This is a guilty pleasure. I have not beaten this game because I hate microtransactions and have purposefully made it very hard for me to buy things through games because I am terribly worried that I might slip up.
I’ve got a real love/hate relationship with mobile games because I become very very aware of things that purposefully feed the dopamine receptors with big flashes of color and huge “wins” and chimes and movement and everything. I tend to have HUGE problems with disconnecting from games like that, so even if they are “fun”, I delete them because I will become obsessed and it will tempt me to go ahead and spend that $2.99 on whatever in game currency, because I need to Keep Seeing the Colors.
Starbrew Cafe walks that line.
There are rains of stars that come down and I’m sure there are sounds that make it very very engaging (I play most of my mobile games with sound off like an asshole) but it’s also chill enough for me to walk away. Plus there is a set limit of moves… which a lot of mobile games do to bait you into buying more game time, but I use as a timer so I don’t get stuck for too long playing.
Honestly, Starbrew Cafe is not much different in gameplay from a lot of merge puzzle games. I like that the art style is cute, though, and it’s gay. I’m invested in this story for some reason. The cast is fun, mostly friendly, and basically the reason you’re playing is to get bite-size snippets of story that could be funny or weird or basically just a weird sitcom. Technically the game isn’t fun but I’m just trying to read the next part…
But mostly. Gay. It’s gay. It’s gay! I’m here because it tickles the aesthetic and it’s gay. I have the sound turned off and I like the haptic feedback. The cat talks and is a noir detective and mouse killer. There’s a werewolf who is in love with a health inspector. A siren is dating a ghost. A plant guy just shows up and starts planting plants. The main character wonders why she is going on quests when she just wanted to serve a fucking latte. I’m here. Damnit.
