Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe Review (PC)

It doesn’t get any cozier than Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe. It almost takes me back to the days of Nintendo DS—to the warm afternoons of adding decorations to cutesy cubbies with little more than a worn stylus and a small toolkit for tweaking the smallest pieces of a colorful jigsaw puzzle. In this world, though, I have more to work with than in any previous DS creation suite. A cafe is but the frosting on the cake; the layers beneath, however, foster a lot more intricate details, with a ridiculously wholesome visual aesthetic to make it that much more appealing to bite into.

Above everything else, Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe is a beginner-friendly business-rhythm hybrid game that peppers its lovable wizardry into creative decorating elements and upbeat rhythmic mini-games. As players in this candy clotted world, you have the chance to befriend local neighbors, learn recipes, customize your own workspace, and pool your resources into vast upgrades and ingredients, all whilst tapping to the infectious tunes of a bubblegum-centric utopia of cream sodas and cakes, waffles and ice cream. A bit like your traditional culinary sim, then, but with friendlier customers and less competition to tackle en route to that all-important podium.

Waffles & Sprinkles

To state the obvious, Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe doesn’t pride itself as a strenuous business affair, but rather, as a silky smooth entry-level experience that favors casual gameplay over relentless competition. As such, it doesn’t force you to complete tasks in a timely manner, nor does it challenge you to go beyond your comfort zone for the sake of capitalizing on your frequent milestones. No, what the game does is give you the time to skip through the motions and build your culinary empire in any manner that you deem fit or relaxing enough to warrant the time and effort. And you know what? Sometimes, that’s sort of all you need: an excuse to spend a couple of hours playing for the sake of playing. It doesn’t need a ribbon on it, nor does it need to be anything more than that.

At the heart of all of these wholesome trimmings and rainbow-smitten moments is a simple rhythm game that requires you to synchronize with a beat—an act that you can follow whilst wading through recipes and fulfilling orders for your customers. It’s a simple task, and it certainly doesn’t require much effort or input. But that’s sort of the point, really. See, while the game does offer you a myriad of avenues to explore, at no point does it unapologetically suggest that you juggle a thousand jobs simultaneously. It’s a bit of a slow burner I’ll admit, but it’s also a lot of fun to sit down and collaborate with, if only for the pleasantries and the wholesome camaraderie that ties in with the tale and its charming farmyard critters.

Quirky Confectionaries

For a relatively small indie flick, I will say that there’s a solid selection of progression-based collectibles and creative options to choose from. Aside from the usual rhythm-centric cooking techniques, you also have the freedom to engage in decoration, arrangement, and the wholesome art of conversation, with a generous roster of familiar characters and a visual suite that includes a vast array of customizable set pieces to keep you busy for a number of hours. It’s still a short game with a bite-sized formula, but it’s also in receipt of a lot of heart and vigor, colorful personalities and interactive elements. And that’s something that I really enjoy about it: the fact that, despite it being without the full weight of a culinary delight, it brings a lot of flavor to the table and a beautiful sense of communal harmony to the forefront of its world.

There isn’t a lot of “story” to sink your teeth into here, though there are plenty of heartfelt conversations that you can share with the community, with each patron having their own unique tastes and preferences, tales and experiences to unlock. And I suppose that’s what it’s all about: establishing ironclad bonds with your customers to unlock more recipes, more opportunities and, above all, more wriggle room to flex your creative power and what have you. It’s a simple idea that we’ve seen a hundred times before, but to give credit where it’s due, it does capture its essence incredibly well with its own self-contained universe.

Although there isn’t much of a challenge to unravel here, Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe does have a sizable appetite for various recipes and decorations that can often require some extra magical touches or unique ingredients to satisfy the needs of your guests. Aside from a couple of personal favorites that require an extra layer of flavor, however, there isn’t too much to fret about. In short, it’s a cute and simple decorating ordeal that incorporates rhythmic prompts and cakes, among a few other cartoon-ish visual embellishments.

Verdict

Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe delivers a perfectly clean and cozy business-rhythm hybrid indie with a ton of artistic flair and joyful mini-games, customizable set pieces and bubbling personalities to create an easy-to-play culinary experience for all ages. It’s still of a similar taste as a lot of cooking-management sims on the market, but it’s also with a lot of its own unique ingredients and flavorful pastimes and characteristics, thus making it more versatile and a worthy alternative for a traditional cooking sim. And that says a lot about it, truly.

If, by some random coincidence, you enjoy the idea of delving into a bubbling cauldron of sugar-coated cooking activities and oddly satisfying rhythm-based recipes, then you’ll love sinking your teeth into Nom Nom: Cozy Forest Cafe and its flavorful cheeseboard of familiar dishes and relatable characters. It’s short, refreshing, and above all, a surprisingly pleasant culinary delight that has a lot going for it, despite it being more of a quick and simple appetizer than a full-fledged multi-course dining experience for the senses. Sometimes, though, that’s all you really need to tickle your tastebuds and whet your appetite.