Cake Mania 3 is a single-player DS game that lets you use your stylus to manage the “behind-the-counter” aspects of working at a diner-style restaurant that serves different cakes.  You’ll need to click the oven to bake the cake, be able to select the right frosting when the cake is done, and then serve your customers exactly what they want before they lose their patience.

The game’s cute premise involves a bride-to-be’s friends and family being scattered throughout time just days before the wedding, and it’s up to our heroine to transport to each era and to earn enough money by selling cakes to get her friends back home.  It sounds ridiculous, and it is, but it’s cute and a nice way to introduce lots of unique customers.

The game features repetitive gameplay, which can be good if you are looking for mindless entertainment.  But if you’re looking for variety or some unique problem-solving, then this game may strike you as extremely tedious and unneedingly stressful as you worry about all the customers.  There are also three mini-games which add a bit of variety, but all are essentially variations of serving the right size and shape of cakes to your customers.

As with many DS games, the focus is firmly on single-player in Cake Mania 3.  Although the story is cute and the repetitive gameplay can be good for marathon sessions of mindless fun, there are no real opportunities for families to enjoy any kind of “together” gameplay.