Game Review - Cookie Shop DS

I loved Lemonade Stand. I originally played it on the PET computer during the 1980s. I think I had a version for the Commodore 64. Yes, I am that old. It was a text-only game. Yup, made for a dumb terminal with a monochrome screen.

For those not as old, it is a tycoon-style game. Your mother gives you $10 to start a summertime lemonade stand. With the $10, you buy your supplies of lemons, sugar and cups. Each day, you read the weather report (temperature and wet bulb) to determine the price and amount of supplies needed. At the end of the summer, you must return the original $10 investment.

I could play that game for hours! I even attempted charting the temperature vs price so I could become more of a tycoon.

Lemonade Tycoon is a more recent version of the game.

What does all this have to do with Cookie Shop? Well, it is a tycoon-style game with pastries.

I like this game. I really wanted to love this game.

You are a choco-dog and your dream is to have the best sweet shop in the sweets mall. You compete against other sweet shop (pastries) owners and other stores in the mall.

With over 100 recipes (a rumor says there are 200 but that might be for the original Japanese version), and only slots for 30 in your store, it makes it difficult to chart and figure out which pastries/sweets to sell during the different seasons.

There is a chance to make a recipe twice during a day to increase it's flavor. Perfection can be reached after making it 50 times. After making some recipes 5 times, you 'remember' a new recipe. There are recipe categories like 'Pancakes' and 'Japanese Sweets' that contain 7 recipes. Every time a new recipe is discovered, a mini game must be played before it can be made. Some of the games are easy and cute while others require knowledge of baking or just random luck. By visiting the other shops, you gain ingredients and new recipes.

There are some cute features like the ability to change outfits to match holidays or seasons. It doesn't seem to effect the game but, it's cute. You can also change the furniture in your store to help boost sales. The boost works for the entire season.

There is a lot of needless dialog and clicking. Some buttons aren't explained. Many things in the game seem random. I've read some of the user boards and most people are confused as to how to get certain recipes or get events to trigger. I'm on my second 'year' of the game and I am still missing recipes. Only a few people have gotten the 'Research' feature to work.

My overall opinion: playable but flawed.