High Times is a 2026 cozy dating- and cooking simulator, that was developed and published by Yangyang Mobile. I am neither a dating simulator nor a cooking simulator enjoyer. I usually just avoid these games for their repetitiveness and boring gameplay. But this one, I thought I will give it a try, because it seems different. It also combines the two genres, which is rare in my opinion.
Launching High Times, an introduction scene will happen. Our MC is waiting at the bus stop, when a mysterious lady will appear. They talk a bit, and our MC opens up about his past. You can choose who to talk about, doesn’t really change the outcome. High Times relies a lot on Light Novel elements, especially with the dialogues. An interesting detail that caught my ear, were the Voice Actors. This is pretty rare for games in the genre I believe, but I can be wrong! After finishing the introduction scene, you will get an intro that reminds me of 2000s and early 2010s Disney Shows.
San Mazo, Meet MC
After landing in the main menu, there are some nice details in front of your eyes. The background looks very vibrant, with some important story characters in front of it. They are also animated, moving from left to right. Some also blink with their eyes too. On the left hand, you have the menus. Instantly, what caught my eye was that the game is not sharp enough, and looked really pixelated. This is because the game’s maximum resolution is 1080p. It’s not good, especially for people, who want to play this game on higher resolution, like myself. There is also an ‘Extras’ menu option, where you can track character progress, or achievements.
Starting a new game will give you a whopping 54 save options. 9 pages with 6 saves. That is the most I have ever seen, but can be common for other games in this genre. After selecting a save file, you need to design your MC. This is all left to your imagination. At the end of it, you can finally name yourself, and not just be ‘MC’ like in the introduction scene.
New Place, Familiar Faces
After creating your MC, you will be working at a place called ‘Hotbox’, located in San Mazo. This is where you work. It feels like a diner with its jukebox, and stage to sing on. Even the layout and placing of tables feels like it. There’s a note left behind from your boss, saying he got married, so he went on a honeymoon, and sold all of your flavours. At Hotbox, you make donuts. They are made to change someone’s mood from sad to happy. This is where the cooking simulator comes in. You are given a roller to stretch out the dough, then cut out a donut form, fry it and add the correct flavours on top. Like I mentioned, your boss sold all of your flavours, except vanilla. The toppings and flavours will be unlocked by story- and character progression. If you make the donut right, the characters will show affection, which is visible from the effects around their head.
Each served donut will earn you money. You can see the growth from the jar next to the cashier, or from the top-left money counter. Money is not the only thing you can see top-left. You can also see the day and time, with the pause menu next to it.
After finishing a day, a scoreboard-like progression report will appear. This shows stats like donuts served, sales, and other money related stats. All of these are added together and will show you the amount you earned and cost that day. On the right-side, you will see the money earned with a continue button under it, and saving options. Don’t worry, the game autosaves after each day by default.
The People of San Mazo
The customers around Hotbox can vary a lot. You have close people to your MC, like your best friend, or ex-girlfriends, and customers who are complete strangers to your MC. When an important story character appears for the first time, an intro is played for them. The game will show some pieces of scenes, then transition into a scene where they are shown with their names and even their real-life Voice Actors. That is a great detail, as it confirms that they are real people, and not just some added AI voicelines.
Basic Controls
High Times‘ controls are easy. You basically click. Since this is a Light-Novel like game, all you got to do is point and click. Clicking on donut ingredients and sometimes on dialogues. But you can be lazy in the game too. You just click ‘Auto’ and the dialogues will progress by themselves, completely abandoning the click mechanism for conversations. There is one button you can use, which is the ‘Esc’ button. This is basically the pause menu. Here, you can change the Jukebox music for example, which acts like a soundtrack for the game. There are obvious options here, like ‘Load’ and ‘Main Menu’, to some rarely used options like ‘Notifications’, ‘Tender’, and ‘Hamazon’.
There is a fun detail in High Times, which is the brand names. It does a great job to avoid copyright issues, and make it more fun. The way they did it is by adding or changing a letter in the brand’s name. For example ‘Starducks’ and ‘Tender’. In this case, they changed a vowel to a different one. But ‘Hamazon’ for example adds a letter to avoid the copyright.
There is also a social media option too. You can use ‘Facenook’ for that. Here, you can check the latest news going around with friends, or with Hotbox itself. A nice touch to the game. You can access it at closing time, when your MC is freed from his duties at work. You can scroll, and even message other characters in the game. Although it is story related, a nice way to catch up with others, or just track back if you missed anything crucial in the story. After you closed your phone, you can head home with the exit door.
Final Thoughts
Overall, High Times is a nice, cozy game. It combines two simulator genres together. Dating sim, because you flirt and build relationships with other characters, and cooking sim because you make donuts during the late evening for these same people. The soundtrack is nice, fits the cozy environment, and the controls can be overlooked as they are non-essential for the game. The HUD is very easy to understand, nothing overdone or overexplained. The tutorials are also easy to understand, and making donuts aren’t hard either. Although the game can feel repetitive from the same gameplay loop, it is not bad by any means. The one thing that doesn’t really fit with me is the resolution issue. Not seeing the game, character and environmental details sharp is not good. It can be fixed though and hopefully will be.
