Author Topic: Bear and Breakfast (Switch) Review Mini  (Read 3449 times)

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Offline riskman64

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Bear and Breakfast (Switch) Review Mini
« on: September 25, 2022, 09:51:53 PM »

I would do breakfast in bed if this Switch version had a comfier mattress.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/61680/bear-and-breakfast-switch-review-mini

About 15 minutes into Bear and Breakfast, after a somewhat jarring and moody opening scene, you gain the ability to start crafting for and furnishing your own motel. It's immediately apparent that the controls are meant to be done with a mouse, and how the game feels on Switch is both cumbersome and frustrating. It's a shame, too, since the premise of a bear running his own bed and breakfasts and other accommodations and being aided by an assortment of animal friends is a remarkably charming and humorous one. A few other missing quality of life options also make Bear and Breakfast hard to recommend, especially on Switch.

After leaving your mother's den, the titular bear Hank sets out with his friends on an errand, but ends up running into a robotic shark with a speaker box that entices him to set up his own motel and slowly start to bring Humans back to the area. This requires that you scavenge for material near the building site and enlist the aid of a beaver named Tony. Planks of wood, stones, nails, and other scraps are used at the nearby crafting table to build beds and other furniture for your budding property, and once you have a few basic rooms you can start inviting paying customers who will even leave a review after they check out.

As you look around each area map, you'll come across NPCs offering quests and tasks, such as fetching a specific item or restoring a derelict building back to usable condition. You can also use the materials you've scrounged or purchased to repair outhouses, bus stops, and even gain access to shortcuts. Some of these structures allow more people to queue up for potential reservations at your properties; bus stops specifically function as fast travel points.

When you need money to build new rooms or acquire specific items from nearby shops, you generally just have to wait for guests to finish their stays at your various motels. Unfortunately, there's no option to speed up time in any way, which seems an obvious feature for simulation games like this. You can eventually turn in for the night to start the next day, but this option only shows up late at night, and I still found myself waiting for it to come up a fair bit.

The most glaring problem for Bear and Breakfast is that controlling the game is an immense chore on Switch, which means it ends up being a chore to help a bear complete his own chores. Opening up new areas and completing specific goals to move forward in the game is rewarding, but trying to navigate menus with the clumsy control scheme isn't worth getting out of bed for. Despite its flaws, Bear and Breakfast is no doubt a better game on PC, so play it there if you're smarter than the average bear.