Time-management strategy games can be quite challenging, yet incredibly addicting on the iPad. Sally’s Salon Luxury Edition for iPad is one of the best of its kind available in the App Store. Your goal is to serve as many customers as possible before your salon closes, while, at the same time, keeping them all happy. The fun and addicting gameplay is really what makes this app a success.
You start your salon career with a small shop in the local mall. As you progress, you will earn more money and start to work at more upscale venues, such as resorts and hotels. The concept behind these time-management games is to place customers where they need to be, while making sure other customers aren’t waiting too long to be served. For example, when a customer walks into the salon, you’ll usually need to wash her hair, then dye and style, blow dry, and finally collect your fee at the register. There are different stations for each of these tasks, and it’s your job to move the customers to each correct location quickly. If customers wait too long, they lose their hearts. If all hearts are lost, customers will leave the salon and you won’t receive the maximum amount of money. However, there are several tools to help with customers’ impatience, such as coffee, magazines and comfortable seating. When your store closes and all of your customers have paid, the round is over, and your money is totaled. Before you start the next round, you have the option to upgrade your equipment or hire staff to help you.
The game’s value is greatly increased by the additional game modes available. You can play “survivor mode,” where the goal is to make as much money as possible without letting a single customer leave the salon. You can also play with a friend on the same iPad in cooperative split-screen mode. Playing with a friend is always more fun.
In addition to the great content, the app appears to be solid and absent of any bugs or crashes. It also has that addicting, “just one more round” quality to it. Without a doubt, this game has my strong recommendation.
