While the cozy gaming sub-category has really begun to hit its stride in this generation or so, some of the earliest games I remember playing in that style were essentially coffee shop sims. Working as a barista, your job was to talk up your patrons, help them work out their stories or issues in some way, and to enhance that experience with a well-made drink that would boost the person’s spirits, or at least loosen their tongue. Over the years there have been a variety of ways that base idea has been explored, but (conveniently for the sake of this intro at least) it’s high time that someone has run with that base concept and tried something new.

High Times doesn’t only change your vehicle for customer satisfaction into the form of sweet and tasty donuts, it also adds a new component I hadn’t seen paired with this subgenre before, and that’s a little romantic entanglement. Put on the spot by your boss, who has apparently decided to take an unannounced vacation, you’ll be starting out from scratch to make The Hotbox, your humble place of work, in your own image. While this starts out as merely making due with your limited ingredients and supplies, once you start getting some money going you’ll be able to buy both new supplies to keep increasing the variety of donuts you make, but also new decor that can really give the place a more personalized touch to match your sensibilities… or at least those of the people you may be trying to woo.

You see, thankfully this isn’t just about making donuts and people feeling better in some way, you’ll also find that it’s a small world so quite a lot of your exes will be showing up as well. It turns out you’ve burned bridges with some of them more than others, so trying to rebuild your relationship may be a challenge, but with the right attitude, dialogue choices, and perhaps some mood enhancers of the right kind in the donuts you’ll be serving up, there can be hope for you. While obviously there are limits to the number of people you have to choose from, they are a pretty varied bunch, especially since you won’t be locked into candidates of only one gender. What really makes it all work is the game’s smart writing, which almost always seemed to have an option I was looking for, whether a little funny, flirty, or even looking to stir up some trouble. If you’ve been looking for something a little different, this certainly qualifies, though I’ll admit that after a while I did sort of dread it once again being “time to make the donuts”.