After the 2010’s and logging into my mom’s Facebook to play games, I thought the age of being tempted to change the internal clock on my devices was over. I spent much of my childhood, like many other people I know, downloading and obsessively playing any game that ended in the word “Story.” My bakery in Bakery Story was my pride and joy with hours spent making the appearance of my virtual world fit the aesthetics of my ten-year old self. I was constantly excited to level up to make rarer desserts that took increasingly longer amounts of time, setting me in search of hacks and cheats to make the time go faster, which typically took the form of setting ahead the clock on my iPod Touch.
I have recently found the nostalgia from these experiences that I hadn’t known I was searching for. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine recommended the game “Cookie Run: Kingdom,” her own personal obsession. After downloading and beginning the game, I was propelled back to 2013 and the overwhelmingly addictive games I would play. Cookie Run even has object crafting and expansions that are making me seriously consider the time hacks of my childhood. (Although, Apple may now be aware of this cheat that tween girls thought they were getting away with.) While the busyness of the end of the semester is not necessarily the best time to become addicted to a phone game, Cookie Run has actually been quite relaxing for me and gives me a little distraction from the stresses of my classes.
Here is why you should play Cookie Run: Kingdom too:
- Cute Characters to Collect and Find
Like many others, I was obsessed with Animal Crossing: New Horizons during the height of the pandemic. I was in love with all the different characters and spent a lot of time thinking about which villagers I wanted to find and have on my island. Since coming to school, I have missed playing this game and all of its cute characters, but Cookie Run has given me that excitement over characters that I have been missing. There are over 50 cookies in the game with unique powers, costumes, and personalities to collect and add to your kingdom. Some of my personal favorites include Strawberry Cookie, who wears a hoodie that looks like a strawberry and swings a giant lollipop, and Onion Cookie, who has a short purple bob and is constantly crying. There are also a number of seasonal cookies you can find, such as Pumpkin Pie Cookie.
- World Building
Cookie Run has a deep underlying story and gives each character a backstory and connection to other characters. I absolutely love how creative the developers of the game were in deciding on the rules of the world and its vivid imagery, such as gumdrop building gnomes and blueberry birds. The game has its own little mythology and really draws you into this world of heroic cookies and evil cake monsters. The game also allows you to decorate your own kingdom in a number of aesthetics, all which follow the same theme of sugary and salty snacks creating buildings and objects.
- Idle Game Play
Something that I have really enjoyed about this game is that there are a lot of things I can do within it when I’m just looking for something mindless to pass a minute or two. Like Bakery Story and the games of old, there are different things to craft and make, all of which take fairly reasonable amounts of time to complete. I often find myself going in and setting up some things to make or leveling up my cookies if I’m sitting eating breakfast or if I get to class a little too early. Since downloading the game and doing these little idle things, I’ve found myself scrolling through social media at least a little bit less as well.
- Different Ways to Play
I think what I like the best about Cookie Run is that there are a bunch of different ways to play. You can dedicate yourself to the Story Mode and battle different villains, or you can instead choose to spend your time crafting objects and designing and decorating your kingdom. There are also a bunch more options, like little battles that aren’t related to the overall story and adding and visiting friends. The game has something for everyone, no matter what kind of games you like to play.