Did you think there were simulators for anything yet? I say no, we still want more and one of them is the one brought to us by the developer Cozy Bee with Lemon Cake, a pastry simulator that will put us in the position of what scares a Spaniard the most: being autonomous.
Lemon Cake follows the current trend of “cozy” or “comfortable” games that are flooding networks of the likes of Instagram or Tiktok (if you don’t believe us, try typing that word into the search engine). It’s a creative current that uses the possibilities of a game to transport us into a cozy and cozy environment where we can relax. Farm simulators or games that take place on islands surrounded by small animals are a clear example of this. They are essentially escape valves for those who don’t want to cross the line between life and death being haunted by a ten foot long demigod. Pastel colors, simple and somewhat repetitive mechanics, as well as adorable designs are the basic traits of these games that naturally seek challenges, but always with our relaxation and comfort as the ultimate goal.
the ghost bakery
We woke up to a day like any other in a pastry shop that has seen better days. And it has to be right, because a few seconds later the former owner appears: a ghost! Miss Bombón will be our Jedi Master in the confectionery from now on and she will mark the times as well as the improvements that we can make in the facility. Besides that, that’s what the game is about. The customers come, we feed them and put them all to sleep. Of course, life isn’t that simple, and neither is lemon pie.
Shortly after starting our business, the health inspector of the deceased confectionery appears, who punishes us if there are too many insects in it (no wonder). And that won’t be the only challenge. Lemon cake is kind of educational for little ones and just like my mother said money doesn’t grow on trees, cakes aren’t born in the supermarket. For this we have a small garden where we can grow all the necessary ingredients to develop new recipes, as well as animals from which we can borrow resources.
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Relaxing, but not that much
The difficulty in Lemon Cake doesn’t seem to be there. At first you think you’ve found the perfect alternative to reading a book on your bedside table. But little by little, the pace of the bakery will increase exponentially. With the benefits that we receive every day, in order to keep growing, we must study the improvements that we can make in the facility. Because we are human, greed is part of us and soon we will be obsessed with capitalism until we become Wall Street’s baking wolf. Before you know it, you’ll be running from the garden to the cafeteria and then into the oven to make sure you don’t miss a sale. Water the plants, catch the eggs, milk the cow, scrub the floor, bake a cake…literally the life of a freelancer.
It highlights the relative complexity of the “skill tree” disguised as a facility upgrade table. The resource accumulation rate is much more cautious than we initially expected and it will give us a lot to think about in which direction we want to expand the business. One of the improvements is to fill the cafeteria with games for kittens so customers can pet them. What more do you want?
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The secret is in the dough
We were able to enjoy Lemon Cake on Nintendo Switch, which we think is the perfect format for this game. The game runs perfectly at all times, although we suffered some bugs that knocked us out of the game immediately. One aspect worth highlighting is the soundtrack, based on royalty-free songs that imitate, or at least reminded us of, popular themes of the moment.
In the artistic field, it sometimes seems like it was done by two different teams. On the one hand the environments, objects and scenarios that have a great personality and it’s a real pleasure to enrich them with the different improvements that they put at our disposal. On the other hand, there are the people, both our character and the bakery’s customers, they’re designed absolutely simply, they lack the personality of the rest of the game, as well as their slow and soulless animations. Finally, a very positive point is the language department, since there are several to choose from. Although it is true that with Spanish sometimes an automatic translator seems to be behind it.
