I’m a sucker for games like Diner Dash, Sally’s Salon and even Burger Island that are fun in quick bursts when you want to kill some time whether it’s on your PC or - even better - your Nintendo DS. Let’s face it, these games were made for a handheld with touch-screen capabilities but seldom are they good for long stretches of gaming goodness. Cake Mania 3 is the third game in the series but it does very little to keep the fun going before you realize that it just gets way too repetitive.

Let them eat cake 

There’s a story, of sorts, linked with Cake Mania 3 that still involves the charismatic pastry chef and cater extraordinaire named Jill Evans. Jill has served up many a scrumptious cake to many a cake hungry crowd but this time she is serving up a variety of cakes for love. You see, on the morning before her big wedding, a portal between time and space opens and swallows a handful of her guests. Jill jumps through the portal to rescue them, traveling between time periods to not only save her guests but also bake and serve cakes as well. Forget how she managed to take a coffeemaker and oven with her but Jill is once again serving her cakes.

In the game’s main mode, you jump into the portal where you can select different time periods when they become available to you. Your first stop is ancient China at the height of a Dynasty that appreciates the culinary arts. In order to get your first guest out of the time period, Jill decides to work in a pastry shop where she takes orders, bakes the cakes and serves her customers. From there the game moves to different times such as France during the French Revolution, ancient Egypt, medieval England and even several thousand years into the future.

The object of the game is still the same and very little has changed as how you get the job done. A customer walks into the bakery, looks through the menu you hand them and you bake the type of cake they order with the preferred icing and hand it to the customer before they get impatient. The more you play the more customers come filing in looking to make an order. 

Rise of the cake maker

Using the Stylus, you move Jill round the kitchen where the oven is located as well as the froster and later the decorator. Starting with the customer’s orders, you start baking the type of cake and then add the frosting color they asked for and then wrap up the cake for the customers. The problem is that baking, naturally, takes awhile and so does frosting. The more you delay the more the customer becomes too impatient that they stop waiting or leave the line. Each level has a certain sales quota you must mean so that means the more happy customers that walk away with a cake the more extra cash you make to buy helpful upgrades such as a Treatmaster (to offer a sweet for waiting customers) as well as better ovens.

Unfortunately, the game doesn’t really change much even with the different timelines and locales. Just about the only thing that changes in the course of playing the game are the types of customers that come to the bakery and some of them are actually quite wacky. For instance, you’ll be serving Egyptian pharaohs as well as Egyptian Gods as well as Chinese dragons in Ancient China.

The real problem, however, is that by the time you move to the second timeline you will feel like you’re just doing the same thing over and over again. Sure, Cake Mania 3 does add three mini-games but it just isn’t enough especially when the mini games are fun for a short while. There’s Serve-O-Rama (serve cakes on a conveyer belt), Cakey-Makey (a cake stacking mini-game) and Match Cakes (like paying Memory with cakes).

Not as yummy as it looks

Cake Mania 3 isn’t the prettiest DS game and oftentimes it’s hard to make out the type of cake a customer wants so you better have some sharp eyes. The game does sport some colorful backgrounds and characters that make up your clientele. The music in the game reflects the different timeline so you’ll hear an Asian theme for the Ancient China level and a French theme for the French Revolution level. There are crowd sound effects but other than that there’s little that really stands out.

A slight improvement over the second game, Cake Mania 3 for the DS has its share of fun moments that doesn’t last very long despite its interesting levels. The time travel device doesn’t really distract from the real problem and that is that the game just runs out of steam way too quickly. This is too bad seeing as the touch-screen controls and the number of puzzles is just right.  

Gameplay: 6.0
Like the first two games in the series, the gameplay remains the same with a number of extras that include different appliances you can use to make your customers more comfortable to wait in line. The different time periods don’t add anything new, though, and there are mini games for when you’re tired of the same routine.

Graphics: 6.0
The game’s graphics are colorful but this game could have looked a lot better, especially since you have to identify the cake shapes that don’t come out too clearly on the DS screen.

Sound: 6.0
The music in the game is diverse and true to the time period but other than that there’s the sound of a busy bakery and nothing else.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
It’s not easy baking and serving cakes all on your own especially when the clientele is very demanding and impatient. The levels get the more you play the game and the timed mini games are actually challenging.

Concept: 6.0
For some strange reason, Jill goes back into time so she’ll be serving cake to people in ancient China and Egypt as well as other time lines just to save her wedding guest. There are various appliances to help make your job easier. We would have loved a two player multiplayer mode for the Mini Games.

Overall: 6.0
Cake Mania 3 for the Nintendo DS is another serving of cake-slinging action but when it comes down to it this series still lacks the ability to keep us glued to our handheld. That said, there’s some limited fun to be had in this game but not enough to make us excited about playing this one for very long.