For Mobile Friday this week is i tried out Tiny Cafe from Nanali Studios on my iPhone 14 Pro.
I have played a few of these animal themed restaurant simulators for Mobile Friday. Campfire Cat Cafe, https://youtu.be/Zhz5-EKj2NM, has been one of the ones i would recommend but i can now add Tiny Cafe to that list, too. These games all tend to have great art style, but then suffer with issues like they're too grindy, Cat Snack Bar, https://youtu.be/hhqyaTmhXw4 and Cats & Soup, https://youtu.be/B5_zo0ov4IM and https://youtu.be/hCvATMGu-9g, being too big examples of this. or if they try to have a story it feels like a side thought and isn't too in-depth, Animal Restaurant https://youtu.be/DZhTicMX4Bo is an example of this.
In the hour i played with Tiny Cafe, i do think i was at the beginning of the grind in terms of the basic gameplay but the story aspect of the game was just getting started and i was interested in where it would go. we not only have the story of our main character, but there's the story of his friend, and the stories of those who visit our shop. these stories are an effective way to get us to come back to play the game.
The start of the game does well to incorporate the games story into the tutorial and it takes us through basic gameplay in a way that's a little handholdy but not in a patronising way. the tutorial was soo good that i was surprised when it failed to do some basic things. there are icons on the screen that the game doesn't tell us about but there was also a way to take a screenshot of your cafe and the game hadn't told us about it.
the characters and their animations are great. For the most part, i enjoyed the art style of the characters and the cooking equipment. but the background details seemed a bit too flat, basic, and not quite in the same style as other stuff. it's noticeable but not distracting. the game does something a little unique where you can not only zoom into a specific piece of equipment but you can also rotate around it a little. Tiny Cafe doesn't just have traditional cooking and cafe stuff, there are some fun things as well like a bath.
I would recommend Tiny Cafe. it's one of the better restaurant simulation games i've played but also one of the better ones with a story as well so i'm interested in returning to see what happens next.
Version 1.0.8 Played.
