Sophia White-

We all know that our favorite Adobe Flash player games were taken away from us in late 2020. Especially one of the best: Papa’s games. Flipline Studios released their first game called “Papa’s Pizzeria” in 2007 and from there they released game after game. After “Papa’s Pizzeria”, we have classics like “Papa’s Freezeria”, “Papa’s Pancakeria”, and “Papa’s Hot Doggeria”.

Newer ones were released like “Papa’s Cheeseria”, which allows for the creation of a personal avatar. The newer games let you have servers in your restaurant and create their avatars as well. On top of that, it gave you the ability to have a special of the day, which could boost your tickets, tips, or stars. These benefits do not exist in the earlier Papa’s games. Yet, those benefits are not what make a Papa’s game the best Papa’s game. It needs to range from interesting characters to playability, and the joy that comes with creating the fake food.

Luckily, these games have been brought back from the grave thanks to some developers who loved the games as much as we did. The version with the least amount of lagging and problems is on the site: play-games.com. The others have odd glitches like an empty cup with floating toppings, so to find the best Papa’s game requires a site that has re-created the games in the most accurate way possible.

Since coming to college, I have spent chunks of my free time playing a variety of these games. They fill me with nostalgia and some mindless fun. I have played a few different ones including: “Papa’s Hot Doggeria”, “Papa’s Pancakeria”, “Papa’s Freezeria”, “Papa’s Cheeseria”, and “Papa’s Donuteria”. Of these five, I have found vast differences in gameplay. The differences are notable, specifically, between the newer games and the older ones, but also in terms of the gameplay for making the food game-to-game.

The most satisfying and appealing would have to be Freezeria and Donuteria because, in Freezeria, the sounds are soothing and have the most game-play mechanics in terms of what you can put in your ice cream. Donuteria provides similar qualities to other games that require a deep-fryer, but you get to dunk your donuts in different flavors, decorate them, and characters can even request multiple flavors.

This last mechanic is unique, as there is always one thing to make with a side that is constantly the same; in Donuteria, you have three different donuts to make. It causes you to think more and it creates a more visually stimulating experience. It lets the player be more creative with the food they are making as well.

Yet, Cheeseria has a certain appeal to it with the way it follows holidays and changes menu items to follow said holidays. The holidays span across different cultures and bring different customers into the store. In some ways, this is great and expands Papa’s universe, but also, it can be too much at the same time. Some of the ingredients you get from holidays in the game look questionable and are items you would not put on a grilled cheese sandwich in reality.

Once it goes into the realm of unrealistic foods to add as toppings for the main dish of the game, the game stops working for me. I don’t want an onion on my ice cream. Why are they putting little dog turds on my grilled cheese? Calm down Papa’s universe. Let’s talk about real, good food here. You know, with the caveat that this is not real food at all but digital food.

Anyway, I would reward “Papa’s Freezeria” with the award of best Papa’s game for many reasons. For one, it is a classic among the original games, and it is one of the few games that uses a different method of making food. Rather than deep-frying, grilling, or baking, you are mixing together ingredients to essentially make a blizzard. It has delicious flavors to be mixed in and a multitude of delicious toppings. It is yummy ice cream and is entirely different from the other consistencies of the food available in Papa’s universe. It is always solid food, except for Freezeria. It was one of the more unique games that were made earlier on, and it is way more nostalgic in comparison to some of the newer ones.

Plus who can really say they are not a fan of ice cream – even if it is fake?