This game was originally covered as part of our Nindie Round Up series that sought to give coverage to a wider breadth of Switch eShop games beyond our standard reviews. In an effort to make our impressions easier to find, we're presenting the original text below in our mini-review format.

Ah, the food-based mobile arcade game. When will this trend end? The not-so-sweet tower-builder concept of Cake Laboratory is incredibly basic and the visuals cartoonish and obnoxious. You’re tasked with creating the largest cake possible, stacking up a set amount each level and lining things up as neatly as you can. This is easy to get good at quickly and once your precision is a little practised, you should have no trouble getting three stars up until the last few levels.

There's a good selection of levels to sample in Cake Laboratory, but they add little variety when the gameplay is so monotonous; variety only really comes from the differences in cakes, which are purely aesthetic. You’re able to make your own cakes which is quite cute, but it doesn’t do a thing to improve the gameplay which is just too simple to be anything more than a mind-numbing time waster. Yes, the arms dropping the cakes get faster and, obviously, you have to stack more every time, but overall, this is a pretty dull time.

Aesthetically, it’s fine but garish. It takes a cartoonish style with comical splats and sploshes every time a cake makes moist contact with the bake below. The chef character, in particular, is a little hard on the eyes and, in general, it’s far too reminiscent of a low-quality mobile game to be attractive.

Cake Laboratory's saving grace is that for a young child or undiscerning adult, it’s harmless and entertaining, with bright colours and simple game mechanics that increase in difficulty over time. However, for most players, there really isn’t enough to even slightly recommend a purchase here.