If you're a casual gamer and have not heard of Flo or the Dash series yet, then it is time to open up your eyes. Flo is what Ryu from Street Fighter is to fighting games. She is what Kratos is to God of War fans. Strictly speaking, Flo is the Master Chief (Halo) of anything and everything casual. So here's the deal: Flo is PlayFirst's leading titular character. Most of the titles bear the franchise name of Dash: Hotel Dash, Diner Dash, Wedding Dash, etc. She's starred in many casual titles, where Flo uses her entrepreneurial savvy to transform a failing business into a successful franchise. She's done it on the PC, Mac, iPhone and iPad. Now, Flo's back in an all-new title, filled with time management stratagem, fun and lots of fast paced Dash action. Cooking Dash 3: Thrills & Spills continues the long legacy of exciting Dash games, with several levels, upgrades, and of course kooky characters.

Cooking Dash 3: Thrills & Spills is somewhat of an origin story for Flo. No, this isn't a tale about how she got bit by a radioactive spider and magically spawned eight arms to juggle restaurant duties. Instead, the game kicks off in Flo's teenage years. Instead of battling Mr. Big, she's working for Mr. Big at a theme park. He's losing money fast and his father is not too happy with him. While the rest of the park is in shambles, Flo's little food cart seems to be the only one that functions and is actually turning a profit. Mr. Big decides to hire Flo to turn his theme park around, one restaurant at a time. All Flo asks is that he hire back all the teens he fired, while trying to cut costs.

The game features all of the standard Diner Toons when they were teens, including the Cell Phone Guy, the Businesswoman, the Bookworm and the Celebrity. You'll also meet the Senior. He has much more patience when waiting to be seated or waiting for his food. However, he also takes a long time to get up and leave, which can leave several impatient customers like the Businesswoman fuming.

The game features five locations. You start off in the Jelly Roger, before moving on to the Log Jam, Spooky Shack, Tree Tops and Deep Dive. Alternatively, you can also buy the collector's edition for $13.99, which adds an added Gold Rush venue. Each venue has ten levels. After you finish the Jelly Roger on Casual mode, you can then play through the game in Expert mode. However, you will have to work through the Jelly Roger again on Expert to unlock the next venue. Even on casual, the game gets really hard as the levels get higher even on casual (laugh it up hard core gamers). You have to meet certain point requirements to proceed. So it's more of a bonus if you play through the entire game on casual difficulty, then go back around on Expert.

Each of your restaurants will have different dishes and kitchen tools unique to that location. The Jelly Roger has more seafood dishes like fish and salad (seafood restaurants always serve salad), while the Log Jam focuses on chowder, sandwiches and steaks. So, gamers will have to upgrade each restaurant individually. As the difficulty increases, you'll have to find the best way to manage your time through upgrades. One of the best upgrades to get is upgrading both Grandma (you put your grandma to work as a cook) and Flo. Grandma prepares dishes that are more like appetizers. Giving Grandma the ability to work faster or cook two dishes at once with an extra tabletop for a salad or extra stove for chowder really helps. You'll also want to give Flo the ability to toss dirty dishes directly in the dish tray when they're done. It's odd, but you have to do this at every restaurant. Technically, since this is a character upgrade, that upgrade should persist through the game. Instead, you'll have to spend precious dollars on it every time.

Each restaurant starts you off with a tutorial on how to prepare the food. Gamers will have to know how to fry fish, prepare chowder, grind meat for sandwiches and make drinks. Other foods require spices, need to be turned or will include a side dish. It can get very hectic trying to juggle all of this at once. Also, as new characters are introduced you will get a quick tutorial on how best to serve them. If you seat the celebrity with a regular customer, then that customer will want to take a picture with the celebrity. Also, the celebrity pays extra for better service. If people really like your service, they will also stay for dessert. You also gain multipliers for matching customer to table color and chaining similar tasks at once like serving two people at the same table or clearing multiple dirty dishes at once. A new feature in Cooking Dash 3 is the Ride Through Window. You will see customers ride up, like at a Drive through, to place their orders. It's pretty cool since you can see other stuff going on in the background as you play.

In between levels, you can play bonus rounds. These include matching dishes and hidden-object-search mini games. Depending on how you do, you can gain pre-prepared food for your next level. If you don't perform well, you can always replay the bonus round before you start the next level.

The graphics have the same vibrant visuals that Playfirst is known for in casual gaming. My only gripe is that I would like to see some form of multiplayer or social aspect added to the game. It doesn't take away from the fun, but some people like to Facebook and Tweet their stats. Also, just the ability to do some head to head Dashes would be great. Most likely, Playfirst is already working on that for a Facebook app so we'll just wait and see. For now, Cooking Dash 3: Thrills and Spills is one awesome ride.

Final Score: A-