Papa’s Freezeria is a free-browser game where the player has to run a restaurant by selling various sundaes. The gameplay is very simple, consisting of taking a customer’s order, putting the ingredients in a cup during the build station, mixing it in the mix station, and then placing the garnish and whipped cream carefully in the topping station. After putting each sundae together, the customer will grade how accurate and well done each station was using a percentage from 0% to 100%. If the player earns high percentages, they’ll gain a lot of money, but if they gain low percentage grades, they’ll earn significantly less. As the game progresses, new flavors of toppings, whipped cream, and syrup are introduced along with more customers to keep the game fresh. 

This simple game has gained massive popularity within schools since it’s easy to access and costs nothing to play. However, the same can’t be said about the “deluxe” version on Steam. Steam is the most popular digital video game distribution service that allows users to sell their games for money, with Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe being included for $5.99. Many people have asked “Why would anyone buy the game on Steam if you can just play it for free in a browser?” and while I do agree, I wanted to figure out this question for myself. To find out, I bought Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe and dedicated more than 24 active hours of my life to beat the game and get every achievement possible. After perfecting the game and doing everything that it has to offer, I found many strengths and weaknesses that were present while playing.

One of the main strengths is the simplicity when it comes to making each order. The stations are very easy to understand at a basic level and good hand-eye coordination, along with timing, are all that’s needed to excel. This allows the game to be accessible to a wide audience due to how beginner-friendly it is. Another strength that the game has is the music, which repeats throughout the entire game. Usually, if the same song is looped throughout a whole game, it gets really annoying and unbearable, but the one piece of music that does play each day is really well done and sets the mood of the game perfectly. They paid a lot of attention to detail as well, having different variations of the song based on the sundae station being used.

Even though the game has some good qualities, there are also some very obvious downsides. A major weakness that I instantly realized when starting the game was how similar it was to the normal Papa’s Freezeria. New flavors and customers are the only exclusive additions to the “deluxe” version, yet they’re more cosmetic than anything, adding nothing of substance that the original didn’t already have. As a result, it makes the player wonder why they spent $5.99 on a game that they could’ve played for free in a browser. This also causes the second weakness, which is how repetitive Papa's Freezeria Deluxe can be after playing for a long period of time. Most of the gameplay consists of the same steps to make a sundae with barely any increase in difficulty, making the game feel progressively more boring over time. While trying to achieve stickers might help you be engaged a little longer, most of them can be done in the first half of the game, making the second half feel lacking in comparison. 

Overall, the game can definitely be fun for a while but lacks difficulty or any gameplay that sets it apart from the original. While I did enjoy most of my time playing, doing the same exact thing for 29 hours became tedious and more of a chore than anything. In my opinion, if you really enjoy the free version of Papa’s Freezeria, you might enjoy the deluxe version. However, spending money just for a few extra toppings and customers isn’t worth it, even if the price is low. If I had to rate the game on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the worst and 10 being the best, I’d give Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe a solid 7/10 without comparing it to the regular version.