Brunch Panic

Game Info

So for my first review here at GameGravy, I stepped into Mike’s office to accept my assignment. Okay, “office,” might be a stretch, considering it was lined with gargoyles and torches. I said, “Mike, I’m gonna need something badass with vampires, explosions, aliens, runaway buses full of nuns, laser cannons, and F-16s piloted by gerbils.” He promptly gave me a game called Brunch Panic, which to my dismay, features NONE of things I asked for. He quickly dismissed me and closed the lid to his coffin. Joke’s on you though, Mike. I didn’t hate it.

In Brunch Panic, you play a girl named Bonnie, and your objective is to… serve bagels. Customers of varying archetypes, such as the granny that takes a week to order, the impatient business man with a phone growing out of his head whos always in a rush, joggers, little girls with puppies, and diminuitive sailors (in their defense it could just be a kid in a sailor outfit), are all wanting breakfast from your garbage bag full of bagels. Easy enough. As you move on, however, other foodstuffs, beverages, and condiments are added to your menu, such as croissants, waffles, toast, coffee, etc. Made a mistake? throw the whole plate out and start over while the other customers begin getting impatient.

The game’s complexity isn’t just in the diverse menu items. Its in the management of your resources. The waffles and toast are examples of items that need time to cook, so getting out orders that don’t need cooking while you’re waiting becomes key. The learning curve does give you time to adjust before it tries to completely ruin you. So at times, it can get hectic. Especially when the Elvis impersonator (Yes, that really is one of your customers.) comes up while you’re already angry and uses his Japanese voice actor to go “Hey Baby!” I ran outside to see if there was a jogger or someone walking a dog i could hurl my 3DS at. I would recommend playing with the sound low to avoid this expensive mistake, along with potential assault charges. Once you’re on a roll, though, this game gets hard to put down.

Graphics are standard anime-styled characters. Nothing exceptional. The 3D works as well as expected for a 2D title. The music was nice enough, but when you’re getting bum-rushed for waffles, you don’t really pay attention. As I mentioned earlier, however, the Japanese voice acting was grating and after awhile I ended up playing without sound to keep from punching my own face.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot of replay value. Once you’ve conquered Brunch, there isn’t much to do to keep busy. A basic mutiplayer head-to-head mode wouldve been neat, moreso than the basic achievement system thats built in. But all-in-all, definitely worth a try. A constantly deepening gameplay mechanic keeps you coming back for more brunch, but once you’re full, time to move on.