As with their recent games, The Pokémon Company has made their latest Pokémon-themed game available on not only the Nintendo Switch, but also on all Android and iOS mobile devices. Pokémon Café Mix allows players to run their own adorable Pokémon-themed café, from serving Pokémon customers to whipping up cute Pokémon-shaped treats!
Run your own Pokémon café
As soon as you launch the game, a lovely video montage of Pokémons dining in a café setting begins before the game official starts and you’re greeted by the new employee, Leah. It is then your job to introduce yourself as the café owner, before you’re tasked with completing your first café order alongside your trusty Pokémon co-worker, Eevee.
In order to successfully dish up orders for your Pokémon patrons, players are tasked with linking up Pokémon icons in order to collect ingredients for their dish. For example, orders may require whipped cream, and it is up to you to obtain this item by forming links that come in contact with it. As you continue to serve more customers and level up, Leah will add new items around the café — such as a tomato planter, or a fancy decorative piece.
These items will allow players to create new recipes, or simply attract different kinds of Pokémon to your café. The game also holds special events for limited amounts of time, this can mean that an incredibly rare Pokémon — who may not usually appear — will visit your café. When this happens, players can seize the opportunity to serve them and eventually hire them as a Pokémon café staff.
The gameplay is complex enough
While the first few orders of Pokémon Café Mix may seem simple and easy enough, the game’s level of difficulty should not be dismissed, as future orders increasingly require more ingredients. Players will discover that the key to success is to slow down and strategize each in-game decision, in order to effectively obtain each item within the playable amount of moves.
It’s safe to say that Pokémon Café Mix isn’t all that different from other puzzle games available, as linking icons together isn’t anything new. However, it is interesting that this game allows you to drag the icons across the screen as you link everything up. While this ultimately makes forming longer chains a breeze, it also allows the game to include new moves for players, for example, players are required to drag tomatoes into baskets through the use of their Pokémon chain links.
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Recruit Pokémon staff
There is absolutely no need to justify the appeal of hiring a wide variety of different Pokémons to join your café staff, however, being able to work with your favorite Pokémons isn’t the only benefit. Each Pokémon possesses a different skill which excels in the execution of certain café dishes. While it’s not impossible to complete an order without a certain Pokémon, it certainly makes it much easier. Players are able to recruit Pokémon customers as café staff when they have successfully served them multiple times and have developed good friendships with them.
What’s not to like?
Pokémon Café Mix is a solid puzzle game for Pokémon fans to enjoy. While it doesn’t exactly offer anything new, in terms of its gameplay, it is still a great addition to The Pokémon Company’s library of games that have been made available for both Nintendo Switch and mobile device players to enjoy. And even if you’re not a big fan of puzzle games, you can’t deny how cute the game’s art is!
YouTube: Mix it up with Pokémon Café Mix!
Photo credit: The images used have been taken by the author for TechAcute.
