Yvonne van Geloven's Reviews
Over the years I have been known to enjoy my management games: simulation games where time is of the essence and trying to manage your own business in the best way and fastest way you can. Somehow, most often the action takes place in a restaurant of sorts, serving customers their food, prepping it as quickly as you can and make sure the customers leave happy. In 2019 three games that follow that same formula came to the Nintendo Switch: Food Truck Tycoon, Burger Chef Tycoon and Pizza Bar Tycoon. Now, the three games are bundled into one and have landed once again on the Switch. Let's see how these management simulation games hold up!
Waku Waku Sweets: a cooking game that came to the 3DS in 2018, and followed on the Switch that same year. The most well known cooking game is Cooking Mama, one that my daughter loves to bits. But now that Waku Waku Sweets on Switch has landed in retail as well, let’s see how this “other” title holds up: is it a clone, or does it bring something new to the table?
Even though there are more of these kind of puzzles out there, Travel Mosaic: A Paris Tour, for me, adds good fun, color and a great challenge. It’s colourful and bright and the gleaming dots that plop into place make a very satisfying plopping noise. The background music is nice and changes with the puzzle and the tourist attraction. The addition of info about the tourist attraction is a nice touch. Playing on several layers with several colours makes Travel Mosaics stand out even more. And these grids are no walk in the park. They get bigger and more challenging as the levels go by. If you are a puzzle enthusiast and like excersizing the grey cells, I can really recommend Travel Mosaics: A Paris Tour.
Let's recap here: a small development studio, an amazing looking game that has lots of depth to it. A great story line and puzzles that exercise the grey cells. An added element of narration making it even better. Main characters that instantly make you feel protective. A long enough adventure with the right price tag. And even when I have other games waiting, Woven is taking over my entire spare gaming time. I think you know what I'm going to say next: this game deserves all the attention it's surely going to get. For me, it just has to be the highest praise, this is one of the best games I have played this year!
Adventure game bayala is based on the movie bayala – a magical adventure. What’s more, the movie, and the game, are based on the lovely figurines by Schleich. And who doesn’t know about these wonderful toys? Somewhere on the forum of a gaming site I found a comment on the announcement of bayala that said something along the lines that this is the kind of game that you play when you aren’t a real gamer. I must say I totally disagree. I think all games are good games as long as the audience that it was intended for enjoys playing them. Sure, this is no Breath of the Wild or Monster Hunter, but that is not the purpose of the game. This is a game made for fans of the movie and fans of the toys. And the developer did a very good job at it.
This game will stay with me for a long time, even if it’s only three hours in play time. It’s a game about old age, about loneliness and losing the people around you. It’s also a game about stubbornly carrying on and about old friendships. Don’t play it if you are looking for a farming sim. Don’t play it if you are looking for a time management game. Play it if you want to experience something special, but do consider which device you will play it on.