Papa’s Mocharia to Go! is a delicious restaurant simulator from the Papa Louie series specializing in coffee brewing and drink layering. You play as a newly-hired barista for Louie’s new coffee shop in the fictional city of New Pepperton. You also unexpectedly learn that you’ll be featured in a year-long reality film about it, meaning you’ll be under extra pressure to deliver!As you launch the game for the first time, you are prompted to choose between two characters: Allan and Akari. Both are recurrent characters in the Papa Louie universe and have a surprisingly rich backstory. 

Allan first appeared in Papa Louie’s: When Pizzas Attack! He’s a hockey player who loves Nutty Butter Cups and was presumably bullied in high school (he often appeared with a black eye and a chipped tooth as his “warrior marks”, for lack of a better term.) The female counterpart Akari made her first appearance in Papa’s Burgeria. She’s an avid motorcyclist who was wont to deliver high-priority packages and participate in motorcycle races across the Tacodale Speedway.As you can probably notice, Allan seems to be the character with the most fleshed-out backstory, though only slightly. Both characters also used to be customers at the other establishments, so it’s interesting to see how, by some weird twist of fate, they are the ones serving instead of being served this time around.

If you don’t feel like playing with either character, you still have the alternative of creating your own character to your liking, choosing various traits such as gender, hair, mouth, eyes, outfit, and, of course, name. I take kindly that Flipline Studios gives us these options and that we’re not forced to grow fond of the already-established characters (especially if we haven’t played the other games). It’s not the most compelling character creator, but I don’t think I should be asking for much more here.Papa’s Mocharia follows the same aesthetics as the other games in the franchise. It’s done with Flash Player-type graphics, which are probably not as fashionable as they used to be, like, 20 years ago!? 

I know graphics ultimately won’t matter much insofar as they serve the game’s aesthetic purpose. Yet, this game is not the prettiest I’ve ever seen. The UI is somewhat pleasant (?), if sometimes a bit cluttered for mobile standards. The interface you encounter when preparing the drinks is passable, albeit it can easily pass (no pun intended) for a 2011 game. That’s Flash Player for you!The brewing machine is satisfying, though, and the milk frothing and steaming is perhaps my favorite mechanic. That may have to do with the fact that the milk frother has always been my most treasured feature in any coffee machine (this suddenly sounds like a very odd conversation starter, for some reason!)

This game might seem boring on the surface, but, as a matter of fact, it’s highly challenging! You’ll be encouraged to do some heavy multi-tasking between brewing coffee, steaming the milk (yay!), and making a cannoli. You also get up to a whopping 120+ ingredients to unlock (not sure if that includes the holiday ingredients, though I guess not) and 135 customers to serve, some more demanding than others.Making the cannoli is pleasantly entertaining too. Lining up those nozzles to fill the crap out of those shells actually made me hungry more times than not, to the point where I don’t know whether to give this an actual negative or a positive (probably going with a net positive, but, still, gosh darn it!)

Lastly, I need to mention something regarding the soundtrack because, sadly, the music here is a negative for me. It’s not something I usually complain about, but it’s way too repetitive! It’s essentially the same two chords over and over and over and over again, with only some slight marimba phrases thrown here and there. The one that plays over the mini-games (which, by the way, are not that thrilling, to begin with) is slightly better, but that’s only because the mini-games are, I should say, mini!Papa Louie’s games are a treat to play, and Papa’s Mocharia to Go! is no exception. Despite the faults I just mentioned, it doesn’t disappoint, and I assure you it’s a safe addition to the “recommend” list!

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