[b]Disclaimer:[/b] I received this game as a gift from an awesome friend. ^^
[i]Claire's Cruisin' Cafe: Fest Frenzy[/i] is a time management game developed by Yustas Games Studio and published by Alawar Entertainment. It is the third game in the [i]Claire's Cruisin' Cafe[/i] series. As usual, you take on the roles of Claire and her brother Frank as they embark on a food festival. Their culinary adventure takes them to various parts of the US, ranging from areas that serve Mexican dishes to areas that serve seafood dishes. Also, there are some levels where you take on the role of Mark, Claire's boyfriend who runs an Italian restaurant. Of course, while the main story is that Claire and Frank are traveling around the US, there is another story in which Mark is experiencing his own problems. His chef has recently retired, and he desperately needs to find one. He wants to recruit Claire, but Claire would rather continue to run her food truck business, which ends up in the two of them having a disagreement. Anyway, that's the basic story premise, so I'll end my synopsis here to avoid spoilers and all that.
As for the gameplay, it is mostly the same as in the previous installments. You can choose from among the usual difficulty levels: relaxed, normal, or hard. (For review purposes, I chose to play on normal mode.) Including Mark's restaurant and the bonus restaurant (as this is a collector's edition), there are 60 regular levels as well as 10 matching pair levels and 10 extended time levels. The regular levels play the same as in previous installments. Before you start the level, you're taken to a shop where you can purchase upgrades for your restaurant that can range from extending customers' patience to making food cook faster. The levels themselves are pretty straightforward. You cook dishes and serve them to customers, and depending on how quickly you do so, you can earn up to 3 hearts per customer. There's an additional task as well which can earn you a golden heart (needed for an achievement). As for the extended time levels, they play like the usual levels except that - you probably guessed it - they're much longer than the normal ones, around 10 minutes. Then there are the matching pair levels in which customers request certain dishes. In order to make them, though, you have to match items in pairs and continue to do so in order to make more complicated dishes. For example, if you match 2 slices of bread, you'll get a slice spread with strawberry jam. Match 2 slices spread with strawberry jam and you'll get a strawberry jam sandwich. Also, there are the usual Steam/in-game achievements but no Steam trading cards at the time of this review.
Now that I've gone over the story and gameplay, I'll move onto my critique. It's probably no secret that I'm a fan of time management games, and I especially enjoy the cooking type ones. Of course, I played the previous [i]Claire's Cruisin' Cafe[/i] installments, so as soon as I could, I wanted to get around to playing this latest game. First, the story is great as always. I enjoyed seeing the interactions between Claire and Frank and how enthusiastic the two of them are about the food festival. Claire is the more hardworking of the siblings, but Frank does his part to help out. Then there's the drama between Claire and Mark. Now, I thought that Mark was being a bit immature in how he treated Claire. However, he does get over his issues, and there's even a bit of a wonderful surprise later on. There's the return of characters from previous games as well as a couple of new characters, like Claire and Frank's mom.
As for the gameplay, I enjoyed it as always. Now, I do admit that there could have been a bit more instruction on how to cook certain dishes. There is a tutorial in the first level, but after that, you're pretty much on your own. You sort of have to rely on your intuition to figure out how to cook certain dishes although it's fairly straightforward. It's pretty doable to earn 3 hearts on the levels, though, as well as to complete the additional task. As for the extended levels, they definitely test your endurance, but in my opinion, they can be completed without much trouble, especially since you'll probably have purchased all of the upgrades for the respective restaurant by then. In regards to the matching pair levels, this is a new feature in the series. At first, I wasn't exactly sure what to do since the instructions were pretty vague. However, I just matched identical pairs and then quickly caught on, since when a requested food item would become available, it would automatically be sent to the customer. It is a refreshing change of pace from the usual levels although for those who only want to play the usual levels, this might be a bit of an annoyance. Thankfully, though, you can skip them since they aren't needed for any achievements. Speaking of achievements, most of them unlocked for me without any trouble. The only one that was a bit unusual to unlock was the purchase of all upgrades. Even if you do purchase all upgrades for all the restaurants, the game will still indicate that you're missing one. However, if you click on random levels, that achievement should eventually unlock. It's weird, but that's what happened to me. :o
In regards to the art, I love that it retains its usual style. The colors are vibrant, and the sprites and backgrounds are drawn well. It retains that slightly cartoony style that I enjoy in time management games from Alawar Entertainment. Regarding the music, there is a variety of lovely tracks to listen to. They vary, depending on the restaurant. For example, Mark's restaurant has that slightly classy, elegant track going on while in the bonus restaurant, there's the countryside track that will have your feet moving to the beat. I love how there are new tracks, which is a bit unusual since TMs by Alawar usually don't change up their music. However, I'm happy that there are new tracks in this game, and they're very fitting for the various restaurants.
Overall, would I recommend [i]Claire's Cruisin' Cafe: Fest Frenzy[/i]? If you enjoy time management games and are especially a fan of the ones published by Alawar Entertainment and even more so of the [i]Claire's Cruisin' Cafe[/i] series, then definitely a yes. I continue to enjoy how fun each game in the series is and following Claire's and Frank's stories. (Also, it doesn't hurt that I enjoy cooking TMs, but I probably already mentioned that. ^^) For the asking price, I'd say that it's worth it, as it took me around 8 hours to complete all of the levels and obtain all of the achievements. Of course, you can wait to get it on a sale, and it's in a couple of Steam bundles. ^^
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