Nintendo Okie

In the world of casual gaming there are a few titles that stick out in my mind more than others.  Cooking Mama is one. Diner Dash is another and then there is Cake Mania. These title could stand out because they are played more than any other games by the females in my house. That’s not to say that they’re just for women, though as I enjoy pulling these games out every once in a while for a little bit of hectic fun. Diner Dash and Cake Mania are known best for their time management aspects and they can be brutal in that respect.

Cake Mania 3 revolves around Jill, the main character as she is preparing for her wedding. Unfortunately something terrible happens causing a Time Bender to shatter and Jill finds herself racing through different periods in history trying to get back in time for her wedding. You’ll find yourself going to ancient China, Merry Old England, France during the Revolution, the Jurassic period and more. Each of the different time periods has their own appropriate cast of characters and situations that Jill must take care of before proceeding. Each level has you baking cakes for the various customers that show up in your bakery. You’ll take their order, prepare their cake and deliver it to them. They’ll then pay you and you’ll leave. The money you earn in each level can be used to upgrade the different parts of your bakery allowing you to bake and decorate cakes faster, serve drink or snacks to customers or give them something to entertain them while they wait. When the customers enter the bakery they have a set number of hearts that indicate their mood. As they get more impatient they will begin to lose hearts. If they lose them all they leave the store and you lose money.

Jill is controlled using the DS stylus. Tapping an object puts it in a que of actions to be performed and each of the actions will be performed in the order they were tapped. This is generally very easy and understanding exactly how the actions perform will be the key to your success. It can also be a source of a lot of frustration. Tapping an object before Jill has used it will remove it from the que. I can’t count the number of times I removed an object from the que and then had to throw away a now useless cake. The edges of the DS screen can also be an issue because the system does not always respond to the taps that are close to the edge. This can cause valuable seconds to be lost and potentially a customer as well. Overall each of the objects has a large area that can be tapped meaning it’s generally easy to add them to your list, but there are a few, such as the cake decorating station that can be a chore to register due to its proximity to the edge of the screen.

There are three mini games that will also be unlocked along the way and are used to break up the non-stop action of the bakery at a number of points during the single player campaign. They provide a nice change of pace from the frantic action of the game and give a chace to recharge. They can also be played separately and the money you earn can be used to upgrade your bakery.

Cake Mania transitions to the DS fairly well and aside from a few gripes about the sensitivity of the screen the game works well overall. The stylus controls represent the PC’s mouse and the graphics, though toned down from the PC, are pleasing to the eye. If you’re a fan of Cake Mania, or hectic multi-tasking this is a game you’ll enjoy. Do you wanna know if Jill makes it back in time for the wedding? Well you’ll have to play the game to find out.

Final Score: 3/5 Average

Review copy of the game provided by Majesco.