#I had to get on fucking pc to add the last 4 gifs fuck you tumblr mobile why is my laptops limit THIRTY IMAGES and my phone is TEN.

[crimescrimson]

Ada Wong & Leon S. Kennedy: The History [MASTERLIST]: • Resident Evil 2 (1998) • [1] [2] [3] | • Resident Evil 4 (2005) [1] [2] [3] • | • Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles (2009) [1] • | • Resident Evil: Damnation (2012) [1] • | • Resident Evil 6 (2012) [1] [2] • | • Resident Evil 2 (2019) [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] • | • Resident Evil 4 (2023) [1] [2] [3] •

[irrelevantnostalgia]

Cake Mania: To the Max! (2011): Part 1

ᆞPᆞᆞlᆞᆞoᆞᆞtᆞ

Jill and Jack are looking through Jill's old photo album with their twins and come across Jill's high school days. She starts to reminisce about the days of shoulder pads, neon everywhere, and her awkward phase. These high school days become the final installment of the Cake Mania series, where this time the players time travel back to 1989 to when Jill was navigating prom, applying to college, and figuring out what she wanted to do with her life! A fairly simple plot, a nice way to wind down this series from the evil directors and time travel to 500 BC and cake-baking in an aquarium. Almost like a nod to the normalcy of the first Cake Mania game, where we see the beginnings of Jill's adult life. This game goes back to the classic Cake Mania format with 100 levels of cake-baking only.

Fun fact, this is the first time I was able to finish this game in full! When I used to play this game back in the day, the fuck ass PC wiped my data once I reached around level 60. This happened to me twice. Another time when I actually got past level 60, I would get stuck on a later level where I would be unable to achieve even the bare minimum baking goal. I raged so hard about all these instances that I avoided playing the game for years (almost a decade lol).

ᆞWᆞᆞhᆞᆞaᆞᆞtᆞ'ᆞsᆞ ᆞNᆞᆞeᆞᆞwᆞ

Interior Mode: A big change in this game is that there is an "interior mode" option for the shopping/upgrade center. Now, you can "upgrade" the walls, floor, counter and door just like you can the oven or froster. This may seem similar to the "building upgrade" in Cake Mania Main St + Lights, Camera, Action since upgrading the building also changed the interior design of the building, but unlike in those games, the upgrades are supposed to confer actual advantages in gameplay.

Upgrading the walls is supposed to help with increasing tips, the floor is supposed to help Jill get around faster, the door is supposed to help with customer patience, and the counter upgrades help make room for more customers at a time. There are two one-time upgrades you can also make--buying a flower-pot can help make the sugar-rush last longer and buying a lamp permanently stops the equipment-breaking (yes, they kept this from the last game!).

For the most part, this is an excellent way to sprinkle-up the game and add more stuff to purchase to make the game less monotonous as you progress through the later levels. Compared to the rest of the games where eventually your profits made per level rise exponentially and never get spent past you getting all the key upgrades, I was budgeting out from Day 1 all the way to the very end.

In my personal opinion, I don't think all the interior upgrades really added much to improve gameplay. The counter getting longer does actually help in getting more customers on the screen at a time and more tips from the walls is always welcome. The two one-time upgrades were both good too, especially since it takes a while for you to save up funds for the lamp so it feels like a huge reward once you do get it. However, the door and floor upgrades didn't *feel* all that helpful. Upgrading Jill's shoes had more of an effect on helping her get around than the floor, and a cookie and the right channel do more for customer patience than the door. I would even say nothing makes those fuckers happy.

Speaking of helping reduce monotony, in this game there are some differences in how equipment is upgraded. Rather than buying 3 separate ovens and upgrading them individually, you instead have one massive oven with 4 compartments. You have to buy the compartments as well as additional cake shape options, but the speed upgrades affect the entire oven instead of each individual compartment. Meanwhile, the cake froster + decorator upgrades follow the same upgrade pattern but it doesn't just stop at gold. There are additional upgrade speeds you get until the final one, which looks like some brutalist industrial bullshit.

I'm sorry but it simply did not slay. I was hoping for some tacky neon 80s realness as the final upgrade.

Essentially, the point of all the previous word vomit is that in this game there are so many upgrades that you will be hustling and checking your budget from the beginning to the end, which is not something you do in the previous games (for the most part). I won't lie, I played this game twice and took two different approaches to upgrades and there would still be places that were not fully upgraded or there would be equipment that I would not get to purchasing at all.

Similar to the upgrades keeping you on your toes from beginning to the end in this game, so do the customers in some cases. I feel like a broken record, but in the previous games once you got to a certain point in the cake-baking game you could handle whatever customer pile-up gets thrown your way without thinking too hard about it. Even in the last game where you had the Lola Fierezzas changing everyone's orders. I wouldn't say that every level in this game had me locked in devoting 50% of my brain to ergonomics, but there was a certain type of level that stood out to me that I felt like I didn't experience before in my journey with Cake Mania. Let's introduce two characters.

80s Movie Mean Girl

Favorite TV show: Aerobics

She pairs up with other cheerleaders in the line.

Her name is Cindy and she is Jill's """"love rival""". I put that in heavy quotations because the Big Jock is interested in Jill but she is not into him, and Cindy is salty that Big Jock pays attention to Jill. Cue passive aggressiveness, which even spills into gameplay because she tips like ass. I'll be making 3-tier cakes for her and getting a fraction of what I would get if I made one for another customer, which makes levels where she shows up a significant amount really annoying to play.

Now let's introduce another character

DnD Dweeb

Favorite TV show: Cooking show

Do you see my pain now? Having him make a recurring appearance in a level was an absolute nightmare when it came to me wanting to obtain all superstar baking goals. The moment this twerp would show up in line I would pray that I could drop everything and get his cake out of the way so I could keep my properly compensating customers. Ngl though, if he wanted a 3 layer cake I would just take the L. Not giving myself carpel tunnel over this shit.

To deal with his appearances I invested in an overnight fridge earlier than I usually would purchase one so I could have expensive cakes ready to fly out, and I would constantly purchase a one-time-use power-up available in the upgrade shop that gets a customer out of the way. There were multiple levels with this dynamic and it was the worsttt.

On the flip side, I actually have to appreciate the aforementioned Big Jock for coming in because....

♥ Evil Bully from 80s movie ♥

Favorite TV show: Cooking show

He orders multiple times

Honestly, I think the real bully is gonna be the DnD Dweeb for turning this guy into a no-tipping ass cheerleader and making me hustle harder to meet my goals! Plus he increases the hearts on the other customers which is another point from me. One of the most satisfying feelings was collecting profits from this guy cause you would get like a $100+ boost! Lore wise, he is just an annoying fuck who is into Jill and doesn't pick up on the very obvious hint that she does not want to be his prom date.

There is another new aspect added to this game, which really did nothing for me. Instead of having me describe it with more word vomit, let me just share the screenshots:

Before I introduce the characters used for this example Imma just keep it real: I never used this shit as a part of my strategy to make customers happier. I just feel like gameplay moves way too fast to really give a shit especially when you have tools like the TV and cookies to keep them at bay. Really, what I would use this for is to just move customers up if there was a space between them just to make walking easier for Jill. Perhaps if I played this game in a more relaxed manner I could focus on different characters and how they impacted each other just based on line placement. But frankly, I didn't notice anything super obvious, besides the two characters used for the example. Speaking of...

Megumi Fushiguro

Favorite TV Show: News

He doesn't like "new wave guy"

Yuri Plisetsky if he had a stupid haircut

Favorite TV Show: News

He doesn't like "punk guy". Someone needs to create a new manga over these two STAT! Also, my personal headcanon is that this guy is the high school version of the businessman introduced in the first Cake Mania.

ᆞMᆞᆞoᆞᆞrᆞᆞeᆞ ᆞCᆞᆞhᆞᆞaᆞᆞrᆞᆞaᆞᆞcᆞᆞtᆞᆞeᆞᆞrᆞᆞsᆞ

Businessman Sr.

Favorite TV Show: Rock Concert

This guy has to be New Wave Guy's dad.

80s Bridezilla

Favorite TV Show: News

Unlike in the first Cake Mania where her younger sister is most likely Bridezilla, she actually has a similar Pirate/Mr Dinosaur effect where her flipping out causes others to flip out and leave.

Cop

Favorite TV Show: Rock Concert

♥Doctor♥

Favorite TV Show: Aerobics

420 Blaze It

Favorite TV Show: Aerobics

Seasons may change and the years may go on by....but this guy will always be high

Klepto Kelly (ft her Emo BF)

Favorite TV Show: Aerobics

Seasons may change and the years may go on by....but her desire to steal your money is always sky-high

Birth Control Inspo

Favorite TV Show: Rock Concert

Little Kid

Favorite TV Show: Aerobics

(Dr.) Miss Lily

Favorite TV Show: Aerobics

She is That Girl cause everyone wants to change their order to hers! I would especially let it happen if these customers came in with some basic fuckass cakes that would make no money. Plus, per Jill, she is also a doctor. Based on her cute and relaxed fit (unlike the scrubs doc) I could see her being a dermatologist or endocrinologist. Maybe psychiatrist cause she knows how to convince others to change their orders

Thanks to Tumblr's 30-picture limit in text posts, I will have to split this review up into two posts. Stay tuned for part 2!