Sandlot Games' PC phenomenon Cake Mania goes portable thanks to Majesco and developer Digital Embryo. The DS version retains some of the original game's addictiveness, thrusting gamers into tense situations in which they must multitask in order to please impatient customers. At the same time, they must contend with wonky touch screen controls.
In the game, players take control of Jill, a recent college grad determined to return her grandparent's bakery to prominence. To do this, she bakes cakes in the hopes of meeting certain financial goals. Players guide her about the kitchen by tapping icons on the system's bottom screen. She takes a customer's order, bakes the cake, frosts, decorates (if asked) and then delivers. Before long, lines of people appear and players must tend to them all, lest these patrons become irritated and leave. Thankfully, the game allows players to do multiple things at once, meaning they can take multiple orders at a time, and after earning some dough, they can upgrade the kitchen to help their cause. This entails buying a microwave to cook free samples to please customers, a Frost-O-Matic (to frost two to three cakes at a time) and even shoes to help Jill run faster.
Overall, the game provides mild amusement. It certainly packs quite a challenge, as players frantically dash back and forth in order to meet customer needs. The problem comes from the tiny icons. On a PC, the user has a much larger playfield to work with. On the DS, these icons, most notably the colors of frosting, are much too small to tap quickly. Furthermore, the decorating station fails to work nine times out of ten, as players quickly tap the icon, only to watch Jill walk in a different direction or pick up the unfinished cake. Meanwhile, customers grow angry and leave.
This makes Cake Mania difficult, a shame, considering its popularity on PC. It definitely satisfies, but there's nothing amazing about it. Unless they need to bake away from their computers, players should stick with the PC version.
Final Score: 6 (out of 10)
Related Links
Reader Comments (0)