Cake Mania: Back to the Bakery Review

Having immensely enjoyed the first installment of the Cake Mania series, I jumped at the opportunity to review the expansion to the popular game, Cake Mania: Back to the Bakery. Being an expansion, there aren't too many new things to be expected. What do you do in the game? Basically you use your stylus to perform tasks in baking cakes that match the orders of your customers. All the while the clock is ticking, but there are other distractions such as cupcakes and a TV to keep your customers patient. Gameplay and the basic feel of the game remains identical to the first Cake Mania. The only real difference from it is that the story is different and some of your customers are different. Difficulty? Not hard at all if you've been through the first Cake Mania, and it's not hard to get up to speed either. In fact, I've consistently surpassed the "Baker's Goal" for each level, several times by $500 (quite significant).

While the first game involved moving into different stores every "year" in the game in order to save up enough to buy back Evan's Bakery for the heroine's grandparents, the expansion has a different story. You're stuck in Evan's Bakery, but now you've entered a contest where the grand prize is a Hawaiian vacation. This you want to win for your grandfolks, so you're on a renovation shoping spree to prettify the bakery for the contest. Watching the bakery change its furnishings every few months is new to this game.

All in all, a great little game that is ideal for mobile devices. It's easy to pick up, fun to play, and makes great use of the touchscreen, like the one on the Treo 680 I tested this on. An excellent example of casual gaming!

By the way, my high score was 44545. ^_^