Pucca's Restaurant Review

How hard can running a restaurant be? If freemium title Pucca's Restaurant is anything to go by, it's actually a pretty tough life! The game falls into the time/resource management genre as the player is asked to take control over all aspects of running a restaurant. A brief tutorial kicks things off, showing the player how to cook basic food and rearrange furniture, and then the player is let loose into the restaurant with paying customers on their way in.

Cooking is a rather laborious affair. The player needs to tap the oven, at which point a menu will pop up showing the number of dishes available to cook. Each dish has a number of stats attached to it, such as the amount it costs to use, as well as the time it takes to prepare. For example the most basic dish, Mooncake, costs nothing to use and only takes ten seconds to cook, whereas Dumplings cost 200 coins and takes four real-world hours. The difference is that the Dumplings will provide a greater return. Some of the longer cooking times can be cut down by spending Garu, although that is very limited. Players can choose to spend real money and buy Garu at any time.

By providing good food that satisfies customers, the player earns points and will eventually level up. Every new level sees additional recipes unlock, and new pieces of furniture made available. Expanding the restaurant is also key to succeeding, with each new bit of furniture making the customer's experience a little better.

There are also a number of social aspects to Pucca's Restaurant. If the player turns on the location option, they can search for people playing in their area. Once found the player can then enter other people's restaurants to see how they run things. Messages and gifts can also be sent.

Graphically the game looks great, with a large number of ways to decorate the restaurant. The downside to this is occasionally the game would stutter and start to slow down. There were also a number of game crashes despite the latest update.

Pucca's Restaurant is an incredibly involving game. The initial stages are a total slog, as the player tries to earn enough money to upgrade the basics, but once this is done the game starts to flow nicely and there are many hours of entertainment on offer.

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