Bear & Breakfast

Bear and Breakfast's darker narrative themes don't complement its management sim elements but it still delivers a compellingly rhythmic gameplay loop.

There’s a lot to do in Bear and Breakfast, a lot of story to unspool, and a lot of different characters to meet. You’ll pick up tons of trash and serve food to the humans that threw that trash on the ground. You’ll put down carpets and hang photos on walls, install plumbing and hire someone to fuel your fires.

There is delightful presentation as you set up a dysfunctional B&B – but in a genre that usually keeps players busy, this requires real patience.

A charming little management game with a lot of potential, but one that stifles the player's creativity and enthusiasm at nearly every turn.

In many ways, Bear and Breakfast reminded me that taking it slow in a game is absolutely fine and even encouraged for exploration and world building. Nonetheless, it has some limitations, including the lack of quality-of-life features, the absence of an item sale system, curtailed player choices, and the lack of DualSense features.

Bear and Breakfast is a cozy management simulator that has you playing as a cute bear running a B&B, but that’s about it. It seems almost like the developers learned nothing from the reception of the PC and Switch port of the game a year ago, which suffered from the same issues. I really wanted to like this game, given the delightful visuals and charming characters, but the lack of polish and unintuitive controls on the PlayStation 5 make it a hard game to recommend.

There's a massive gulf between finding a game's concept charming and actually wanted to play that game, and Bear and Breakfast never comes anywhere close to crossing that gaping chasm.

Bear and Breakfast is a fun and friendly management adventure where an affable bear becomes the leader of a tourist hostel franchise.

The most glaring problem for Bear and Breakfast is that controlling the game is an immense chore on Switch, which means it ends up being a chore to help a bear complete his own chores. Opening up new areas and completing specific goals to move forward in the game is rewarding, but trying to navigate menus with the clumsy control scheme isn't worth getting out of bed for. Despite its flaws, Bear and Breakfast is no doubt a better game on PC, so play it there if you're smarter than the average bear.

Bear and Breakfast stands out as one of my favorite games of the year. Its visual style is instantly appealing and its gameplay feels nearly flawless. It's a chill game that wants you to feel relaxed while micromanaging your own bed and breakfast locations. The game has a wonderful reward system and there's a ton of things to unlock to keep you playing for hours on end. The game on Nintendo Switch is extremely well done, despite a control scheme that requires a bit of practice to get used to. Bear and Breakfast feels right at home on the platform sitting next to the likes of Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley. Bear and Breakfast managed to be so wonderful that it jumped to the top of my game-of-the-year contender list. Do yourself a favor, go and buy this game. It's an absolutely wonderful title that must be played for a bear-y good time (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist).