Coffee Rush game review

GTA 4 is now on the shelves (or not, as the case may be). But guess what, I really couldn’t give a shit. And I don’t own a Wii – so I’m not bothered about Wii Fit either. I’m not denying the importance of these releases, but as I’m what you could call a hardcore casual gamer I’ll stick to what I know best. And indeed, games that even Tanya Byron would approve of. This time I’m rating Coffee Rush.

Coffee Rush is essentially a match-3, but with a difference. You’re running a coffee shop, which is in competition with a big scary company who is trying to take over the world. Your job is to keep your little coffee shops in business, and ensure your customers are happy by serving them the beverage of their choice as quickly as possible. You can also offer them sandwiches and salads to go alongside this and maximise your profits. So I suppose it’s a mixture between Bejeweled and Cake Mania.

On the right-hand side of your screen you have your grid, which contains all of the elements included in coffee. For example, you have coffee beans, milk, sugar, caffeine and… well, you get the idea. A customer will pop up on the left-hand side with a request, and you must rush to match all of the elements to clear them off the board, and they’ll then be added to the customer’s order. But as you’re matching threes and fours, your queue is growing, and the characters will become more disgruntled the longer you make them wait. You can, however, bribe them with treats to keep them happy. This pays off because the happier the customer, the larger the tip they’ll give you.

That is basically it. At the end of each level you’re taken to the shop where you can spend your money on new recipes for drinks, which become increasingly expensive, as does the price the customer pays.

As with these games, you have different types of clients with varying patience levels and their own humorous catchphrases. But as long as you keep them all happy and have enough snacks to bribe them, the game is pretty simple. You’ll travel through the world of coffee without much trouble.

Overall this is a clever game and it borders on frantic at times, but I wouldn’t say I found it particularly challenging, and it’s not quite got the wow-factor. Still, if you’re fed up of GTA4 and Wii Fit, you could do worse for a distraction!