- Cosy game with great vibes
- Silly characters to interact with
- Ability to create fun drinks as a barista
I absolutely loved Good Pizza, Great Pizza, so when I saw the studio was creating another game, this time with a new subject, I was pretty pumped! I downloaded it and started playing it the day it came out, but unlike pizza, I know very little about coffee.
Good Coffee, Great Coffee is all about running a coffee shop. It turns out it is actually in some local contest to be the last coffee shop standing, as a bunch of them have opened in the same spot. The storyline is quite fun, giving you quests and helping you learn the ropes of becoming a barista. There are a bunch of other characters who feel friendly and are also in the running to be the coffee shop in town.
The day-to-day gameplay has you opening up your shop and listening to customers. Sometimes they say exactly what they want and other times they might say ‘Moo!’ or “I am hot and steamy, what am I?” and expect you to know what drink they want. You can question them, to get a more direct answer, but their time is limited and they quickly get frustrated with your lack of knowledge.
Once you have an order, you go into the back of the house, where you can grind the coffee, press it, create espresso, steam milk, add ice to glasses, put in syrups and toppings… basically anything needed to create these drinks. With the lattes, you can create art on them, ultimately working to create satisfactory drinks and earn a tip.
As someone who doesn’t understand coffee, I referred to the recipe book a lot at first in Good Coffee, Great Coffee, and got the upgrade that updated the glasses so you could see how many parts of each ingredient were in the cup. This was extremely helpful! There are tons of other upgrades like new ingredients to add to your drinks, upgrades to your grinder and espresso machine, and decorations for the front of your shop.
There are two types of currency. The first is money you get at the end of each day. You do need to pay for the items you used, especially if you throw items away, along with any refunds. You can also earn gems by levelling up or watching videos. Good Coffee, Great Coffee only allows you to play a set number of levels – based on the coffee that you have on the main page – before having to wait until a timer gives you more or you pay to play more levels. I never found myself playing long enough in one go to deplete all of my coffee mugs, so didn’t see these to be a problem.
Once you have made your purchases, you can start a new day, which starts off with a News Network. This is a funny thing, though there aren’t too many different news reports. I do wish more of these did have a direct change on the game itself. I felt the same with the NPCs who ordered; sometimes they said “In the morning, I get a…” and it was 5 PM. Sometimes they call glasses of water “the most beautiful drink.” It just feels a little out of touch.
This out-of-touch aspect did continue when I purchased upgrades. You see, levelling up does feel like a slow gain – I hit 30 days before I got to level 5, for example. In that time, I did purchase new toppings for drinks, on the 5th day, but none of my customers ordered these until after I hit level 5, and it’s quite rare when they do. It feels almost like it’s not worth purchasing topping upgrades.