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Based on a PC game of the same name, Cake Mania has been making
the rounds across the Internet and mobile phones as a downloadable
title - it even has its own expansion pack. Not unlike Root Beer
Tapper, your goal in this time management game is to serve up cakes
to numerous customers who line up and place orders, and it doesn't
go much further than that. Now ported to the Nintendo DS, complete
with the extra content from the expansion, Cake Mania brings with
it many budget-title qualities that make this treat one that will
leave a bad taste in your mouth, mostly from being past its expiration
date.
Playing
as a girl named Jill, you open up your own bakery right inside your
living room after your grandmother inspires you to take on the business.
The game is presented from an angled top-down view, where you move
Jill around a small area that has all the tools you need; customers
line up at the counter, you present them with a menu, they place
an order and you make it. An order is basically a random item made
up of two sub-groups; the shape of the cake and the icing type.
As you progress, you can get more experimental and double stack
cakes or add new decorations, but don't be fooled into thinking
you'll actually be making the cakes - you simply direct Jill to
the oven or frosting and select the type, then the game does the
rest.
As
you earn money by making cakes with speed and precision, you can
buy upgrades to your shop that allow you to bake new treats, or
make more cakes at one time. A neat feature is the chance to display
an accidental cake (one you made by mistake that wasn't ordered)
and hope a customer will see it and decide to purchase it, saving
you some time. Cupcakes can be made to tide over impatient customers
who are getting fed up with the long wait too, and you can even
buy new shoes to help walk faster and speed the process up.
There
isn't much else to the game though. Upgrading the shop is fun, but
if you fail then you have to restart from scratch, a concept that
is very outdated in modern videogames and one that ruins the fun
of collecting all the upgrades and new items. Furthermore, the customers
who visit the shop rarely differ from one another. The month of
January features only one character model that repeats over
and over, even standing right next to each other. It looks embarrassing
and really drags down the experience. If that wasn't enough, all
of the drawings look a little amateurish, like something out of
a flash animation from the late Nineties. At least it's very bright
and colorful, with varied backgrounds and settings to enjoy if you
make it far enough - it will definitely appeal to the young girls
out there, who will probably enjoy the concept of the game for a
good while until they get sick of restarting from scratch.
Cake
Mania does offer a competitive multiplayer mode, and at least tries
to make use of the touch screen controls for the Nintendo DS, even
if there isn't a lot you could do with them anyway. You basically
tap the stylus on any item on the screen to make Jill walk over
and interact with it, and if you tap on multiple items then they
queue up and are visited one after the other. The control method
works fine, and the developers have done all they can with it, but
there's just not enough to it - and it would have been nice to have
the option to cancel all of your queued up commands with one touch.
With
sound that doesn't leave much of an impact - repetitive tunes and
very little to listen to overall - and a replay value that is almost
non-existent due to starting from scratch, Cake Mania is a flawed
and outdated game that is hard to recommend. Even those who find
enjoyment out of it will grow weary of the limited nature of the
gameplay, boring and repetitive characters and flawed structure
of the overall experience. This is one cake that should've been
baked for longer and given a more elaborate coat of icing before
being served up.
Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).
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