Mouthwatering Multiplayer Mayhem

Tis the season to talk about cakes. I’m not talking about the type of cakes that belong in a Sir Mix A Lot video, but the type that come from a bakery. Or if you’re name is Mrs Smith or you’re at Pepperidge Farm, then they’re the types that are mass produced, stored in a freezer, and are marketed to look like someone’s 90 year old great grandmother might have made them for friends and family once before their kids decided to sell out her good will and talent for them benjamins. (play “flush with cash” from parks & rec)

Regardless of their origin, the cakes in today’s game – Cake Bash – are competing for glory. What type of glory, you ask? The type of glory that comes with being declared the tastiest of all the pastries. The type of glory that gets you picked up by a customer and then…eaten? *record screech* Yep, that’s what you can guess happens. I mean it’s either that or you’re mauled and pulled apart by ants or you decompose into some rotten, green, hairy pile of garbage where some homeless person or a kid on a dare finds you and – okay, wow, I just made this dark.

Moving right along, then, Cake Bash is a multiplayer-focused game where you pick your pastry, be it a donut, eclair, cupcake, and so on, and compete in various multplayer games with the goal of being declared the tastiest winner. The winner of each event gets chocolate coins to spend at the shop every couple rounds to add extra toppings to further increase your score. That score is tallied up at the end of the game and surprise surprise, the highest score wins. Combining treats into sets of 3 boosts your score, and if you’re not playing too well you can spend a small amount of coins in the random gumball machine looking thing and see if you’ll get a treat, or something gross like a fish skeleton.

The mini games have a lot of variety, however it all pretty much revolves around beating the crap out of your opponents on the way to achieve your goals. Those goals are everything from toasting marshmallows, which ironically you’re not beating them up on but I wanted to start with that event anyway because it’s my choice and leave me alone, to forking a dessert that looks like a tasty caterpillar to get the pieces onto a plate, or shooting your load of frosting all over another pastry, and more. The games are frantic and you’ll get to mash the attack button to beat up on the other players in order to throw them off, or in more strategic fashion you’ll make them lose points or drop items you’ll need in order to score. It’s all very lighthearted, and there’s even a pigeon that poops on you in one of the games, which automatically made that one my favorite because apparently I’m still 10.

The graphics are great – the snacks all look appropriately colorful and tasty and they all have these adorable little wiggly stick arms and legs, and when they throw punches they get this angry little look on their faces.

From the main menu you can choose to do the actual competitive mode or go into the Recipe mode to play one of the mini games you’ve unlocked if you don’t have much time and you’d like to just crank one out. Either way playing the mini games unlocks them for future enjoyment. My only real complaint here is that I wish there were more games available, because I think any regular play of this game will result in people getting bored with these quicker than they should. I hate saying that because the games are imaginative and the action is great, and there wasn’t a single game that I didn’t enjoy.

Collection mode is where you see everything you’ve unlocked, and really it’ll just take playing through the game a few times with your friends and completing some of the challenges to get new skins for your pastries, and you can also view the different sprinkles you’ve collected during different mini games that feature those. I have a really, really unhealthy problem with baked goods and I actually really enjoyed looking at the different sprinkles I collected and wondered how to get those in real life. Be sure to hit the like button if you think my existence is shallow.

The graphics are great – the snacks all look appropriately colorful and tasty and they all have these adorable little wiggly stick arms and legs, and when they throw punches they get this angry little look on their faces. When I first saw the game it immediately reminded me of the scene in Young Sherlock Holmes where Watson hallucinates and gets attacked by an army of pastries.

The sound is also pretty legit – you’ll hear some fun and jaunty violin, guitar, and accordion music between all the cutesy squeaks and punch noises. It’s all got this french kitchen vibe to it like something out of the Overcooked soundtrack and further helps the game feel crazy and carefree.

That’s really the bulk of the game. It’s obviously meant to be enjoyed with friends either on the couch or online, but there’s also bots available to play with if you’d like to get some practice in or just work on unlocking everything. Either way Cake Bash is a fun diversion from some of the overhyped misery simulators or superhero games that you might’ve gotten on sale this holiday season, and if you’re really into minigame collections and party games with friends, I’d give it a shot, definitely if it’s on sale if you don’t want to drop the full price of $20 on a party game.