Gourmania 3: Zoo Zoom is a single player hidden object game that plays much
the same as the first two games in the series, Gourmania and Gourmania 2:
Great Expectations. It’s a singlr player, mouse controlled game that combines
hidden object hunts, time management and point-and-click adventure puzzles
with the hidden objects puzzles taking centre stage.

Victoria is a spoiled little rich girl and her father has stopped her credit
cards because she’s spending too much. He tells her to get a job and start
earning some money for herself, if she does well she may even earn his
respect. As she leaves he points out the family crest which features five
creatures, the tiger which represents courage, the zebra represents
resilience, the monkey is dexterity, the seal is tranquility, and the bear
represents power.

So off Victoria goes to one of her father’s old restaurants, it serves Mexican
food and it’s called ‘Tres Amigos’. The first shift serves as a tutorial,
three customers come in and place orders. The player must locate the
ingredients needed for each dish and then place them into the correct
receptacle; the oven for baking, the pot for boiling or the pan for frying.
Speed is important as customers don’t like to be kept waiting, serving them
promptly earns a good service award and a speed bonus.

After the first shift the ghost of Chef Depardieu appears. His role is to
mentor Victoria as the game progresses, before he died he let her father down
badly and this is his way of making amends. He points out game tips such that
help Victoria make more money.

* There are gold coins scattered around the hidden object scenes which improve her profits
* There are occasional ‘%’ signs to be found, putting these with a customer order increases the tip
* Some ingredients are deliberately hard to find but by clicking on a passing butterfly the player can be guided to their location
* In some scenes there are presents, give that to a customer and they will pay up and leave immediately
* Give a customer a piece of candy and they will pay more too
* working on one order at a time makes that customer feel special

Victoria uses the profits from her restaurant to renovate some nearby ruins
and build a zoo, the idea being to house the five animals on her family crest
and so impress her father.

After working in the original four restaurants Chef Depardieu advises Victoria
to set up a new one on a cruise ship. This presents the player with a new kind
of puzzle, a number of objects appear in the inventory and the player must
place them in the correct locations in the restaurant using a picture as a
guide, puzzles like this are essentially ‘spot the difference’ puzzles and can
be skipped.

As the game progresses the player has to work in more and more restaurants
serving increasing numbers of customers. This means that they must remember
what an ever expanding list of ingredients look like, some of them like bay
leaves can be hard to identify while others such as an olive are just hard to
spot. Fortunately by clicking in an item the player gets to see the item’s
name and there’s no penalty for clicking on the wrong thing. A hint button at
the top-right corner shows the position of one of the required items when
activated, but takes some time to recharge after use.

Gourmania 3: Zoo Zoom