Following in the footsteps of Shuffle, Picross, and more before it, a new free-to-start Pokémon puzzle game is on the way. Called Pokémon Café Mix, it’s bringing a fresh aesthetic to the series and tasking you with a little lite property management.
As the proprietress of a café that Pokémon love to visit, your puzzle solving will create Pokémon-themed drinks and dishes to serve to your customers. The puzzles themselves remind me a bit of Disney Tsum Tsum, though with more of a focus on swirling rather than connecting lines. The exact mechanics aren’t discussed much, but it appears both cute and simple.
As you serve up sweets to your customers, they may sometimes decide to start working at your Café as well. In doing so they’ll start wearing adorable hats, aprons, and scarves and lend you their unique skills in the kitchen. With enough success, you’ll be able to expand the Café, leading to more puzzles and Pokémon staff recruits.
It seems to have a fairly straightforward mobile model – I see you, premium currency and stamina bar. The concept almost seems like something that could have its own legs as a small fully-paid eShop title, but alas it’s likely to feature its own brand of microtransactions. Still, with the game looking this charming and stirring up a new(ish) kind of puzzle, it may be worth checking out on Switch or your smart device of choice when it releases June 24th.
Written by Ricky Berg
When he isn’t writing for Nintendo Wire, Ricky’s anticipating the next Kirby, Fire Emblem, or if the stars ever align, Mother 3 to be released. Till then he’ll have the warm comfort of Super Smash Bros. to keep him going.
