Sally’s Spa Review

Sally's Spa is a variation of the traditional task-management game in both theme and gameplay. You may remember Sally and her friend Nell from its predecessor, Sally's Salon.

Sally Starts a New Biz

In this installment, Sally and Nell move to Laguna Beach, California to open a spa. You must provide the customers with the spa treatments they request as quickly as possible, including sauna time, facials, massages, bubble baths and more, in an attempt to relax them and ensure Sally makes a profit. Sally's Spa also offers a different kind of gameplay than other games of this genre because there is much more to do and control than just clicking as fast as you can.

Customers Keep Coming

While assisting customers to their requested spa treatments, you must pick them up and move them to each station, then click on them to perform the task. This keeps you on your toes, as you must be constantly moving customers to the next station they want in order to keep up with all their requests. Different treatments also require different actions. For example, when a customer wants a a hot stone massage, you must match the shape of the missing stone on their back to the correct stone from a list, when someone wants a facial you must scroll through all the facial options to see which one the customer wants most, and other tasks.

The beginning levels do a good job of introducing you to this kind of play, and a tutorial can be accessed at any time from the main menu, which is helpful if you forget any of the controls. The different tasks and requirements for performing them make the game much more involved and keep it from getting boring.

Sally Sells Nell's Naturals As a Side Speciality

Another more involved task is the side business of selling “Nell's Naturals” in the spa. These are beauty products made by your friend Nell. Spa customers browse the product shelves on their own and if they decide to buy, they carry the product around with them for the rest of their time at the spa. This also means that if the customer gets angry enough from waiting they will throw the product back, which is an amusing thing to watch.

After each level you have the opportunity to check with Nell, who will tell you the market forecast for the day. Basically, she is letting you know which products are more likely to sell each day. The more products you sell, the more money you make; the more money you make, the more products are available for you to sell. You can get promotions doing this, with good incentives to continue selling her products.

Go Above and Beyond For Rewards

Sally's Spa utilizes a reward system that offers a sense of accomplishment for leveling up. You can beat the level by reaching the goal, or go above and beyond to get the expert goal, which is rewarded with an icon by your score that says “Whoa! Awesome!” and a star on the level map. More importantly, you can use the money you have earned on upgrades for your spa. Some upgrades are automatic (like adding the first unit of a new kind of equipment), but in order to maximize your profit and work more efficiently, you must use your earnings on upgrades. These vary from making your existing equipment more comfortable to things like relaxing candles which give the customers more patience.

Impatient Patrons Provide Performance Incentives

There are multiple customer types, each of which has a different patience level and tipping habit. In the early levels most customers are patient and tip well, or at least averagely. Some of the characters are designed for comic relief, and make for a good chuckle while playing, not the least of which is the “Male Model” customer. This customer is very impatient, a poor tipper, and arrives in your spa with half hearts or less (indicative of their happiness level). He is also very tan, with blond hair longer than the female characters, pierced ears and fashionable clothes. You are given a customer description each time a new type arrives in your spa, so you know how to react to them.

Some Shortcomings Slow Sally

While it has elements that add to the degree of difficulty and playability of the game, Sally's Spa also has several drawbacks that limit its audience and detract from its entertainment value. Sally does everything in the spa until you are rich enough to hire other workers, but moves so slowly that it becomes irritating. Even after upgrading her speed Sally crawls along at a snail's pace, which makes the upper levels much, much more difficult. In most instances the game allows you to chain tasks, like clicking on a few customers in a row to complete their treatments in that order. However, for some reason, the game occasionally decides to wipe out your chained tasks and have Sally find a spot to stand, perfectly useless and unhelpful to her customers. This can become incredibly frustrating.

The sound effects are annoying, although there is an option to turn them down in the main menu. The graphics are also on the cheesy side, seemingly geared towards kids. Everything is very “bubbly” and sparkly in shape and action, especially when you please a customer.

Conclusion - A Decent Game Held Back By Shortcomings

In general, Sally's Spa does the right things and expands the category of task-management games in new directions. It provides a variety of tasks and customer types, a decent rewards/upgrade system, and a sense of gratification each time you move on to a bigger and better spa. Unfortunately, the graphics reduce its appeal among its already niche audience and the technical issues with chaining tasks interrupt smooth gameplay and annoy the player. Sally's Spa is a fun game, but there are much better task-management games out there.