saying the same thing, that it feels good to see the whole town together. One fan said they wished they could move to Snuggford. After reading about this weekend, I get it.
On PC it is a one-time download you keep, played on a proper screen with a mouse, without the ads and pop-ups of the free phone version. There are 60 story levels, then 30 harder bonus levels, a handful of mini-games at every stop (cotton candy, drumming, Whack-A-Mouse), and that booth to finish. Try the free trial and see how you hold up when the rain starts.
If you are new to Emily, every Delicious game tells its own story, so you can start right here. If you want to know what led up to this, our Recipe for Renewal review picks up where Emily was before the festival, and Delicious: Mansion Mystery is the one to play if you liked seeing Francois get his moment. More like it in our time management games.
