After Cake Mania 3 we thought that was it for the franchise. What with the rumored coming of a different series to take the place of Cake Mania (Sausage Mania - Feeding Hungry Grannies) we were sure that was it for the Cake Mania series... but as it turns out Cake Mania wasn't quite done with us yet with the release on PC of Cake Mania : Main Street (found at Gateway Games).

Taking place after Cake Mania 3, Jill and Jack return to Jill's hometown of Bakersfield only to find it's once again been hit with hard times, only this time instead of just the Evans' Bakery being shut down the entire town seems to be well on it's way to being deserted. Why? Well once again the tride and true (it overtly used) cliché of the mega box store threatening small town America comes into play, and Jill gathers a few friends (Risha and Tiny) to restore Bakersfield to it's former glory and drive out their new enemies at the huge box store that seems to be dominating the town.

This time out you have far more to do as the restoration of the town depends on far more than just the Evans' Bakery. With each of the four characters you have a store to operate, upgrade (so it brings in more money

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each day you are not playing said store) and run. Also with each store's money brought in half goes into the town's fund to buy new stores, upgrade said buildings and build attractions (unlocked as you play through the game and improve each business in turn).

You start off with Jill and the Evans' Bakery (now using everything learned from Cake Mania 3 in terms of upgrades and a few new tricks), and work your way through the other three stores opening and maintaining them each as you progress through the game.

First off is Jack's burger shack, which plays abit like Burger Island in terms of gameplay but is abit forgiving (you can pre cook the cookables and it'll stay until needed, unlike Burger Island where pre cooking can mean burning items if you take too long to retrieve them). Otherwise if you played Burger Island (original or sequel) you probably know what's expected of you, if not try out that game if you haven't already (it's fun and quite addictive).

Then you open Risha's flower shop, which plays like Jill's Cake Mania gameplay only you replace the ovens with flower makers, the frosters with wrappers, and add a ribbon adder to go with the decorator.

Finally we have Tiny's sushi shop which runs just like Jack's so once you mastered Jack's you'll be able

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to play Tiny's.

The only downside to this game is that each day you split your profits in half. Half goes to the improvement of each shop, and half goes into the town. That means it takes a little longer to get going with upgrades but once you start to improve the town (buying into the attractions and upgrading your shops) you'll find that money will just flow in like crazy... too bad you can't roll excess money back from the town profits into the stores to improve them quicker but that's OK. You'll get all those stores upgraded soon enough.

Most of the stores are fairly balanced though I have to admit Risha's is the hardest to run. I got most down pat but her flower shop is often a pain to run, and squeaking through a good day (let alone a perfect score day) is harder with her shop than the others (make the flowers, wrap the flowers, maybe add a ribbon and possibly a topper, and the customers come in like crazy and soon your struggling before you know it!) Of course you can overcome even with Risha's store if you work hard enough and make sure to get the speed upgrades ASAP so you move faster through the shop, but still why is it so hard to get up to

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speed on Risha's as opposed to the others who were easier to grasp and get good at.

Also this now really should be the last Cake Mania as the story progresses, and you find out that... hmm... well that'll spoil everything but since it's been said so much already on other pages... by the time you get to the end and defeat the evil box store Jill hints that she and her hubby have been getting down between levels and (if the game didn't drop enough hints to this during gameplay) you find out she's most likely pregnant... possibly with TWINS (strong with the cake they are, yes...)! (Which means if there's a Cake Mania 4 it might be showcasing her children's taking over of the business and their own cake adventures).

Overall it's a great fourth (possibly final game) and I have no regrets actually buying this game (as opposed to everything else I review off of Gateway Games which is demo only). If you are a fan of the series make sure to get this one for your collection... now if only they would go and make that Sausage game already... I'm curious as heck to find out what that is all about.

Cake Mania : Main Street gets 4 Cake-eteers (Jill, Jack, Risha & Tiny) out of 5.