Developer: JAYFLGAMES
Publisher: JAYFLGAMES
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Diner Bros: Taco Amigos DLC – Review
For those of you who haven’t read our review of Diner Bros yet, now is your chance, since this is a review that’s based upon the latest DLC that Diner Bros brought us. It’s a DLC with some Mexican flavor as the name would already suggest. Taco Amigos brings you hot days, spicy food, and obviously tacos. And then there’s something about a bell and Sofia… damn you Sofia…
Story
The Story of the Taco Amigos DLC is a big point of critique that’s recurring in each part of the game. Basically Taco Amigos takes the exact original Diner Bros game set-up, and then it lets you replay the same game again but with a different layer of graphics. Again, you start off with a small restaurant by yourself or with your friends. Through days of hard labor, this restaurant gets to grow and attracts more people as you keep on playing. The difference is that the location where your restaurant is based now is a typical Mexican square and the ingredients are based upon Mexican cuisine.
Graphics
Diner Bros already had its graphics going for the benefit of the game. The cute style that’s reminiscent of Overcooked and Animal Crossing with happy, smiling people, is also representing Taco Amigos. We live in a sensitive time though, so where for most the Mexican layer of graphics might be a festive celebration of culture and food, for some this might come across as slightly ignorant or racist. That being said, no matter your opinion, there’s no denying that this new layer of graphics does feel a bit like a working holiday. There’s just not enough festivities, and too much random mariachi ”musicians” and luchadores running around that keep your work hectic instead of enjoying this new place all too much.
Sound
Accompanied by the ”typical Mexican” graphic layer, the background sound also has a typical Mexican sound that you would perhaps find in a cheesy themed restaurant like the one you are building up yourself in this game. Add on top of that phrases such as ”ARRIBA!” and you get the general gist of what’s going on.
Gameplay
The Gameplay in Taco Amigos is also exactly the same as it was in Diner Bros. You get to take orders, serve customers, and build up your restaurant one addition at the time. This means you start out with tacos and meat and quickly upgrade these with tomatoes, lettuce, rice, and more. Also, when you play solo you don’t have to take orders and you can eventually hire a waitress so she will run around delivering the orders that you prepared. Because this is all exactly the same, it feels plain lazy and like a rather easy way to make an extra buck or two on a game that already could have used a bit more balance in gameplay.
Diner Bros had an issue with simply being focussed on perfection where there was no room to do a little bit of extra. As hard as you could run around and organize yourself, eventually, there would be a maximum of about 14 orders that you could fulfill each day. The main difficulty is upped by providing you with frustrating customers that keep running around on the square. Especially once you bought a ”bell”, every now and then some girl named Sofia comes ringing the bell which attracts more of the nasty buggers, bringing you one or two extra that sit down but also a lot of random pedestrians.
It feels like the game hasn’t learned a bit from its past balancing issues or how to make the gameplay more engaging. On one hand, this makes it a game that’s easy (to comprehend) and accessible to all, but on the other hand, it’s a very repetitive process where cooking games such as Cook, Serve, Delicious have tons of recipes, and Overcooked combines teamwork and quick thinking with challenging levels. Eventually, Taco Amigos is just another copy of what was already a copy. Yes, it’s slightly enjoyable, but you already enjoyed that bit before.
Conclusion
Take Amigos fails in taking itself seriously as actual DLC since it copies the exact base game and puts a different graphic sauce on top of it. The upgrading of your restaurant is still fun, but the days are repeating itself fast and feel uninspired by the lack of any improvements or new gameplay elements. Eventually, it’s just the same but with a bit of Mexican flavor.
Diner Bros: Taco Amigos DLC - Review,
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