Hello everyone, I am that ten-year-old gamer who always likes to post long posts. To be honest, I have played less and less new mobile games in recent years. Either because I am tired of aesthetics or because I feel that many games are too utilitarian. They always focus on making money, drawing cards, and doing daily routines. As I play, I forget the fun of the game itself.
But I came across an old mobile phone two days ago. After installing the 5.0 system, I accidentally downloaded this game called "Food Classifier". I only wanted to kill ten minutes, but ended up playing it all afternoon. To be honest, this game reminds me of "Restaurant Simulator" and "Burger Shop" from the Symbian era. The feeling of simply relying on gameplay and art to attract people is back.
In the game, you play the role of a cat chef, running a restaurant with a group of cat employees. The customers are various small animals. You have to serve dishes according to their tastes, and you have to schedule, decorate, and upgrade yourself. Although the gameplay framework is the old way of simulating business, the details are made with special care. For example, the cats will stretch and yawn, the dishes have animation effects, and even the sound effects of the food are very crisp. As an old player, this kind of small details impress me more than the graphics of some 3A masterpieces.
Based on this game, I want to talk about the current mobile game trends. To be honest, the mobile game industry has indeed changed in the past two years. In the past, everyone fought for picture quality, IP, and krypton gold system. Now, teams are slowly starting to be willing to make small but beautiful products. A game like "Food Classifier" that is free with no in-app purchases and relies purely on advertising and word-of-mouth can survive in the market, which shows that players have an increasing demand for "burden-free experience." Especially after the epidemic, everyone prefers to play something relaxing and stress-free in their spare time instead of being chased by daily tasks.
This reminds me of those dozens of KB games in the Symbian era. At that time, "Doodle Jump" and "Angry Birds" were so popular that they relied on simplicity and fun. Although the technology of today's mobile games is better, the content density and gameplay depth of many games are not as good as they were back then. A design like "Food Classifier" that polishes the basic gameplay, attracts people with cute paintings, and has no forced social interaction and numerical traps may be the direction that mobile games should go in the future - returning to the pleasure of the game itself.
Of course, this game also has some minor flaws, such as the content being more repetitive in the later stages and the chef upgrade system being relatively traditional. But considering that it's completely free and doesn't force you to watch ads (I'm a veteran from the Symbian era, I value this very much), I think it's conscience enough.
If you are an old player and want to relive the sense of ease that you can play when you turn on your phone and put it down without thinking about it, or you simply like cats and business, you might as well try "Food Classifier". At least in this world of 648 at every turn, it is really rare to encounter a game that does not sell monthly cards or passes. 😌