Merge Coffee is a cute lite merging game with a coffeeshop theme, from CulinarySchools.org. This is a low-pressure match and merging game, with a calm coffee shop feeling.
In Merge Coffee, players have a 7X7 grid on which to place coffee beans, cups of coffee, fancy drinks and pastries. The goal is just to match and merge identical items to upgrade them into higher-level creations. Light roast beans become darker roast beans etc.
Placement is key to a high score, as chaining multiple merges leads to bonus points, and to that satisfying board-clearing. But some items are specials that lead to items appearing all over the board, so there’s no stress about perfect placement. Bags of coffee beans create random beans in random spots, a coffeemaker creates drinks, and a toaster oven creates bakery treats.
Coffee items have little level numbers associated with the cute coffeeshop art, but players need to place them on the board to see the level number. So there’s an overall theme of light roasts become dark roasts, and coffee drinks merging to become fancier coffee drinks, but on my first playthough, it wasn’t immediately intuitive which items merged into which new ones. This added to the unlock fun, but it took me a few plays to get good chains going.
On the side of the grid are 3 customers, waiting for their coffee orders. I was worried this wouldn’t be a chill game, when I saw a mechanic focused on customers waiting for their coffee shop orders. I was looking for a chill game, and I don’t find time-management restaurant sims relaxing at all! Angry customers are not relaxing! But the customers in Coffee Merge won’t turn red and storm out if you take too long to fix their drinks. They’re relaxed and calm too, in this chill little game, so making their lattes and cappuccinos is really about getting more points.
With every successful merge, you’re rewarded with a higher score, and as the game goes on, you can unlock more elaborate drinks and treats. Coffee Merge has fun coffee aesthetics, with enough placement choices to make it interesting and stress-free.
CulinarySchools.org also has other cute food-themed games, like BBQ Roast that I played and reviewed a few months ago, Candy Fiesta, a match-3 I posted about on my book blog, and a cute candy version of 2048. (I also played and reviewed 2048, and the evil Fibonacci version, a while ago)
