Pizza Bar Tycoon

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in multiple bundles. If you want a breakdown of which bundles contain which games, check out this page.)

(Note 2: Multiple versions of this game have been released. In addition to the original game, there is also the Extended Edition, which contains Expansion Pack #1, the Deluxe Edition, which contains Expansion Pack #2, the Complete Edition, which contains Expansion Pack #1 and Expansion Pack #2, and the Multiplayer Edition, which contains the Multiplayer Mode expansion. For the purposes of this review, I am only reviewing the core game.)

Pizza Bar Tycoon is an Arcade-style game where you work in a pizza restaurant making foods to order for customers in a fast-paced game of responding to each specific order with the corresponding series of simple commands. Kinda’ like Simon Says, but with food orders that can require multiple steps. Or for a more direct comparison, you can look to Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!, which plays so similarly that I’m copying much of this review from that one.

People might be put in mind of the Overcooked games, which have been a huge hit on the Switch, or the Cooking Mama series, which have been big on Nintendo platforms for generations, but Pizza Bar Tycoon doesn’t play much like either of those. For a typical order, you’re reading the order, and then selecting the right toppings and pressing the corresponding buttons for that order.

For this game, what customers will order is fairly straightforward – there are circular and square pizzas, and both can be topped with a growing variety of toppings and then tossed in an oven. The only other item being served is juice. So the main challenge of the game is the growing complexity of the pizza orders and the number and pacing of the customers.

Unfortunately, this game is a bit too simple for its own good, especially when compared to Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!, since this game lack’s that one’s menu variety, the requirements that different foods be prepared in different ways, the ability to design your own menu, the multiplayer co-op, and the sim-like elements of growing your own restaurant empire. While the core gameplay of Pizza Bar Tycoon is similar, this game feels like it took the formula of Cook, Serve and stripped it down to its bare essentials.

The game’s visuals are simple but decent enough. The characters are cartoony and the food looks like a decent but slightly cartoony representation of the real deal. Nothing phenomenal, but it works well enough.

Pizza Bar Tycoon is still a decent time-waster of an Arcade-style game, and players looking for something more simple than Cook, Serve may find this more to their liking, but in my opinion the simplicity of this game can’t hold a candle to the variety and depth of Cook, Serve.

tl;dr – Pizza Bar Tycoon is an Arcade-style game that doesn’t play much like Overcooked or Cooking Mama. It’s more like a food version of Simon Says, where players respond to orders by selecting the correct ingredients. The gameplay is decent, but this game is a bit too simplistic, with a lack of variety and options when compared to Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! If you’re looking for an Arcade-style food prep game, I recommend you get that one instead.

Grade: C

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