The Pokémon multimedia powerhouse is not unfamiliar to the mobile market. After many years of remaining exclusive to Nintendo’s consoles, the many hundreds of critters have shuffled out onto smart device platforms through game’s like Niantic’s Pokémon Go, and Pokémon Masters from the development team at DeNa. Even though we are unlikely to see a mainline Pokémon game away from a Nintendo home console anytime soon, these games are managing to make a name for themselves.
The latest Pokémon game to hit (digital) store shelves is Pokémon Café Mix, published by The Pokémon Company and developed by Genius Sonority. This is a puzzle game for the Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android platforms. Putting its unique spin on the puzzle game format which is already excessively prominent on smart devices, it couples thought-provoking yet straightforward gameplay with a sugary cute aesthetic.
As the title implies, you become the owner of a café dedicated to serving the local populace of Pokémon with assorted drinks, sweets and meals. While starting with little more than your co-workers Leah and Eevee, as you begin serving your PokePatrons with tasty noms and beverages, you will start recruiting them on your team.
The gameplay loop of Pokémon Café Mix comes from creating the requested dishes of each Pokémon. The making of these items takes the form of individual puzzle stages filled with icons representing different Pokémon heads, and numerous objectives to be met in a set number of turns. These objectives can range from reaching a specific score to removing all of a particular food type from a stage. You remove icons by chaining two or more of the same kind together by dragging your finger across the touchscreen in a certain amount of time. At its core, the mechanics are easy to pick up and play, with no need for convoluted tutorials (which they do, however, force upon you).
What sets Pokémon Café Mix apart from other games in the genre, is that the icon locations are not in static rows, and will move around with the slightest interaction from the players. Even chaining them together will cause everything to move around the screen – for better or worse. It can sometimes come down to balancing your ability to net a good score on a combo without messing up your ability to complete other objectives quickly.
As you go through the game, your café will be enhanced with new items which allow you to create new recipes, each of which has a particular puzzle element to them. Using the puzzle above, you need to knock all eighteen apples into one of the two baskets at the bottom of the stage. On the other hand, if the puzzle makes use of nuts, you need to use skills and megaphones which appear to complete them. Each Pokémon is associated with a particular skill which can be obtained by boosting a chain meter, making some better at tackling certain puzzles than others. But with most of the stages pre-defined rather than randomly generated, nothing is stopping you from just looking up how to clear them online.
If you are playing on the original Nintendo Switch, you are unable to play Pokémon Café Mix with the console in your television dock. All interactions are done via the touchscreen, which may irk those who find the Switch’s handheld mode uncomfortable. However, whether you play on Switch or smart device, the touch controls are satisfyingly responsive, and in my opinion, the best way to play the game with its particular gameplay mechanics.
The difficulty of Pokémon Café Mix increases at a good pace. After a few dozen levels, many will likely find themselves needing to repeat stages a few times to resolve player error or work out how to make the stage tick. Completing each level offers small amounts of golden acorns, serving as the game’s central unit of currency. By being a bit creative with how you tackle levels, you can complete challenge cards which unlock larger caches of acorns.
Like other puzzle games, you can use this currency to buy yourself more turns to complete a stage, or purchase powers to make an upcoming stage just a little bit easier. A word of warning though, you should only use these acorns to complete challenging stages you are on the cusp of completing – or you risk wasting this precious resource which can deplete very quickly. While there are a few exclusive Pokémon variations which can be acquired through purchasing sets via in-app purchases, fortunately very little of the game’s content is (as of writing) hidden behind a paywall. The purchase of in-app currency is purely there to help you complete levels.
The fact that the game is devoid of gacha mechanics is right. However, on the note of in-app purchases, I was a little bit surprised that, given the game’s child-friendly aesthetic, that they were promoting a “Good value!” in-game pack for $124.99 AUD. While I would assume there are suitable protections to ensure a child wouldn’t accidentally purchase packages like this (or any without parental consent)… an option this expensive just doesn’t sit well with me. Here’s hoping that the limited Pokémon, such as the current Sweets Pikachu, remain in the more affordable packs.
With a low barrier to entry compared to any other Pokémon game on the market, Pokémon Café Mix is a fun and addicting puzzle game which appeals with its cutesy aesthetic style, an appropriate level of difficulty and fresh take on an overused genre. It is, however, a game aimed at the younger and casual demographics of the gaming community with little of substance to hold a series veteran’s attention once the novelty wears off.
