`Pokemon Cafe Remix (Switch) Review

Whip up mouth-watering treats as you line up Pokemon icons, collect ingredients, solve puzzles and grow your cafe in Pokemon Cafe Remix!

I instantly get hungry at the very mention of food— chocolate, cakes, cookies, fried chicken… You name it I’m all over it and I am proud of my healthy appetite! But the same can be said for when I play video games that contain food in them, so when Pokemon Cafe Mix was announced last year I jumped at the chance to preload the game onto my Nintendo Switch. Not only did I get hungry by all the delicious goodies that were shown in the trailer, but I was also awestruck by how adorable the Pokemon were and I naturally love puzzle games. Before we dive into Pokemon Cafe Remix let us rewind the clock a bit as I have a history with the original version of this game.

Take A Delicious Bite Of Summer Pokemon Style!

One of the biggest skills that journalists have is the ability to listen. When a conversation catches our attention we tend to listen to little details that make us curious, and with the internet, listening has taken the form of watching conversations in real-time on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Tumblr. These days everyone has a voice, everyone wants to be heard, and everyone is talking about something. As for me, I’m interested in what people are talking about— either that or maybe I’m a bit TOO curious (haha).

When Pokemon Cafe Mix was announced I browsed the YouTube comments and saw that a lot of people were excited about this game. They shared the same impressions that I had: the game was adorable, looked like fun, and those treats that you can make? YUM! The last Pokemon puzzle game that I played was Pokemon Shuffle but that was a few years ago, so the announcement of Pokemon Cafe Mix made me happy and I wondered if it drew inspiration from the Pokemon Cafe in Japan. This is only speculation on my part, but if it turns out to be the case, then it was a really smart creative idea.

I couldn’t wait regardless.

Pokemon Cafe Mix launched on June 23 2020 but it hit a slight snag. People were confused about what time it would be available to play— and Pokemon fans reside in many parts of the world so timezones are at play here too, but the confusion was unanimous. I went on YouTube to gain some understanding as to what was happening, but there wasn’t a clear answer. I was able to launch the game at 7:30 PM eastern and for some people, it was much earlier. What was important though was the community coming together and keeping people informed about their experiences with launching the game and that was nice to see.

When I booted the game I had to take it all in for a few minutes. The Pokemon was so cute and the visuals were bright, colorful, and had a unique art style that I wanted to jump into my Nintendo Switch and become a part of their world so I could hug them. I knew I would be making sweet memories as I played this game, but I also didn’t know how much harder the game would become— causing me to put this game on pause and not play it for a full year.

Order’s Up: Gotta Serve ‘Em All!

By using the Nintendo Switch touchscreen you link matching Pokemon icons on the puzzle board which help you create recipes to befriend various Pokemon while clearing obstacles, collecting ingredients, and using the limited amount of moves you are given so you have to think carefully. And the further you get in the game the more your cafe will grow. It’s a simple game mechanic to understand for sure but it’s hard to master. I know that I had to replay a few stages before I started getting the hang of things. Unfortunately, the puzzles did get harder during my time with the original version of the game that I got stuck on order #39 and even with the help of boosters I still couldn’t complete it for a year until Pokemon Cafe Remix.

Pokemon Cafe Remix is a revitalized version of Pokemon Cafe Mix and has leveled up to become an addictive puzzle game with a sigh of relief improvements. I have spent the majority of the week enjoying this game and if you wish to continue from where you left off in the original version you can do so under the previous orders option and then select EXTRA. What makes Pokemon Cafe Remix easier is the addition of specialty gimmicks that each one of your Pokemon staff has. For example, let’s say that I needed to collect three sugar cubes, well to make this task much simpler I would use Eevee as my partner Pokemon and link a few of its icons around the sugar cube to get it in one go! How awesome is that?! Specialty gimmicks are activated automatically and will come to your rescue!

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And if your Pokemon doesn’t have a certain specialty gimmick yet don’t worry! You can train them by completing a puzzle or by feeding them sweet tarts.

Specialty gimmicks can also be used when you play extra orders, and guess what happened during my experience? Bingo! I was able to pass that dreaded order #39 I was stuck at for a year, and because of that, I want to shout out at the top of my lungs a huge THANK YOU! A simple addition like this made all the difference, as I finally got to level 60.

What increases the difficulty of Pokemon Cafe Remix is that some orders have to be unlocked by collecting a set number of stars. You earn stars by how well you complete the order. If you get one star you still complete the order and can pass the stage, if you get no stars you fail the order, and if you get three perfect stars you can substantially increase the friendship between Pokemon which can cause them to join your cafe staff! In my playthrough right now I am 7 stars away from unlocking order #51. There are 700+ puzzles in this game. I’m not sure if I will make it through each of them but I still accept the challenge!

Final Thoughts

How can you not smile at how cute these Pokemon look?! Normally having a sweet tooth can cause cavities, but in this case, it’s the Pokemon. Aside from my love of chocolate I have a weakness for anything cute. My heart melted when I saw how these munchkins were brought to life, and I just smiled (and snapped photos of them using the capture screenshot feature). Pokemon has this magic to it which makes you feel like everything is good in the world and if you are having a bad day you feel okay again

I would’ve liked to see more ways of earning stamina. Because Pokemon Cafe Remix is free-to-play you require stamina in order to play puzzles, and although they replenish at 15-minute intervals I still found myself getting impatient waiting for when I could play again.

Pokemon Cafe Remix is a free-to-play sugary sweet puzzle game that will leave you happy and hungry and is out now on the Nintendo Switch and mobile platforms.