Developer: Sumo Digital
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), Switch
Gene(s): Simulation, Puzzle
Publisher: Secret Mode
Critter Café is a café management game. The game was developed by Sumo Digital and published by Secret Mode. Critter Café is currently available on Windows and Switch. This review was done on the PC.
Critter Café is a single-player game where you are given a whole café by a friend and get to manage it to your liking. Upon starting your cafe, you get letters from an anonymous person who asks you to travel through portals to rescue critters so you can take care of them and have them be a part of your café. Critter Café also invites players to solve several puzzles as they go out to rescue these captured critters.
The controls for Critter Café are extremely easy to get used to, and I would 100% say that this game is perfect to play on a controller. Jessica, an old friend, is your guide, and she does a wonderful job at getting your café started. The tutorial has great information and keybinds that fully explain what needs to be done and how you can decorate your successful café. As you finish your first day, you get instructions on creature habitats, rescuing them, taking care of them and managing your café.
The art style of Critter Café is bright, colourful, and distinctly stylized, almost giving an anime-type resemblance which captures the adorableness of the critters. Critter Café features a whimsical and heartwarming aesthetic inspired by cosy storybook illustrations and vibrant animations. Its cartoonish 3D design features endearing critters such as a cat or lizard. Each critter has a unique and vibrant design. At the start of the game, you can customize your character and the options are almost endless. Pick from eye styles, eyebrows, hairstyles, facial hair and much more. You can also customize your character whenever you want, so feel free to try all the styles you want. The visuals are soft and make the game feel homey and comfy. The environment has a great balance between simplicity and extensive details where you can come across orchards, beehives, farms, and everything to make the little town you are in stand out. Sound effects and melodies accompanying the visuals are not overpowering but have a nice feel to them when managing your cafe or looking after your critters. The music is upbeat and tends to change between each area, which is really immersive.
There are two parts to the game, one being cafe management and the other being solely based on the critters (rescue and care).
At first, the café management gives you the ability to freely customize your café to your liking by choosing the placement of the tables, chairs, lights, and rugs and even get to choose from different flooring and wallpaper patterns. As you are given the free will to decorate your café to your liking, I found that it’s best to keep the seating and plan to a minimum at the beginning. At first, I had placed several tables and chairs, which kept getting more and more customers who missed many orders; therefore, to begin, do not overwhelm yourself by adding in a lot of seating.
The game runs in a way where once you start the day, people will spawn into available seats, and you can run up to them to take their orders. At first, serving coffee is the beginning where coffee is prepared by filling up a cup and matching it with the fill line. The mechanics of the game are simple yet effective because the rush order starts to flood in, and customers begin to get impatient.
What I did not like so much was that the customer’s patience was too low. The mini-game coffee-making tasks like latte art, which required pressing keys ‘on the beat’ to carefully fill to a mark, still took more time than you’d think. As you started on one person’s order, then the next customer’s waiting period would start getting red. Mini-games are quite simple as they remind me of Cooking Mama tasks but can get repetitive. I would have hoped there would be more of a consequence to carrying out tasks rather than easily getting everything done. At some point, as there seems to be no currency system (except for just XP), everything unlocks on its own, which kind of makes the cafe customization dull, personally speaking. Going about your day managing the cafe was very straightforward, and your reward was gathering XP to level up the cafe or your critters.
Besides getting to manage your café, you can go out and explore to rescue up to 35 unique critters. Critters are rescued by creating portals and travelling to where they are trapped. Some areas even get players to move blocks in order to create pathways to carry out an objective. I really liked the feeling of rescuing the critters, mainly because they were so adorable, and the end cutscene was so cute. The critters that you rescue go to a cosy resort or habitat, where you can visit them to bond with them. Here, you can take care of them by playing, washing, feeding and brushing. It kind of reminded me of Puffles from Club Penguin. The cosy resort is also customizable, where you can add several decorations to make the space more lively for the cute critters. You can level up your critters by taking care of them and even unlock costumes.
The game has a time slot where you can perform two café activities or go portal rescuing, which will give critters plenty of time to rest overnight, so you need to plan what you want to do accordingly. From playing the game for a few hours, I found that you can get people’s orders off the bat when you see the wave symbol and work your way to give them their orders without any worry. Additionally, after a few days, you get to unlock bookings where you have to meet certain criteria for your accompanied critter, except at times, it feels like the criteria would not match up with any of the critters you have.
As for Critter Café, it’s a cosy, easy-going game where you can do whatever you want without the worry of being penalized, and sometimes it almost feels not as rewarding. You pretty much do the same thing every day, where you go out rescuing critters, serve customers or accept bookings. The game is great if you are looking for something to wind down to, but for its price, I wish more mechanics and objectives were added for a better purpose.
Critter Café is an adorable, cosy game where you can customize your café, your character, and your critter’s habitat to your liking. The game lets your creativity shine whilst getting to manage a café and take care of the critters you have rescued. Puzzle-solving, completing cafe mini-games, and interacting with the story will play out an easy-going adventure that you will have no worries about. If you’re looking for a game that you can wind down to, then be sure to check out Critter Café.
Overall: 6/10
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