Cake Mania
If you’ve caught Cake Mania the CDC advises you to seek medical attention.
Tags: Cake Mania Categories: DS Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Michael Hanning on Apr 23rd, 2007
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Cake Mania (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Simulation | No | ||
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Finding the right game for your mood can be tricky with the gamut of choices out there. For the discerning game player you can lose yourself in new worlds of your own invention, calculate the perfect strategy to dominate a tactics game or spend some carefree time rolling cats into giant balls at the whim of a celestial king. With the wide world of digital entertainment at your fingertips there’s something for every occasion if you only look and Cake Mania continues that proud tradition by being just the perfect game for the right moment. That moment is, of course, if you want to shout a lot and throw your DS at the wall in sheer rage.
Cake Mania puts you in the shoes of a baker who just wants to save her grandparents’ bakery from Big Cake moving in. She does this by preparing exactly four shapes of cake, four colors of frosting and (when you can afford the machines) two kinds of topping. The heart of gameplay for Cake Mania lies in the timing of these relatively simple tasks to get cakes to customers before they lose interest and wander away. You don’t really get the chance to be creative here – you tap one of four buttons on the oven, tap the color you want on the frosting machine and cakes to carry them around or drop them off.
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You spend your time finding the right balance to get all this done without tripping over your own feet – one mistake can cost you enough time that you can’t recover. At least most stages are done in a minute or two so restarts are relatively painless. This simplistic gameplay betrays the game’s internet roots.
The big problem with this is that the game is only fun in short bursts until it runs head-first into a brick wall. It’s actually a modification of the Peter Principle you see in corporate America – you’ll keep being promoted until you reach a stage you are absolutely unqualified for and then it’s an exercise in sheer frustration. You can restart if you’d like but you’re going to play for about an hour and then bam, wall of rage. The only way to really enjoy Cake Mania is in short bursts – maybe if you’ve got a few minutes on the bus, or your lunch break at work is long enough you have a little free time but not long enough you can drive somewhere.
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The funny part of this is that there’s actually something of a trade-off with the game presentation. Unlike its online counterpart you get music, but the animation actually takes a severe hit. The baker doesn’t move very smoothly, her customers don’t have as much life to them and the smaller screen size hurts everything involved. At least the music offers a bouncy new-wave kind of feel to the game.
These problems coupled with the sloppy touchscreen make for a game that’s enjoyable in short bursts but almost impossible to play for prolonged periods of time. Maybe that’s what you’re looking for – an acceptable game that put away at a moment’s notice, or just something simple that you don’t have to sink a lot of your mental energy into. A word of advice first – if you’re considering it, try the online version you can still play for free first. It might not take a lot for you to get your fill of Cake Mania.
Was that pun too bad? I think it might have been too bad.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Fun in short bursts. + Fun music! + All the cake-based puns a reviewer could ever want. |
3.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Imprecise touchscreen leads to frustration. - Frustrating gameplay. - Animation really isn't that good. - Cake-based puns really aren't as satisfying as you would think. |
|
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| It's not a bad game, and it's actually pretty fun in short doses. If you're a patient person who likes to multitask this might be the perfect game for you. | |
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Tags: Cake Mania
Posted by Michael Hanning on Apr 23rd, 2007 and is filed under DS Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
