Over the weekend, I tried out a computer game called “Cake Mania” in order to blog about it — tough job I have, eh? Apparently, I was the only person with a PC in my home who didn’t already know about it (it doesn’t work on Macs) — 35 million people have downloaded the game, which, after a tantalizing, 60 minute free trial, costs about $20 bucks to own.
At first I thought the gameplay was a little too simple. The main character is a culinary school grad trying to raise money so that she can take back her grandparent’s bakery from an evil, Walmart-like corporation that bought them out. How does she do it? By baking cakes, of course.
But as the levels increased, cooking, frosting, decorating and delivering cakes to the proper customers got more and more tricky. It was a rollicking 60-minutes of silliness. Then I removed the program and downloaded it from a different site for another dose.
Cake Mania would be a great test for someone applying for a job that requires efficiency and multi-tasking. Although I never got to the point where I was struggling to complete levels, I know that I would have soon.
As fun as the game is, though, I didn’t immediately buy it. Honestly, I didn’t even consider it. Perhaps that’s a function of my financial situation. If I were rolling in the dough, so to speak, I might have done so without even thinking twice. I find food-related games really appealing (yes, I still love Candy Land), so that aspect was a big turn-on. Maybe someday…
This article appears in May 2-8, 2007.
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