Review for Pokémon Café Mix. Game for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 23/06/2020
A Pokémon café, run by Pokémon, for Pokémon customers. This is in short what Pokémon Café Mix offers, the new free-to-play title from Genius Sonority, published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company International, as a free download on Nintendo Switch, iOS and Android.
Pokémon Café Mix follows the style of Pokémon Shuffle: a Pokémon-themed puzzle video game, in which instead of aligning the icons you have to connect them together, creating chains as long as possible to unlock upgrades and bonuses.
Let's just say that Pokémon Café Mix is an extremely entertaining title in its simplicity that offers very colorful characters and a truly wonderful design, enclosed in a super effective soundtrack, if we want to use a theme related to the brand. The title takes full advantage of the free-to-play features, allowing it to be completed both for free and using microtransactions.
These allow you to purchase bonuses and power-ups that make it easier to unlock and complete the various levels. Bonuses and upgrades that, however, can also be unlocked in a smaller number by simply completing levels or accepting gifts offered by customers.
The café is run by Pokémon who will join the team once they reach a certain degree of customer satisfaction. Each Pokémon has a special power: Charmander, for example, using Flamethrower can unlock certain ingredients; Togepi, on the other hand, using Metronome allows you to turn the Pokémon icons into the most numerous one on the screen. By chaining several identical Pokémon, the combo counter increases, certain ingredients are unlocked and special powers are released on the screen, which allow you to achieve the objectives of an order.
For example, for the same order, the Pokémon customer may request to reach a defined score as much as to receive a certain number of ingredients. Pokémon specializations come into play to facilitate achievement: some specialize in the preparation of snacks, like Snubbull, others in dishes, like Steenee, others in beverages, like Kirlia, and others in desserts, like Starly.
Completing orders increases the Pokémon's friendship bar which, as mentioned, once filled allows the Pokémon to join the staff. From time to time, the video game offers special puzzles, called "Friendship Chances" which, when completed, increase the bar by a specific number of points. Unlike normal levels, which can be replayed as often as you like until the requirements are completed, special puzzles must be completed all at once. In addition to the power-ups already mentioned, which allow you to free an entire row of Pokémon, ingredients or even to unlock the special abilities of the staff without having to fill the bar, the golden acorns, the in-game coin and purchasable, come to help. through microtransactions.
These golden acorns allow the player to increase the number of turns available to complete the order, often making it easier to achieve goals. Completing each level and the objective tiles, allows you to obtain a specific amount of golden acorns. As mentioned, in fact, the video game can be played totally for free and without the need to purchase. As you progress through the orders, we will unlock new dishes, new ingredients and new Pokémon will come to the café, first as customers and then, once satisfied, joining the staff.
Pokémon Café Mix is a title that was designed by the software house for the use of the console in portable mode, you cannot in fact use the Joy-Con, as it cannot be used in the dock. Everything is played using the touchpad. In the long run, some levels could be boring as, apart from moving the ingredients on the screen, the objectives to be achieved always remain the same. Overall, however, Pokémon Café Mix offers enough diversity of levels to study and rely on new completion techniques.
Free, fun, and colorful, Pokémon Café Mix is one of the best spin-offs from the popular Pokémon Company International series. A video game that knows how to be appreciated especially between more demanding sessions of other Nintendo Switch titles.
► Pokémon Café Mix is a puzzle-type game developed by Genius Sonority and published by Nintendo The Pokémon Company International for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 23/06/2020
