For some time now Astraware has released Cake Mania for mobile devices. A near perfect port of the original PC version (also called Cake Mania), with only one huge flaw: it makes you ridiculously hungry while you’re playing it – even after you’ve eaten.
Astraware has released several other games that have been ported from the PC, and so far they have been successful, with Broken Sword being their most recent port originally from the PC. And now Cake Mania is out and it definitely takes the cake (pun intended). After having played this game for some time now, all I can say is "Jill, I would like a double layered star cake with chocolate icing and a Super Granny decoration!"
"I love this game."
- AJ
Graphics:
The first thing that you notice in Cake Mania is the graphics. They’re comic-like, very smooth, and the animations are excellent. Within the game itself, each customer has their own animation type for when they’re waiting in line or having just received their cake, adding to the overall atmosphere of the game. For those who have played the original PC version, you’ll find that the animations and styles are nearly identical. Despite the smaller screen, the details are impeccably clear and surprisingly easy on the eyes.
However, nothing is perfect, and thus Cake Mania has a few drawbacks of its own. One very noticeable feature of Cake Mania is its level of detail. Everything is so detailed and somewhat easy to distinguish from other objects in the screen. But this attention to detail means there’s too many things on the screen at once, making it hard to distinguish certain objects within the game, especially when you are in a rush and after prolonged play time. For example, the cake design buttons on the oven(s) and icing toppings are all very small and are sometimes hard to focus on immediately. For our older audience out there, this could be a slight strain on your eyes after a good half hour of play.
Sound:
Unfortunately, my device’s speaker has been damaged for the greater part of the last year, so I did not get to play sound. I was quite upset at this as several of Astraware’s games have an excellent set of sound effects and in-game music that compliment their games very well. I was hoping that there would be a little metallic “ding” noise to chime in that a cake has finished baking in the oven!
"Buying back a bakery has never made me so hungry before."
- Geoff
Gameplay:
It has been a while since I have played a game that has such high replay value. Cake Mania is one of those rare games where you can play it over and over again without getting bored of it. One of the factors that makes this possible is an intuitive interface: it makes going through the 
game easy and fun. Instead of having to drone through dozens of menus and dialogues, Cake Mania has simple scripts that even include a fun punch line or two. Another factor that makes Cake Mania so great is its difficulty level. As a player progresses through the game, everything becomes more fast pace, thus creating a challenge. Each level also has a goal where you must earn a minimum amount of money in order to proceed to the next month. At first it starts off slow and easy, but eventually you’ll find yourself multitasking like nobody’s business. A testament to your reflexes too. But what’s even greater about this game is that younger children can also easily pick up this game without difficulty, making it perfect for all age groups.
Still, Cake Mania has a few hurdles that keep it from being a perfect game. For instance, the small buttons on the oven, decoration board, and icing maker are a huge death trap for folk who suffer from digitizer drift, or just over-shooting objects on the screen. Often, you will end up putting on the wrong icing or baking the wrong shaped cake, and this can be frustrating when you’re under the clock (why must business men be so impatient?). Also, near the end of the game the difficulty level may be a bit much for some younger players as game speed increases significantly, and it can be hard to keep up with the customer’s orders. A difficulty level setting in the options menu could fix this, but then again who doesn’t like a good challenge?
Overall game-play is very fast and smooth, even on older devices such as my Clie TH55. Although the game does take some time to load upon launching from the application launcher, loading levels within the game does not take too long. Something nice and refreshing in this game is the fact that it forces you to multitask under a time limit, which is quite rare in these days in mobile games. Despite great overall game play, there are still a few things that could use improvement within the game, and might even benefit the player in the end.
So whether you’re hungry for cake or hungry for a new addiction, Cake Mania is the probably the game for you.
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Finally, a few of as at Canuck PDA decided to have a little fun with this game. We held a mini competition to see who could earn the most money in a 12-month period. Apparently, AJ's business degree is clearly paying off as he leads me by just over $300 at the year's end. Here are our figures so far:
AJ: $10059
Geoff: $9755
Played the game before? Think you can beat us? Let us know then! Swing by our forums and top off our high scores!
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