Becher Bar Download (2001 Simulation Game)

Becher Bar is a fun bar simulation game similar to Pizza Tycoon, except you are managing a bar rather than a restaurant. You first start with leasing or buying property for your bar, then decorate the interior with tables, plants, different floor types, lighting, and other essential components. Then create one recipe for a drink and staff the bar with a manager, a waiter, and a bartender, and you will be ready for business.

Created as promotional title for Czech liquor brand Jan Becher, Becher Bar naturally features a lot of Jan Becher brands you can use in mixing the drinks. Creating new drinks are fun, thanks to dozens of different liquor you can use. I can't quite figure out how customer preferences are handled in the game - unlike Pizza Tycoon, what the customers think of your drinks is not readily apparent. Is the price too expensive? Does the drink taste awful? Does the bar look attractive? Is the bartender friendly enough? The only way to find out is to experiment with pricing and different recipes, and observe your performance over time. Similar to other business sims, Becher Bar includes the usual range of options: you can borrow funds from banks (and the game even has a number of banks to choose from) to finance your business, hire and fire staff, and read news that impact your business. Graphics could be better, but it is passable.

I had a lot of fun with Becher Bar, even if the variables in its economic model and how they interact are not so obvious. Since the bar business is intrinsically more dependent on "soft" factors like consumers' taste, which is hard to quantify and measure, I give the game some benefit of the doubt. Mixing drinks is a lot of fun in and of itself anyway ;) If you enjoy Pizza Tycoon, you'll probably like Becher Bar too. It is not as addictive, varied (no gangster demands here), or pretty, but it's quite a decent simulation of an interesting business that more designers should take a look at.

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