Game Reviews

Cafeteria Nipponica

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Cafeteria Nipponica

After coaching a soccer team in Pocket League Story, conquering a mediaeval realm in Dungeon Village, and exploring the corners of the universe in Epic Astro Story, the prospect of running a restaurant in Cafeteria Nipponica might seem like a bit of a disappointment.

However, just because Kairosoft’s latest venture is based in a slightly less exciting environment, that doesn’t mean that it’s any less addictive.

Instead of repelling alien invaders or questing for gold, you’re given the more humble task of creating a chain of top-class eateries. If you want to succeed, you’ll need to recruit staff, develop dishes, hone your recipes, and install the appropriate furniture.

Fast food

To begin with, your staff are poorly trained and the meals you produce are basic, but as the game progresses you’ll find your workers gain experience that helps to enhance their culinary skills. Before long they’re cooking up sizzling signature dishes that attract more punters through the doors.

As with all Kairosoft games, Cafeteria Nipponica bombards you with several different tasks, all of which must be juggled simultaneously. Where it differs slightly from previous games is that there are noticeable lulls in the gameplay, where you’ll find yourself simply staring at the screen, waiting for something to happen.

Cooking up a storm

Money is the key resource in Cafeteria Nipponica, and sometimes it’s impossible to perform an action until you have enough cash.

That means you may spend several minutes watching the game progress without actually having any input. To be fair, this is a hallmark of other Kariosoft games as well, but here it feels especially pronounced.

Those of you who consider yourselves to be seasoned veterans will find it easy to forgive this little quirk, but players more comfortable with an abundance of non-stop action may lose interest.

Unless you savour the challenge of slowly building up your restaurant empire then Cafeteria Nipponica may not provide enough thrills and spills to maintain your interest.

Not Kairosoft’s finest hour, then, but by no means a terrible game either. If you have the patience and have already lapped up the developer’s other releases, then this is worth a nibble.

Cafeteria Nipponica

Although it’s something of a letdown when you consider Kairosoft’s illustrious pedigree, Cafeteria Nipponica will still please lifelong fans of the developer
Score
Damien  McFerran
Damien McFerran
Damien's mum hoped he would grow out of playing silly video games and gain respectable employment. Perhaps become a teacher or a scientist, that kind of thing. Needless to say she now weeps openly whenever anyone asks how her son's getting on these days.