Papa’s Cluckeria To Go! Showcases Some New Mechanics Alongside Classic Restaurant Management

Flipline Studios

Allow me to preface this review with a little-known fact about me: Out of every type of meat that is feasibly edible by human beings, chicken meat is the crown prince of my mortal taste buds. From McDonald’s chicken nuggets to slow-cooked chicken a la king; white meat or dark meat; grilled, baked, or fried, it’s all good to me!

So when Flipline Studios announced the development of Papa’s Cluckeria a few months back, I simply could not contain my excitement. A game where you prepare juicy fried chicken sandwiches and mix up some yummy slushies for a cornucopia of colorful characters? What’s not to get excited about?

In terms of basic mechanics, Papa’s Cluckeria operates like all of the other games in the series. You have four stations through which the order must progress: the Order Station, the Fry Station, the Build Station, and the Slushie Station. Once you’ve copied the customer’s order down onto the ticket at the Order Station, you must then progress to the Fry Station to coat their choice of meat in batter and flour and drop it into the fryer. Once that’s done, you take it into the Build Station to put it on a bun and give it the toppings the customer wants. You then bring it to the Slushie Station where, you guessed it, you make the customer their slushie.

So far, so standard. But what made me want to play Papa’s Cluckeria more than any other entry in the franchise was the plot.

The latest installment in the beloved restaurant management series takes place in the remote desert town of Oilseed Springs, where protagonists Olivia and Wylan B. are given the lowdown on their new job from Papa Louie himself. According to him, this borderline ghost town is the perfect place to set up shop for two reasons: the abundance in resources and the distinct lack of competition. Little does Papa realize that not one but three rival restaurants have set up shop in Oilseed Springs, ushering in the Chicken Sandwich War. Only one restaurant can come out on top, so it’s your job to ensure that Papa’s Cluckeria outshines Mortadello’s Bird Meat, NuCoop Fry Labs, and Crumple Family Chicken by any means necessary.

Author Screenshot/Flipline Studios

The idea of having to contend with other restaurants was the biggest selling point to me, as it was something that Flipline Studios had never done prior to Cluckeria. Flipline Studios’ blog had teased the information as far back as November of 2021, so I was greatly looking forward to seeing what new challenges would come along.

Unfortunately, there ended up being none at all.

Aside from the player being shown an occasional cutscene detailing what the other restaurants have been up to, their presence ended up having no bearing on gameplay at all. To be fair, though, I can kind of see why this is the case; the Papa Louie series as a whole is already decently challenging, requiring the player to have some degree of skill in multitasking and memory. Adding a new segment involving going head-to-head with a rival might make the gameplay more stressful than necessary, but that isn’t to say that it couldn’t have worked.

Anyway, the concept of a rivalry isn’t the only thing that Papa’s Cluckeria has brought to the table. We now have a Free Play mode in the form of the Food Truck!

Author Screenshot/Flipline Studios

If you need to pick up a couple extra tips, you can enter Food Truck mode to whip up anything your heart desires and serve it to the public. In this mode, you don’t need to keep an eye on whatever is in the fryer because any meat gets cooked automatically and perfectly, so you’re allowed to get creative with the sandwiches and slushies you make. There’s no time limit and no pressure, but the main drawback is that you don’t make nearly as much money as you would in the standard game. Plus, the customers you serve don’t offer you any other reward such as special recipes, so this is really only a way to make a couple extra bucks while polishing your skills in the kitchen. It’s a Practice Mode, essentially, but one that I feel is definitely necessary in a series such as Papa Louie.

Overall, while I was somewhat disappointed at the lack of any new challenges, Papa’s Cluckeria is still plenty of fun and most definitely worth checking out if you’re into serving up smiles!