What struck me immediately about this game as being different from the other titles in this series is that this one seems to have much more of a plot than the others do. Jill and her husband are apparently expecting a baby and still trying to run their bakery. But wait, there's more! This time around, there's a film crew in town trying to film a movie at the same time. Their friend Risha has opened up a fashion boutique, and another friend has opened up an Italian restaurant. (This will all become important in a minute.)
When you first start playing, you're working in the bakery (which has had a serious facelift since the other games in the series) and the gameplay is fairly predictable - nothing entirely different from the other Cake Mania games. However, after a couple rounds, you unlock Risha's Boutique. This is an entirely new thing for the Cake Mania games, as this has nothing to do with baking whatsoever. Over here, you're in a cluttered boutique and have to find specific articles of clothing for the customers in a timely manner (it's more of a hidden item seek mini-game than anything) and gift wrap for certain patrons. Instead of upgrading appliances with your hard earned cash, instead you upgrade the new fashion lines you're carrying, as well as your gift-wrapping options. One particular fashion line caught my eye as a tried and true Liza Minnelli fan...
...I officially have a new favorite Cake Mania game, folks.
Then you unlock the Italian restaurant after a certain number of rounds in the fashion boutique. This is something more akin to Diner Dash, but still slightly unique and different. You have to combine ingredients to make the customers' food requests. Not that difficult, not all that different from other time-management games out there, but still unique to Cake Mania and gives the game a little extra zest.
Now of course, my obligated gripes about the game...
Given that this is a line made with kids in mind (even though it usually tends to be adults, I've found, who end up playing it) I found it to be a little disconcerting that the map screen for the bakery levels is a little bit...porn-y, for lack of a better term. You've got Jill and her husband standing back to back, Jill rubbing her very pregnant belly and giving bedroom eyes while stereotypical "porn music" (as I so lovingly coin it) plays as background music. It just so happens that the trail of the map happens to be in a heart shape around them. One could argue that they're married, it's expected, but... I don't know. Something about it just feels the teensiest bit inappropriate. Nothing horrible, it's just a subtle thing that I couldn't help but notice every time the screen popped up in between levels.
Another gripe is how the game seems to assume that every expectant father is a bumbling idiot. Honestly. I know there's a stereotype that's being followed and all, and that's all fine and well, but honestly, I'm pretty sure that even the most naive of fathers wouldn't make a point of constantly pointing out how fat their wife has become. (And this happens REPEATEDLY, if you actually read the dialogue between levels.) It's not exactly a problem with the game I guess, but it just seems like a bad message to be sending kids while they're still at an impressionable age. Goes right up there with stereotyping gender roles from the 1950's.
Overall I really don't have too much to complain about with this game. It's fun, but it seems entirely too easy. All the other games in the line feel more challenging than this one. I don't know if they simplified the gameplay because of the alternate forms of gameplay included in the game or what, but I finished this almost alarmingly quickly. Had I not been multitasking with several other projects, I easily could have probably finished the entire game in 2 days, 3 tops. It doesn't feel like it has a ton of replay value. Maybe a little, but I don't see this one being one I'd come back to many times later on.
I'm going to rate this game a 7 out of 10 frosted cakes.
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