Game Review #074: Cake Laboratory (Nintendo Switch)
Reviewer: Frankie W.
Developer: Square Heads Games
Publisher: GrimTalin
Category: Puzzle, Education, Arcade, Adventure
Release Date: 12.20.2018
Buy Cake Laboratory from the Nintendo eShop here.
Cake Laboratory is a family-friendly casual stacking game where instead of stacking bricks and other items, delicious and colorful cakes fall from the sky! This game has a super affordable price tag of $2.99 as well and makes the perfect distraction for a younger member of your family while you are out and about, but a more seasoned gamer will blow through what this game has to offer very quickly. Let's talk more about what this game has going on!
Mmmm....cake!
Cake Laboratory’s gameplay entails your basic stacking game of having to stack a certain amount of different-sized objects on top of one another without knocking them down, and doing so forces you to restart the level. It features 50 different levels of increasing difficulty, starting at only a few large cakes to stack to levels with over 30, which is when it starts to get harder. At the end of each level you receive a star rating out of 3 based on how well you stacked, so you completionists can get your perfect rating on all 50 levels! There are 3 different sizes of cakes to stack, so you will generally run into the problem of stacking a large cake on the smallest cake, but it is still very manageable even in that situation if you take your time. As you continue to beat levels you will unlock different cakes to pop up while you are stacking which lends itself to the variety of pretty visuals you see in this game - cakes with the brightest colors you’ve seen, frosting dripping down the side, and toppings that look delicious!
Master Chef
Speaking of cakes, the game also allows you to design your own cakes to show up in the rotation during the game which is pretty cool. It seems when you unlock a new cake, you generally unlock the components that make that cake. Even I found myself trying to make some tasty looking cakes when they popped me into the menu! The visuals I would say are one of this game’s strongest points; everything is bright and colorful, popping off the screen with inviting colors and animation, especially the “perfect” animation you get for a perfect cake drop. There is something about it that just makes you want to get more and more of them!
Who's Ready to Bake?
Cake Laboratory is a decent little experience for $2.99, but any serious gamer will find it to be very lacking in content, and can easily blow through the 50 levels in under 2 hours. It took me about 30 minutes to get to 25, if that says anything. I think a young kid would find more challenge and enjoyment from it in that case, but it’s an easy little time killer if you got it for your kid and need to lose 10 minutes. Cake Laboratory sits nicely at a 5 out of 10, it's a great first go for a new developer, and we are looking forward to seeing more come from them!
Final Score: 5/10
Buy Cake Laboratory from the Nintendo eShop here.
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*Review Code Provided By GrimTalin