Flo's back! And she's better than ever! Hey now! Hey now!

That's right my friends Flo's back in a new game from Playfirst called "Cooking Dash". Now now! I hear some collective groans but just listen, here's the good news, this one actually stars Flo herself as opposed to one of her many, many friends in the countless Diner Dash series rip-offs (clears throat) I mean spinoffs. It's not that I don't like Quinn, Coco and the rest of the stars of the various"dash" spin-offs, it's just that Flo is ...better

And she cooks, too!

Sweet Grandma's back too, but the one character you won't see , however, is Flo's trusty chef Cookie and that's the premise of this new game. You see Cookie has been poached by two bigwig TV executives who gave him his own reality cooking show. Traitor! Not only that, he has invited all of Dinertown’s chefs on as guest stars. So now there’s a shortage of chefs!When I get my hands on that Cookie... well anyway.

Now with no one to run her own diner's kitchen (and every restaurant within a 5 mile radius!) Flo and Grandma brush up on their cooking skills and decide to simply do it all themselves.

So this time around in " Cooking Dash" you'll not only seat and serve the customers, but you will need prepare their meals as well. Yep, one of the biggest – and most exciting – twists in 'Cooking Dash" is that you actually get to cook stuff. Cool beans! This could be something as simple as taking an orange over to the smoothie machine and pressing a button to whip up a frothy cold one, or as complicated as cooking spaghetti and meatballs.

Can You Stand The Heat?

The folks over at Playfirst are calling this a new and exciting “assembly-management” game instead of the ol' "time management" gameplay we're all used to. Kinda the same difference if you ask me.. but whatever.

For example, to make the spaghetti and meatball dish, you'll have to grab some raw pasta and throw it into a boiler on top of the oven, then put some meatballs in a frying pan on top of another stove. The food takes a few seconds to cook, and you have to take it off the heat at just the right time. Wait too long, as shown by a blinking red circle, and the dish will start to smoke and burn, and it will be ruined.

The diner the gals are now working in is slightly different this time. Customers no longer sit at tables, but counter style side-by-side, think Cake Mania.. Most of the screen is taken up by the huge, I mean huge kitchen area, which is equipped with stoves and deep fryers, smoothie and ice cream machines, a workstation for Grandma to make sandwiches and other cold foods, as well as yummy desserts.

Customers aren't as over-the-top eccentric or interesting as the guests in past Diner Dashs. But they are still cute and quirky enough to keep things entertaining. Things get quite interesting if you sit two incompatible personality types close to each other, such as the conservative old man and the hippie. Something to see to really appreciate... in the meantime just use your imagination!

In between levels you can purchase upgrades for each restaurant, which are broken up into ones that improve performance (like more efficient ovens, a faster-moving Flo and coffee to improve customers' moods), and upgrades like better floors and counters that improve the shop's appearance. I always went for the decorating upgrades I'd rather have more nifty machines and fancier foods than nicer floors, but to each her own.

While I enjoyed "Cooking Dash" I do have to say it was kinda easy, almost too easy.Getting an expert score is very do-able ,as long as you remember the chain bonuses, of course!

Ah well, I'm sure they'll improve on that in the next "Cooking Dash". What? You're surprised? Of course, there will be another one and another one. This is Playfirst we're talking about here, and besides let's face it,Cookie ain't coming back. He's had a taste of show biz and even if he did, he's dead to me now! Dead!