The Papa Louie games are a whirlwind of weird, upbeat music, angry customers and stupidly simple gameplay. These games are important in many people’s childhoods as one of the few easily accessible Flash games that are actually fun to play. 

   There are fourteen different games in the series, ranging from “Papa’s Pizzeria” to “Papa’s Scooperia.” Each has basically the same gameplay mechanics with slight variations and different looks. 

   Unfortunately, good things can’t last forever, and Flash, the program that runs these games and others, is being discontinued in 2020. 

   However, these games won’t be lost forever as each game is receiving its own mobile app, set to cost around one to three dollars. As a tribute to these games and to show which games one should buy, the best and worst of Papa Louie are now in the spotlight. 

Papa’s Best Games   

   Starting with the best games: “Papa’s Cupcakeria” easily makes the cut. For starters, it actually has a unique story, a rare sight in this series. This time, our character studiply crashes into a Papa’s Cupcakeria employee’s car. Unable to pay the damages, the player becomes a slave starts working at “Papa’s Cupcakeria” for a completely fair wage.

   As the title states, this game has the player design beautiful cupcakes using a variety of flavors and toppings. Some of these flavors are pretty strange, such as “W” and “F,” which we can only assume stand for “white” and “flavorful.” There are also creative toppers like “cloudberry” and a disgustingly green drizzle affectionately named “mint cookie.”

   The newest gimmick in this game is the introduction of seasons. Each season has different toppings that adorn the top of the cupcakes. The toppings match their season’s theme, so Christmas has candy canes, New Year’s has confetti and the gross, made-up festival “OnionFest” has large onion toppers. 

   These seasons are great to break up the typical gameplay cycle as they provide a larger incentive to play for long stretches of time to uncover all the fun festivities. It also makes each day more exciting as the new toppings these seasons provide make each day more distinct and fun. 

   We hold “Cupcakeria” in high regards because the new gimmicks and gameplay provide a ton of variety, making the repetitive nature of these games a lot more enjoyable.

   Another game of notable quality is “Papa’s Scooperia.” Being the most recent game, it is easily the highest quality game that Flipline Studios has created. Even though the god-awful speed of the school Chromebooks did interfere with the gameplay, the game is genuinely enjoyable to play.

   In “Papa’s Scooperia,” the player is supposed to prepare both ice cream and the cookies that the ice cream rests on. There’s no lone Papa’s Cookieria or Papa’s Ice Creameria, but combining the two in one game actually works. “Papa’s Scooperia” isn’t victim to the same monotony as many others due to the fact that with every in-game day, there are new combinations unlocked. 

   Another thing to note is that in “Papa’s Scooperia,” the player can skip the tutorial. This was a trend that started in “Papa’s Sushiria” and was a massive step in the right direction.

   This high quality entry into the series helps maintain the high standards expected of new Papa Louie games.

Papa’s Worst Games

   And now the less positive news: Not all of Papa Louie’s games are as good as “Papa’s Cupcakeria” and “Papa’s Scooperia.” Sometimes, they’re slow, ugly or downright unplayable.

   A perfect example of this is “Papa’s Burgeria.” In “Papa’s Burgeria,” the player’s character has won the equivalent of a Willy Wonka Golden Ticket, except, instead of getting the opportunity to tour a candy factory, he gets to own an entire burger restaurant.

   Although this game is much more polished than the first there are three large issues that plague this title. The first issue is the ordering station. Because the product is a burger, the customers have to specify every single ingredient they want, which takes way too long and slows the gameplay down.

   Next, when a burger is put on the grill, it has an odd pause for a few seconds before it starts cooking. Finally, it’s hard to tell when the burgers are done grilling because the timer just looks strange and complicated. These critiques are nit-picky, but they severely affected the overall experience.

   “Papa’s Pastaria” is set up to be the Olive Garden simulator of dreams, succeeding by being awfully mediocre. The gameplay is one of the most monotonous in the series, consisting of an endless cycle of pouring premade pasta into boiling water then painfully wiggling the bowl, waiting for water to be drained off. 

    Players then pour cold, premade sauce onto the sad noodles and add plastic-like toppings. Finally they send a pale, pasty loaf bread through the toaster oven, giving it an artificial brown tint, perfectly summing up a dinner at Olive Garden. Even the season system is boring with drastically fewer holidays that only change a few toppings. 

   Overall, this is the least appetizing Papa Louie game. Usually these games use framing to make the food look mouth-wateringly delicious but “Papa’s Pastaria” makes pasta look distasteful and gross.

   “Pastaria” is a poor installment in this series; it’s playable but not very fun.

   In conclusion, Papa Louie’s games are some of the best and the worst. People should definitely check them out before they go offline forever, and, if they have way too much money to spend, consider purchasing them for their phone.