I used to enjoy playing this game back when I was younger and I recently saw it on Steam and decided to play it again for old times sake. But sadly, there was a one slight problem with it. The game crashed whenever I clicked the play button. HOWEVER, THERE'S AN EASY WAY TO FIX THE CRASHING ISSUE!

1. Open C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Diner Dash Hometown Hero\assets\downloads\_default\restaurants on your computer and you will see a bunch of folders that should be called "ballpark", "boardwalk", "disco", "museum" and "zoo".

2. Go into all of those folders one by one and click on the folder inside each of them called "comics" and delete all the .swf files inside the "comics" folder that say "intro" or "outro".

3. If you did everything right, the game should work fine now (but be warned, the cutscenes won't be there anymore). Enjoy!

I've realised people are rating this game down because of crashes when it tries to play cut scenes, this can easily be solved by going into the game's folder and deleting the .SWF files from the INTRO and OUTRO folders.
I don't know why it crashes and really, it shouldn't be on here unless it works but it's on here and it's a decent game once you get past the stupid cutscene bug.

I love the Diner Dash series, I think HH is another decent rung on the ladder really, though in all honesty I don't think it's worth £7+. Well, I suppose that's a bit harsh, it could probably scrape worthiness by playtime as if you were to sit and play the entire thing through it would take you an hour or two (I hesitate to comment on its worth as I can think of cheaper games with more substance).
I did, however, find the Endless mode on this game to get ludicrously hard quite quickly, no idea why. Maybe my parents taught me poor coping strategies.

TL:DR - It's a fun little game that you can easily waste several hours on, over time, and it very easy to pick up and drop whenever you feel like it (the plot, for example, will not have a profound effect on your life and dreams).
You will also find yourself passively aggressively judging the customers when they get pissy and shake their heads at you, but it's okay, becase you're fabulous.

Only thing I can do in game is endless mode. The actual game just crashes when I try to start it. I love the diner dash games so finding out that this one doesn't work sucks.

If you are after nostalgia, then this is probably one of those games you could buy for the sake of that—otherwise, don’t.

As this is an old game, requirements aren’t that high. Which means you could probably play it without a hitch on your new laptop or desktop. At least that’s what I thought when I bought this.

Game crashes when you click ‘Play’ on the very first level. As suggested by the previous reviews, all you have to do is delete the intro and outro files from the comics subdirectory of the game. The thing is, personally, I don’t like this kind of approach. Yeah, sure, it’s an easy fix. But the users shouldn’t be the ones messing with the game files (as much as possible) to fix an issue; that’s the developer’s job. And while playing a level, the game suddenly closed on me (now I remember why I uninstalled it in the first place :D ).

I bought this while this was on sale, which is why I’m not miffed about uninstalling it. But yeah, if you could deal with fixing bugs on your own, then go ahead and give this a shot. Just be prepared for random crashes.

Otherwise, maybe find another similar game to play? 😉

This game crashes every time i try to start story mode. I've tried it on different computers, same thing happens. Not worth it. To be honest I don't understand why steam has kept the game on for sale since they know it doesn't work. Greed can be the only reason to keep selling a broken game.

It is 2023 and the game still crashes. I bought the game for the nostalgia and I thought the game would be fixed by now but apparently not... (-.-")

Giving this game a negative review not because of the crashing, but because a critical flaw in the game design that shatters the formula that makes other versions of the game fun.

The crashing, as others have mentioned, is simply fixable by deleting the intro.swf and outro.swf files from all the folders in the local files.

The real problem wit this came is that some of the new features fundamentally undermine the fun of the game. The early levels are fine, and are much like the first game. New things are introduced, like a noisiness mechanic and new types of customers. But eventually, the game becomes bogged down in unfun and unfair mechanics.

The developers seemed to think that adding more things for you to juggle was a foolproof way to make the game more engaging. Now there are several new pseudo-optional things to do for customers, like take their picture, give them snacks *or* dessert, and clean up spills. But the mere presence of these features makes tables take far longer to fully work through. I called them pseudo-optional because usually after a while, they'll give up on the request and proceed. But that still takes like 15 seconds, which is a huge amount of time for the lifetime of a table. Not a big deal when you can satisfy them immediately, but if you have to let them time out because you're busy at the moment, then it's a double gut punch because not only are you disappointing the customer, but your table is taking significantly longer to open up.

What makes it unbearable is the randomness of it. There's a clear order of operations for tables normally, and distinct amounts of time it takes each customer type to get through those phases. That means you have a good sense of what is coming your way. But these random interruptions can't be anticipated. The player's ability to plan ahead is crippled. The forseeability of the game is further damaged by the fact that the option interruptions can expire, ironically. Your plan may include delivering a snack to a certain table, but you aren't certain that by the time you get there they'll still want it, and if they don't, then you fail to free up one of your hands, which is a fundamental resource you need to be aware of. If you've played Diner Dash before, you know that looking ahead to your next several steps is the core gameplay bliss this game achieves. But its dashed on the rock of unpredictability, thanks to an overabundance of randomized "optional" mechanics.

Replaying the same level can be vastly different experiences, because all it takes is a handful of interruptions at a bad time to destroy your run. You have full tables, people waiting, and lots of necessary things to do. If several random interruptions happen at that moment, it might be impossible to fulfill them because of what you *have* to do first. Which means that several of your tables are delayed by a huge amount of time. Which ends up meaning you can't seat all the customers that are waiting, which carries a huge penalty. Your run is destroyed because of the random incidence of some mechanics that make the game less fun even when they're not screwing you over.

The game does not feel balanced around these new features, either. It feels like some features were added after the levels were balanced. It often doesn't feel like you're learning or overcoming a challenge when you get to a tough new level. Instead it feels like a frustrating craps shoot where you're hoping the stars align properly for once to get through a level you keep failing because every time you attempt it, your whole line of waiting customers walks out because the entire restaurant all decided they wanted Candy Apples at the same time. Yes I'm bitter, what tipped you off?

It's frustrating to see a great game be spoiled into something frustrating by a design philosophy that only says that more is better, without any thought to the effect it has on the formula.

Unfortunately, it's nigh impossible to play the original, well balanced PC version, without going through janky ad-driven flash programs. This is the closest experience to the original I'm aware of. The first half of the game is still good. So I can't dismiss it entirely. But if this is your first experience with Diner Dash, I'm warning you that you'll reach a point where you realize this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, but I'm telling you that it didn't have to be this way. The formula is solid, they just ruined this iteration in the name of adding stuff for a sequel.

If anyone is having problems running this game in Windows10 try running it in compatibility mode. Access the application on your computer here:

C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Diner Dash Hometown Hero

then right click on the application and open its properties, click on the compatibility tab, click the checkbox for compatibility mode and select Windows98/ Windows ME from the dropdown menu, Apply and OK it.

Works great on the steam deck!!! It crashed on my pc but when I went to settings and took it off full screen it worked. Was just weird for it to be so small. Runs perfectly fine on the steam deck though! Oh the nostalgia

All the negative reviews are because of a game-breaking glitch very easy to fix:

Just browse the game files and delete every file named either "intro" or "outro" inside the "restaurants" directory, files whom have the SWF extension. Those files are the game cutscenes, made on the outdated Adobe Flash. The first level from Story Mode is deadlocked because the game tries to play those files as videos, with them gone, so is the glitch.

I can't believe Electronic Arts left this game unsupported; it is an awesome, award-winning casual game, far better than the shovelware flooding the Steam Store nowadays. I honestly believe this game had the potential to become a best seller here on Steam.