[b]cascade cafe[/b] is a story-driven hashi/bridges-like (for lack of a better comparison) with excellent cartoony presentation. you're a bunny called nymo, who finds a group playing something in the local cafe. it turns out to be [i]cascade[/i], a neat competitive board game, and as they're a friendly bunch, they offer to teach nymo how to play, hoping he'll become good enough to win the tournament. there's an [b]in-game manual[/b] to bring up anytime, but I'll go through the basics quickly.
it's all [b]turn-based[/b] and the goal is to reach a certain amount of points before your opponent. it's [b]played with tiles that have a value and a number of bridges[/b], yours are a different color. it's important because the only time your tile can touch the opponent's is if it also touches one of your own. well, one of the only times, as rainbow tiles act as a joker in this sense. when holding a tile, valid placement options are highlighted.
bridges are crucial, as [b]you're aiming for connections between the same numbers, a sequence, or creating a loop, all only with your own tiles[/b]. 2 are already good enough, so 1-2 works, putting a 2 after in the next turn counts as 2-2, but ideally you'd put a 3 there, so 1-2 becomes 1-2-3. increasing and decreasing sequences are accepted, but [b]only bridges matter for loops[/b]. as long as the tiles form one, they can sport any number, but sequences and other stuff are still awarded. strategic placement can lead to nice combos, counting all newly-created paths. outgoing bridges are fine too, so a square with some extra lines outwards is still a loop, but if you utilize all of them, it's a 'complete' and bully for you.
[b]lucky paths[/b] are part of every level past the tutorial. you can place any tile there, but using the designated one (same value and/or bridges, ideally both) as part of a path gives extra points. items covering the markings is not ideal though. [b]gimmicks[/b] are shown before starting a level, stuff like score multiplier or penalty tiles.
[b]abilities[/b] manipulate already placed tiles, set traps, etc. they're not single-use, don't count as a move, but consume [b]energy[/b], which has to be collected by placing tiles over energy balls on the board. unlocked ones can be viewed from level select (it's a diary with a couple of tabs), you can have up to 3 activated.
[b]items[/b] are collected the same way, they're single-use but don't need energy. no section for them in the diary, and you'll run into them sooner than they actually unlock between levels, which is weird.
[b]story mode offers 30 levels[/b], no difficulty settings, but it's not a hard campaign. the reset button only puts the current piece back, level reset is in the pause menu. and there are some [b]standalone puzzles[/b] as a bonus. solving the 5 easy ones unlocks intermediate levels one by one, not sure how many there are altogether. the goal here is reaching a score within a certain amount of turns with a given set of tiles.
[b]no mid-level saving and levels can take a while[/b] with more mechanics and higher scores in play, so it's a problem. rating is based on the number of moves it takes to win and the opponent's stats can also be viewed after, which is neat. what's less neat is you also get a bronze/silver/gold rating if you lose, even though there's one for loss and it was the opponent who won in 8 moves, not you. it's meaningless, of course, and doesn't unlock the next level. no retry button if you win, so going for gold is more finicky than it should be.
[b]controls are mouse-based[/b] and are as easy as clicking and dragging a tile to place or move it around the board. [b]click a placed tile to rotate[/b], then the 'end turn' button when you're done. being the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I am, I forgot about rotation as soon as the tutorial message disappeared and was having an incredibly hard time simply scoring, let alone winning. a reminder got patched in, so it should be easier to remember.
[b]online multiplayer or against the computer[/b] on 10 levels of difficulty on boards unlocked in story mode are also possible. 'chillout mode' is just a potentially noisy screensaver, you can watch the computer play against itself while listening to the soundtrack. don't think it was worth however long it took to implement, especially when there's other areas in need of improvement.
settings include separate volume sliders for the pretty good audio, resolutions and windowed mode. they're available while playing as well. text display is fast enough (instant would be better), thankfully no gibberish or repeating text display sound and dialog can be outright skipped. I would've preferred no ellipses and there are some typos, missing apostrophes and punctuation (a lot less after pointing them out).
[b]it's really fun, looks and mostly works well[/b] and the price tag is more than reasonable after it got a bit fixed up based on feedback. there's [b]a demo to try if you're uncertain[/b], progress carries over to the full game.
