My review of Cake Mania

Staying at home sick today I was more than happy to have Cake Mania with me on my Palm to take my mind off the soaring throat and other nasty symptoms of my flu.

Cake Mania, one of the latest releases from the superb PDA gaming company Astraware, is a port of a highly successful PC game by the guys at Sandlot Games with whom Astraware has worked in the past to crate Tradewinds and the brilliant SuperSlyder as well as their latest game Glyph and certainly on par with those other great games.

Unfolding the story of Jill, a nice young woman who is determined to work her way up the backing business to be able to win her grandparents' bakery back, Cake Mania is one of those fast-paced multi-tasking and concentration games, in which the gamer is faced with ever more difficult and elaborate tasks which have to be correctly completed within a strict time-limit. As Jill the baker, you are trying to single-handedly run your own bakery - take customers' orders, bake, frost, decorate, deliver the ready cakes and collect you payment - while satisfying everyone's whims and special characteristics. Speed and concentration is not enough to level-up and successfully proceed in this game - you have also to keep an eye on impatient customers, get the small noisy kids disturbed and tend to the elaborate desires of old ladies asking for two-leveled cakes, each with different frosting and a candle on top and a small decoration...

Yet fear not. Cake Mania has a very-moderate learning curve, teaching you each step at a time, ensuring the game would be difficult yet at the same time rewarding. And to keep you happy (and on the edge), the game constantly presents you with new challenges and surprises, from various upgrades of your kitchen, to a vast array of different customers and various styles of bakeries in different geographical settings.

Cake Mania excels not only in its immersing gameplay but also with its highly polished look and feel - engaging music, dazzling hi-res graphics (which unfortunately does not work on older devices such as my Treo 600), and attention to details - all contribute to the total fun and professional gaming experience.

Highly recommended.

Hugs,
Maya