Papa's Taco Mia Game Review

Papa’s Taco Mia Game Background

Here we go again! Papa’s Taco Mia is the third installment in Flipline Studio’s line of restaurant sims in the Papa Louie franchise. Help Mitch and Maggie run the new Papa’s new taqueria, the Taco Mia, serve up tacos to the exact demands of their customers. All as quickly as possible, of course.

How to Play Papa’s Taco Mia

Getting Started

To select, left click with your mouse or tap on the touchscreen with your fingers. To load the welcome screen, select Continue on the bottom right corner of the loading screen to bring up the welcome screen. On the welcome screen, select Start Game at the center to begin.

Choose from any of the 3 available save slots to begin. Picking an empty slot starts a new game, while picking an occupied slot resumes the game from where you last left off. Your web browser automatically saves your game progress. You can also backup your save file into your device should you feel the need to do so by selecting Save a Backup on the save slot. Select Load Backup on an empty save slot to upload an old save slot from your device.

If you’re playing for the first time, choose a player character. Type in a username on the space provided, then select Continue. Once that’s done, a cutscene will play explaining the premise of the game. The first day acts as a tutorial.

The Process

The game has 3 stations, representing the steps in preparing and serving the taco:

• The ordering station, in green, is where you receive customer orders.
• The grill station, in red, is where you cook the taco meat.
• The build station, in blue, is where you assemble the taco’s toppings.

Select the Take Order button on the word balloon above the customer to take their orders. Once you’ve written down their order ticket, you can put it on the line on the top row or leave it on the ticket hook to get a better look at it.

Select the red button on the bottom center to move to the grill, then cook up the meat in each pan; the timer is built into the curve of each pan. Each piece of meat can be cut or flipped. To flip the meat, select the blue spatula when the timer is at the blue area. To cut the meat, select the red knife when the pan is at the red area. Keep cooking the meat until it’s done, then move it to the requisite taco shell.

Once that’s done, select the blue button to move to the build station, then select each of the toppings to drizzle it on the taco. Move your mouse cursor or fingertips at the top half of the taco until the scooper is empty. To add a sauce, select a sauce bottle, then select the top half of the taco and move from right to left until you’ve covered the taco in sufficient sauce. Wrap the taco by selecting Finish on the bottom half of the taco, then drag and drop the order ticket onto the stand to the left of the finish taco to serve it.

You can return to the ordering station by selecting the green button. Feel free to take more orders as you think you’re able.

Basic Gameplay Advice

Summary

Papa Louie holds a contest to see who would become the new head employee of his new shop, the Taco Mia. After a grueling challenge, the player’s chosen character (either Mitch or Maggie) emerges triumphant, earning them the spot.

Basics

To satisfy the customers, you must meet their orders as close to their demands as possible. This means preparing their meat to the desired consistency, arranging them in the stated order, and serving it in a quick, presentable manner. Ideally, the toppings and condiments should be distributed evenly across the taco. You don’t need to worry about wasting ingredients; they’re always replenished.

Be careful when assembling a taco. If you make a mistake, you have to throw out the entire taco and start anew, including cooking a new batch of meat.

You can stagger the number of tacos you can make. This forms a taco queue on the left center edge of the build station. This way, you can finish cooking tacos and serve them.

This game has a larger variety of ingredients than its predecessor. Many are not available until after you reach specific gameplay milestones. You start off with a narrow range of ingredients, which expand as you play the game. In total, the game has 4 meats, 3 taco shells, 11 toppings, and 6 sauces in total.

Work Days and Work Weeks

Unlike the previous games, this one is sorted according to a workweek, which consists of 7 working days. Each working day consists of the entire span of time that you spend meeting customer orders; it ends when the last customer leaves. The work week determines the arrival of your pay and the arrival of the closer customers.

At the end of each workday, the game lists down your performance in 3 metrics:

• Building, which involves assembling the taco’s toppings
• Grilling, which revolves around how well you cook the meat
• Waiting, how quickly the customers have to wait to receive their order

These appear alongside your tips at the end of each day. Pay attention to these, as they indicate the areas you need to improve upon.

Customers and Customer Points

The game has 54 customers, most of which are unlocked over the course of several days of gameplay. You encounter the first three on Each of these customers have unique preferences, and after a while you can commit theirs to memory. You can also look up their preferences in the customers list on the game menu. To view this, select the menu button on the bottom left corner, then select the customers button.

Each customer has a corresponding order ticket. You must match the finished taco with the ticket of the customer who ordered it. Giving a customer the wrong taco is a good way to get on their bad side.

How well the customers like your service determines your customer points for the day. The more customer points you receive, the closer you are to leveling up. Leveling up at a constant pace is critical to unlocking new ingredients and meeting the demands of new customers.

Customers have star gauges that represent their satisfaction with your service. The happier you make the customers, the more this rating grows. Filling up the star gauge grants you a customer award, which comes in 3 tiers: bronze, silver, and gold. Customers with an award order faster. Likewise, failing to satisfy a customer will cause their star gauge to become empty, forcing you to work your way up to earn the next badge. Any badges you earned beforehand will remain.

Closers

The last customer to arrive each day is the closer. Closers are particularly demanding customers who will rate your service far more judgmentally than all other customers. Each closer comes in once every seven days, so impressing them in each of their visits is critical. Despite being called the closer, it’s often not a good idea to keep them waiting until the very end of the day.

A special closer, Jojo the Food Critic, is the hardest one to appease. Impressing him will grant you a blue ribbon, which your shop can display on the window. The blue ribbon is active for 3 days, and while it’s up, you receive larger tips.

Money and Upgrades

The game adds more options to earn money that you can use for upgrades. As in the previous games, you earn tips from finishing each taco. The tips you earn are tied to customer satisfaction; elated customers will give you the highest tips, while angry customers won’t tip at all. Unlike in previous games, this game incorporates a salary on top of the tips you earn. You receive your salary at the end of the 7-day work week. You also earn salary raises as you level up. On top of that, earning in-game badges also comes with a cash reward.

Upgrades are critical in improving your performance over the course of the game. Most of the items available for sale are cosmetic improvements that also help manage the patience of the customers waiting in line. The following upgrades, meanwhile, are directly involved in gameplay:

• The gold spatula and knife ($100 apiece) accomplishes their regular counterparts’ jobs twice as fast.
• The doorbell ($30) lets you know when new customers enter regardless of the screen you’re in.
• The alarms ($90 apiece, one ) lets you know when a specific meat is ready to be flipped, cut, or taken off the grill.
• Extra burners ($150, $200) give you extra space to cook.

We recommend upgrading as soon as you can afford it to immediately improve your operations.

On top of shop upgrades, you can also buy hats.

Advanced Playing Tips & Strategy

Customers are Key

Know thy customers. Each customer has a set of preferences, which can clue you in on what you need to prepare long before they order. Use the customer list to cross-reference what each customer likes. The opening animation of each day often shows the first customers to arrive just outside the building. Know what they’re expecting and get ready.

Customer satisfaction is the gift that keeps on giving. Getting a higher badge guarantees that the customers will order faster, saving you precious time. Work as much as you can toward earning a customer badge and your customers will help you perform better in turn. Satisfying the critic is also, well, critical, as his blue ribbon guarantees a three-day increase in earning. See if you can impress him each week to guarantee a steady rise in tips.

Sort Your Slips

Keep the order tickets organized using the line on the top row. We recommend sorting them according to their cooking stages. New orders take low priority over the ones that are being cooked and prepared. Balance your attention accordingly. You’ll often need to use the time that some meats take to cook to top off tacos that are ready to serve.

Decorator’s Den

Decorations don’t just make your restaurant look great. They also give your customers things to look at and do while they wait. Indulge your inner interior designer and splurge a bit on cosmetic upgrades to temper the decay of customer patience.

Educational Aspects

The game challenges a player’s time management skills and task-switching abilities. Players must pay attention to multiple customer wants and satisfy them in a timely manner.

Player Age Recommendations

This game is suited for players school-aged and above, with the ideal age skewing older due to the game’s complexity. We recommend it for fans of restaurant sims and time-management games.