Pokemon Cafe ReMix (Switch, iOS & Android)

Titles	Pokémon Café ReMix · Pokémon Café Mix (June 2020 to October 2021) ようこそ！ポケモンカフェ ～まぜまぜパズル～ (Yōkoso! Pokémon Kafe ~Mazemaze Pazuru~) · Pokémon Café Mix until 2021
Platforms	Nintendo Switch (Nintendo eShop download, handheld mode only) · iOS & iPadOS (App Store) · Android (Google Play)
Developer	Genius Sonority
Publishers	The Pokémon Company · Nintendo
Director	Yoshinori Obishaku
Producers	Akira Kinashi · Toyokazu Nonaka · Michihito Shimizu
Music	Tsukasa Tawada (credited for sound)
Players	1 (online Teams of up to 30 players)
Genre	Puzzle (swirl-and-link icon puzzles with café management)
Business model	Free-to-start, with optional in-app purchases (golden acorns, item packs, Premium Pass)
Orders	2,400 main orders, plus the original Café Mix orders as Extra Orders
Pokémon	247 staff entries (Shiny Pokémon and male and female Pikachu and Eevee count separately)
Released	Café Mix: 23 June 2020 (North America) · 24 June 2020 (Japan, Europe, Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan)
Relaunched	As Café ReMix: 27 October 2021 (North America) · 28 October 2021 (Japan, Europe, Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan)
Rating	ESRB E · PEGI 3 · CERO A · ACB G · GRAC All · App Store 9+
Predecessor	None – it followed Genius Sonority’s Pokémon Shuffle (2015)
Successor	None (rebuilt as Café ReMix in 2021 rather than replaced)
Downloads	More than 12 million (May 2022, Switch and mobile combined)

Overview · Quick Answers · Story · Café Mix to ReMix · Gameplay · Modes & Events · Stamina & Purchases · Teams & Platforms · Characters · Pokémon · Updates · Regional Variations · Videos · Trivia · Legacy · Downloads & Reviews · Media

Overview

Pokémon Café ReMix is a free-to-start puzzle game for Nintendo Switch, iPhone, iPad and Android in which you run a café where every customer and every member of staff is a Pokémon. It was made by Genius Sonority, the studio whose Pokémon work runs from Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD on GameCube to the puzzlers Pokémon Trozei! and Pokémon Shuffle, and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo. Revealed in a Pokémon Presents on 17 June 2020, it was out just a week later, launching worldwide as Pokémon Café Mix on 24 June 2020 (23 June in North America), and it took its current name in a free overhaul on 28 October 2021.

Each order is a puzzle board crowded with Pokémon icons. You swirl them around with a fingertip to mix them up, then trace a line through touching icons of the same Pokémon to clear them, working towards a goal – clearing so many of one Pokémon, say, or breaking through ingredient obstacles called gimmicks – within a set number of moves. Staff Pokémon bring their own Café Skills and specialties, long links create megaphones that blast whole rows, and moves left over push a dish towards three stars. Every customer you serve grows a little fonder of the café until it joins the staff, where it can be trained, levelled up, dressed in outfits and put to work developing new dishes that tempt yet more Pokémon through the door.

It has settled into a long run as a live-service game. Café Mix passed five million downloads in under two months, the game had topped 12 million by May 2022, and events, outfits and new staff kept arriving into 2026, including a party for the series’ 30th anniversary that February. Its gentle, touch-only puzzling makes it one of the most relaxed games in the whole franchise, and it was nominated for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2020.

The 2021 relaunch is a rare case of a Pokémon game being rebuilt mid-service rather than replaced. Much as Pokémon Masters had become Pokémon Masters EX the year before, Café Mix kept its players and their progress but gained a new name, stamina in place of hearts, staff levels and outfits, Menu Development and a new way of choosing customers, while its original orders were preserved as Extra Orders. The From Café Mix to Café ReMix section below covers every change.

Quick Answers

The questions people ask about Pokémon Café ReMix, answered first and explained further down the page.

Is Pokémon Café ReMix free, and is it pay-to-win?

It is free to download and play on Switch, iOS and Android. Optional purchases sell golden acorns, item bundles and a Premium Pass that raises the stamina cap from five to ten, but every order can be cleared without paying; spending mostly buys retries, extra moves, puzzle powers and more attempts per session. More →

Can you still play Pokémon Café ReMix in 2026?

Yes. It is still free to download from the Nintendo eShop, the App Store and Google Play, and updates continued into 2026, including a celebration of the Pokémon series’ 30th anniversary in February. Older 32-bit Android devices lost support in January 2026, and Facebook account linking ended in December 2024. More →

Is Pokémon Café ReMix on Switch or phone, and can I move my save between them?

Both. The same game is available on Nintendo Switch, iPhone, iPad and Android, but save data cannot be transferred between the Switch version and the mobile version in either direction. Because the puzzles rely on touch input, the Switch version is played in handheld mode using the console’s touchscreen. More →

How many Pokémon are in Pokémon Café ReMix?

There are currently 247 recruitable staff entries, a total that counts Shiny Pokémon and the male and female Pikachu and Eevee as separate staff members. The roster covers every generation up to Paldea and includes Legendary and Mythical Pokémon such as Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Rayquaza and Jirachi. More →

What is the difference between Pokémon Café Mix and Pokémon Café ReMix?

They are the same game. Café Mix launched in June 2020, and a free update on 28 October 2021 renamed it Café ReMix, replaced hearts with stamina, added staff levels, outfits, Menu Development and Training, let players choose their customers and moved the original orders into an Extra Orders mode, with existing progress kept. More →

How do you recruit Pokémon to your café staff?

Pick a visiting customer and clear its order. Each star earned adds hearts to that Pokémon’s friendship, and filling its friendship level brings it onto the staff. Other Pokémon arrive through Menu Development, events, Legendary visits, daily stamp boards and Pelipper’s delivery service, and serving existing staff earns cookies instead of hearts. More →

Does Pokémon Café ReMix connect to Pokémon HOME or other Pokémon games?

No. It has no link to Pokémon HOME, the core series or any other Pokémon game, and Pokémon recruited to the café stay in the café. Its online features are internal to the game: Teams of up to 30 players who share stamina with one another and work together in team events. More →

Is there a sequel to Pokémon Café ReMix?

No. Rather than releasing a sequel, The Pokémon Company rebuilt and renamed Café Mix as Café ReMix in 2021 and has kept updating it since. The game also inspired a long-running Japanese children’s manga in Shogakukan’s Pucchigumi magazine, which switched to a ReMix-era title in November 2021. More →

Story

Café ReMix casts you as the new owner of a small café in which both the customers and the staff are Pokémon. On your first day Leah is there to show you the ropes, and she and your partner Eevee help you prepare the café’s very first menu item, an Eevee Latte, which doubles as the tutorial. Rowlet and Piplup are the first customers through the door, and both have joined the staff within a couple of orders.

A few orders later Timburr turns up and starts building. From then on the café grows area by area as orders are cleared, out from the Entrance and Kitchen into rooms and outdoor spaces such as the Lounge, the Terrace, Waterview Dining, the Loft, the Balcony and the Patio, and later the Aqua Park and the Square, eleven areas in all. As the staff level up and develop new drinks and dishes, word gets around: Pokémon that have never visited before start turning up, Legendary and Mythical guests among them during special events, while Pelipper flies the café’s food out to townspeople.

There is no ending as such. Once every main order has been served, the café moves on to Master Café Mode, where tougher reworkings of earlier orders are waiting.

From Café Mix to Café ReMix

Sixteen months after launch, Café Mix was rebuilt rather than replaced. During a seven-month lull in content updates, a closed beta in Japan in July 2021 tried out a reworked game and asked players which Pokémon they wanted to see; the overhaul was announced in the Pokémon Presents of 18 August 2021 and arrived as free version 2.0 on 28 October 2021 (27 October in North America). It renamed the game Pokémon Café ReMix, and in Japan Yōkoso! Pokémon Café ~Mazemaze Puzzle~, kept every player’s progress and staff, and changed how customers arrive, how the staff grow and how the menu expands.

• 16 monthsfrom Café Mix’s launch to the relaunch
• 2×faster refills: one every 15 minutes, not 30
• 2,400main orders in Café ReMix
• 1,200the last Extra Order milestone

Before and after

What changed

Customers by choiceCafé Mix’s Pokémon Invitation system, with its daily invitation levels, was retired. In Café ReMix’s main orders, called Pokémon Visiting, you pick which customer to serve from a list that can be refreshed with golden acorns; Large Orders grant extra friendship, and Additional Orders let the same Pokémon order again straight away.

Hearts become staminaCafé Mix ran on hearts, which were lost only when an order was failed and came back at one every 30 minutes. Café ReMix switched to stamina, spent at the start of every attempt whether it succeeds or not, but recovering twice as fast at one unit every 15 minutes, with timed stamina items and stamina sharing between team-mates to soften the change.

Three-tier stars and Past OrdersVisiting and Training puzzles were given a three-tier star rating, with the first star made easier to reach than before and the third made harder. Past Orders let you replay a cleared order for a better rating, and any extra stars go towards the friendship of the Pokémon you originally served.

Staff levels and TrainingStaff Pokémon gained levels for the first time. Training raises a chosen staff member’s level, which makes its puzzles easier, unlocks outfit colours and extra specialty gimmicks, and meets the requirements for new dishes. The mode was later reshaped as Daily Training, which can be played three times a day for category-specific tarts.

Specialty gimmicks and a stronger Cheer RushEvery Pokémon was given specialty gimmicks, obstacles it can clear in a single go, and it learns more of them as it levels up. Cheer Rush was beefed up so that as many as four megaphones can be combined in one move, giving the puzzles a punchier, more explosive feel than before.

Menu DevelopmentNew dishes are no longer handed out at fixed order numbers; they are developed. Each menu item calls for particular staff, often at a set level, and meeting its conditions unlocks a development order. Clear that and the dish joins the menu, drawing in Pokémon that have never visited before, so the menu and the roster now grow together.

Dress-up outfitsCafé ReMix introduced outfits for staff Pokémon, from level-up colour variants to costumes from events, the Premium Pass and the Pokémon Outfit Pack. The launch brought Eevee’s Chef outfit for logging in on five days, Piplup’s Beach Resort outfit in a commemorative pack and Lucario’s Masquerade outfit through the Premium Pass.

Extra Orders and carried-over progressPlayers kept their progress and their staff, and Café Mix’s original main orders moved into a separate Extra Orders mode that carries on from where each player had left off. Milestones there include Charmander at Extra Order 100 and chef’s-whites outfits for Pikachu at 600 and Lucario at 1,200. At the relaunch, Master Café Mode opened after main order 300.

New Pokémon and a fan voteClosed-beta testers voted for the Pokémon they most wanted added, ranking Mew first, then Jirachi, Yamper, Ditto and Charizard. Mew headlined the relaunch with a special visit and a Café Skill of its own, Charizard followed in a limited event from 29 October to 10 November 2021, and Cyndaquil, Sudowoodo, Sneasel, Chimchar, Greninja and Rowlet were among the other new faces.

Gameplay

Every order in Café ReMix is a short puzzle played by touch alone, and everything else in the game, from recruiting customers to dressing up the staff, feeds back into those puzzles.

Swirl, link and clearEvery order is a single puzzle board packed with Pokémon icons. You swirl the icons with a finger to mix them, then drag through touching icons of the same Pokémon to clear them; a move starts when you touch an icon and ends when you lift your finger. Goals range from clearing a set number of one Pokémon to breaking ingredient obstacles called gimmicks, among them Whipped Cream, ice cubes, popcorn, honey, candy jars and rock salt, before the moves run out. Setting off a megaphone or a Café Skill also uses a move.

Leaders, helpers and Café SkillsIn normal orders the board holds the icons of your chosen leader plus one to five helper Pokémon picked at random, while event stages let you choose up to four Pokémon yourself. Each Pokémon has its own Café Skill, charged by clearing its icons, which might clear the icons around it, create or set off megaphones, or swap icons for others; two skill icons can be combined for a bigger effect. Every Pokémon also specialises in at least three gimmicks, which it can clear in one go, and a fourth specialty can be unlocked with kitchen notes.

Megaphones, puzzle powers and boostersA long enough link produces a megaphone pointing up, down, left or right, which blasts a line across the board, and up to four megaphones can be chained into one move. Puzzle powers cost no moves at all: Helping Paw clears a chosen icon or gimmick, the horizontal and vertical Whistles clear a whole row or column, and Leader Bell turns chosen helper icons into leader icons. Boosters arrive at order 13, among them Skill Plus, which starts a puzzle with a Café Skill ready to use, and the vertical and horizontal Megaphone Makers. Puzzle powers can also be bought mid-order with golden acorns.

Orders, categories and starsCafé ReMix has 2,400 main orders, with the original Café Mix orders kept on as Extra Orders. Every dish belongs to one of four categories, Entrées, Drinks, Small plates and Sweets, and in normal orders a leader whose specialty matches the category gains an advantage. The first star completes an order; if any moves remain, a Three-star challenge follows, and three stars mark a culinary masterpiece.

Recruiting and growing the staff

Friendship and staff levelsServing a Pokémon that isn’t yet on the staff adds hearts to its friendship, one for each star earned, and once its friendship level fills it joins the team; serving a Pokémon that already works at the café earns cookies instead. Staff gain experience whenever they lead a completed order, and higher levels make them more effective, unlock new outfit colours and add specialty gimmicks. Shiny Pokémon count as separate staff members, and Pikachu and Eevee can each be recruited in male and female forms with different attributes. A Happy Bonus, which becomes likelier as your stamina runs low, adds two extra hearts per order for 15 minutes.

Outfits and gradesLevelling staff unlocks colour variations of their outfits, and further costumes come from events, deliveries, daily stamp boards, the Premium Pass and paid outfit packs; some alternate outfits even change a Pokémon’s specialties or its Café Skill. Special five-star outfits arrived in version 3.0 in June 2022, and since version 3.50 in October 2022 outfits can be upgraded through four grades, each adding a percentage bonus to the puzzle score, with the fourth also boosting the score for clearing one particular specialty gimmick.

Menu DevelopmentThe Menu Development screen lists the dishes in progress and the ones already on the menu. Each dish in progress names the staff it needs, often at a set level, and training them up unlocks its development order; every finished dish then brings new customers to the café. The official site’s examples give a taste of the menu: Hot Litwick Cocoa, Piquant Pikachu Curry, Poppin’ Pachirisu Float and Lilligant Floral Tea.

Modes, deliveries & events

Beyond the main orders, Café ReMix has grown a menu of side modes and a busy events calendar, most of them added after the relaunch.

Master Café ModeOnce every main order has been served, Master Café Mode opens, offering harder, randomly chosen versions of earlier orders that award blue stars.

One-Minute CookingAdded with version 2.60 in April 2022, One-Minute Cooking swaps the move limit for a 60-second timer and unlimited moves, but bans boosters and puzzle powers. The clock pauses during links, skills and animations.

Slow CookingSlow Cooking, added with version 4.30 in October 2023, strings three stages together on a limited number of moves in pursuit of the highest possible score. Some events borrow its rules, as others borrow One-Minute Cooking’s.

Daily TrainingDaily Training can be played three times a day and pays out tarts for levelling up staff, with the type of tart set by that day’s order category.

Pelipper’s deliveriesSince version 2.40 in February 2022, Pelipper has flown the café’s drinks and dishes out to townspeople, who may answer by joining the staff or handing over an outfit. A standard delivery is free and takes 23 hours; an express run costs 3,000 golden acorns and comes back at once, and 30,000 acorns sends out a bonus batch of 11. Delivery stamps can be swapped for staff Pokémon or outfits, Pokémon already at the top outfit grade return delivery points for the Swap Shop, and the 50th and 100th deliveries pay out an Almighty Macaron and a classic kitchen note before the counter starts again.

Events and stamp boardsEvents open up after order 80 and keep the café busy all year: points events and team events, Special Visits and Legendary Visits, Three Supreme Dishes and Three Unique Dishes, Hospitality events, the Lucky Wheel and Delicious Lucky Spin, Outdoor Tea Parties, Cooking Festivals and Gourmet Battles, Café Pop-ups, Full-Belly Adventures and collection events such as Collect with Gholdengo. Many bring limited-time Pokémon or outfits. A daily stamp board rewards every day you open the game and restarts every ten days, while event stamp boards can hand out Shiny Pokémon and outfits.

Stamina, golden acorns & purchases

Every attempt at an order costs one unit of stamina, whether it succeeds or not. Stamina refills to five units, or ten with the Premium Pass, at one unit every 15 minutes, can be stockpiled up to 99, and stamina crystals allow unlimited play for a limited time.

Golden acorns are the game’s currency. They are earned from orders and events or bought with real money, and they pay for retries, puzzle powers mid-order, staff level unlocks and express deliveries, up to a limit of 9,999,999 held at once.

Run out of moves before earning the first star and you are offered up to four retries of three extra moves each, at a rising price, with bonus megaphones thrown in on the later ones:

• First retry: 900 golden acorns
• Second retry: 1,300 golden acorns
• Third retry: 2,400 golden acorns
• Fourth retry: 3,600 golden acorns

On the US App Store the optional purchases are golden acorn packs from US$0.99, item packs, daily ticket and stamina packs, High Score Skips and the Premium Pass.

None of it is required. Every order can be cleared without paying, and money mostly buys convenience: retries, extra moves, puzzle powers and more attempts per sitting.

Teams, online play & platforms

Café ReMix is one game on three kinds of device, but each copy keeps itself to itself. Its online features all stay inside the game:

• Switch and mobile are the same game, but save data can’t be moved between the Switch version and the mobile version in either direction, so a player on both keeps two separate cafés.
• On Switch the puzzles are played on the touchscreen, so the game works only in handheld mode.
• There is no link to Pokémon HOME, the core series or any other Pokémon game: Pokémon recruited to the café stay in the café.
• Facebook account linking ended with version 5.40 in December 2024, and 32-bit Android devices lost support with version 6.50 in January 2026.

Characters

The café’s story is carried by a small cast: Leah, who shows the new owner the ropes, and the Pokémon who work, build and deliver for the café.

• EeveePartner
• PikachuGrand Opening
• RowletFirst customer
• PiplupFirst customer
• TimburrBuilder
• PelipperDeliveries
• MewFan-vote winner
• CharizardLaunch event

LeahLeah greets you on your first day as the café’s new owner and talks you through the opening orders. With your partner Eevee she prepares the café’s very first menu item, an Eevee Latte, which doubles as the tutorial. In the original Café Mix she and Eevee were introduced as your first employees.

EeveeYour partner from the very start and the first Pokémon on the staff, a point the original Café Mix website made a fuss of. Eevee has the rare All Specialties trait, so it suits every dish category. Male and female Eevee count as separate staff members with different attributes, and a Shiny Eevee can be recruited too.

PikachuMale Pikachu joins the staff through the Grand Opening daily stamp board after five days of logging in, and a female Pikachu with different attributes can be recruited as well. It specialises in Small plates, and a chef’s-whites Pikachu outfit awaits at Extra Order 600.

Rowlet and PiplupThe first customers after the tutorial, arriving together at order 2. Rowlet joins straight after that order and Piplup follows once Rowlet has led the next one. Piplup’s Beach Resort outfit came in the ReMix launch commemorative pack.

TimburrTimburr turns up after the fourth order to start expanding the premises and is behind every new area that opens as more orders are cleared. The café begins with just the Entrance and Kitchen and grows to eleven areas, each of which draws in more customers; the Aqua Park arrived in February 2024.

PelipperPelipper is the café’s courier, flying drinks and dishes out to townspeople on the delivery runs added in February 2022. The townspeople may join the staff or give an outfit in return, and the Paldea starters’ outfits joined the delivery rewards in February 2024.

MewMew won the fan vote held during the Japanese closed beta in July 2021 and became the face of the relaunch, visiting in a special event as soon as Café ReMix went live and bringing a unique Café Skill with it. Like Eevee it has the All Specialties trait, and a dedicated Mew Challenge was added in version 5.40 in December 2024.

CharizardFifth in the closed-beta vote, Charizard starred in a limited event from 29 October to 10 November 2021, when it could join the staff for the first time. It specialises in Entrées, and its first-stage form, Charmander, is the reward for reaching Extra Order 100.

Pokémon

Café ReMix counts 247 recruitable staff entries, a total that treats Shiny Pokémon and the male and female Pikachu and Eevee as separate members. The cast started small in 2020 and has grown with almost every update since, through special customers, the relaunch’s new arrivals and Legendary events, until it reached every generation up to Paldea, Alolan, Galarian and Hisuian forms included. Pokémon join through main orders, Menu Development, events, Legendary visits and deliveries. Here are some of the faces you’ll meet, beyond the cast above:

On the original Café Mix staff list

• Bulbasaur#001
• Charmander#004
• Squirtle#007
• Jigglypuff#039
• Meowth#052
• Snubbull#209
• Starly#396
• Munchlax#446
• Lucario#448
• Minccino#572
• Slurpuff#685

Special customers in 2020

• CelebiAugust 2020, the first Mythical
• Grookey11–25 August 2020
• HattremOctober 2020

New faces at the relaunch

• Cyndaquil#155
• Sudowoodo#185
• Sneasel#215
• Chimchar#390
• Greninja#658

Legendary and Mythical staff

• Mewtwo#150
• Lugia#249
• Ho-Oh#250
• Latias#380
• Latios#381
• Rayquaza#384
• Jirachi#385

From Paldea

• SprigatitoPaldea starter
• FuecocoPaldea starter
• QuaxlyPaldea starter

Updates & events timeline

Café ReMix has been updated every month or two since 2020. These are the versions and events that changed the game, from its first special customers to the 30th-anniversary celebrations:

Regional Variations

Café Mix launched on the same day almost everywhere, so its regional differences are mostly about names, testing and promotion:

• Japan launched with the same Latin-script title, Pokémon Café Mix, but at the relaunch it took a new name of its own instead of ReMix: ようこそ！ポケモンカフェ ～まぜまぜパズル～ (Yōkoso! Pokémon Kafe ~Mazemaze Pazuru~, ‘Welcome! Pokémon Café ~Mix-Mix Puzzle~’).
• North America got both the launch and the relaunch a day earlier by local date, on 23 June 2020 and 27 October 2021.
• The closed beta of the overhaul, fan vote included, was held only in Japan, in July 2021.
• Only Japan had the relaunch’s TV commercial and LINE theme, and the tie-in manga has been published only in Japan, in Shogakukan’s Pucchigumi magazine.
• Hong Kong and Taiwan play the game in Traditional Chinese, under a Chinese title modelled on the Japanese one.

Videos & media

Official trailers for Pokémon Café Mix and Café ReMix, from the 2020 launch to the Paldea update.

The original 2020 trailer that introduced Pokémon Café Mix.

The launch trailer for the October 2021 relaunch as Café ReMix.

An update trailer: starter Pokémon join the café staff.

An update trailer for the arrival of Pokémon from the Paldea region.

Trivia & facts

• The relaunch’s Japanese title is a mouthful, so players and the press shorten it to Pokémaze (ポケまぜ), from mazemaze, a playful word for mixing things up.
• Café ReMix was not a new app: Café Mix players simply installed the free version 2.0 update and found their café, staff and progress waiting under the new name and icon.

  

  

• Rowlet had never visited the café in Café Mix, yet in Café ReMix it is one of the first two customers a new owner meets.

• 

  Eevee and Mew share the rare All Specialties trait, which lets them lead orders of any dish category to full advantage.

• A Shiny Pokémon can specialise differently from its usual form: Charizard is an Entrées specialist, but its Shiny form is listed under Drinks.
• Café Mix once sold a Sweets-specialty Pikachu in a one-off Special Pikachu Pack, whereas the Pikachu who joins through the Grand Opening stamp board specialises in Small plates.
• Sound is by Tsukasa Tawada, the Genius Sonority composer behind the music of Pokémon Colosseum, Pokémon Battle Revolution and Pokémon Shuffle, and game designer Manabu Yamana had directed Pokémon Trozei! and Battle Revolution.
• Sensor Tower estimated that Japan was Café Mix’s biggest market in its first month, ahead of the United States, with Mexico third for downloads.
• In that first month Café Mix was downloaded about 4.6 times as often on phones as Pokémon Smile, which had launched a week earlier, by Sensor Tower’s estimate.

Legacy

What came after

• Five million downloads – 17 August 2020. Reached in under two months, across Switch and mobile
• The Game Awards nomination – 18 November 2020. Shortlisted for Best Mobile Game
• Café manga begins – 1 December 2020. Pokémon Café Mix: PikaVee’s Spinning DAYS starts in the January 2021 issue of Pucchigumi
• Relaunch announced – 18 August 2021. In a Pokémon Presents, after a closed beta in Japan that July
• Pokémon Café ReMix – 28 October 2021. The free version 2.0 update; 27 October in North America
• The manga is renamed – 1 November 2021. Welcome! Pokémon Café: PikaVee’s Mixing à la mode, from the December 2021 issue
• Ten million downloads – 15 November 2021. Celebrated with a gift of 5,000 golden acorns
• First manga volume – 9 March 2022. Followed by volumes in July 2023 and July 2025
• Twelve million downloads – 18 May 2022. Across Switch and mobile
• Fourth anniversary update – 24 June 2024. Version 5.0 added the Cooking Festival event
• Pokémon 30th anniversary celebration – 27 February 2026. Version 6.60 brought the series’ anniversary to the café
• Version 6.80 – 14 May 2026. A bug-fix update, the latest as of October 2026

Where to play it today

Pokémon Café ReMix is still available in October 2026 as a free download from the Nintendo eShop on Switch, the App Store on iPhone and iPad, and Google Play on Android, with optional in-app purchases. Updates continued into 2026, most recently version 6.80 in May, a bug-fix release that followed February’s 30th-anniversary celebration. Since January 2026 the Android version no longer runs on 32-bit devices, Facebook account linking ended in December 2024, and Switch and mobile saves remain separate. On Switch the game is played in handheld mode.

How it was made

Pokémon Café Mix was developed by Genius Sonority, the Japanese studio whose Pokémon games stretch from Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD on GameCube to the puzzle games Pokémon Trozei! and Pokémon Shuffle. Yoshinori Obishaku directed it, with Manabu Yamana as game designer, Takahiro Masuzawa as lead designer, Masayuki Kawamoto as lead programmer, Hiroyuki Yamamoto on character artwork and Tsukasa Tawada on sound. Akira Kinashi and Toyokazu Nonaka of Nintendo and Michihito Shimizu of The Pokémon Company were the producers, with Shuntaro Furukawa and Tsunekazu Ishihara as executive producers.

The game was revealed in a Pokémon Presents on 17 June 2020 and released just a week later. After version 1.91 in February 2021, content updates paused for seven months. A closed beta of a reworked version ran in Japan that July, gathering feedback and a vote on which Pokémon to add, and the relaunch as Café ReMix was announced in the Pokémon Presents of 18 August 2021.

Café ReMix in other media

Pokémon Café Mix: PikaVee’s Spinning DAYS (manga)A full-colour children’s manga written by Sanae Suzuki and drawn by Tomoko Fujinoki, serialised in Shogakukan’s Pucchigumi from the January 2021 issue, on sale 1 December 2020, to the November 2021 issue. It carried on from Pocket Monsters: PikaVee’s Soothing DAYS, moving its Pikachu and Eevee into the game’s café.

Welcome! Pokémon Café: PikaVee’s Mixing à la mode (manga)The same creators renamed the series to match the relaunch from the December 2021 issue, out on 1 November 2021. Still running in 2026, it has been collected in three volumes, published on 9 March 2022, 19 July 2023 (Cheerful Cooking!) and 16 July 2025 (Sparkly Cooking!).

Japanese TV commercial and LINE themeIn Japan the relaunch was backed by a new commercial, shown on TV and YouTube from 28 October 2021, and an official dress-up theme for the LINE messaging app, on sale at the LINE STORE from 4 November 2021.

Sales & reviews

Downloads

As a free-to-start game, Café Mix is measured in downloads rather than sales. Players on Switch and mobile together passed five million downloads in August 2020, less than two months after launch, ten million in November 2021, a few weeks after the relaunch, and more than 12 million by May 2022. Sensor Tower estimated that the mobile version alone was downloaded about 2.9 million times in its first 30 days, 1.7 million on Google Play and 1.2 million on the App Store, and that players spent around US$1 million. Japan was the biggest market on both counts, with about 813,000 downloads and roughly US$571,000 of spending, ahead of the United States with 564,000 downloads and US$255,000.

• 12m+downloads by May 2022 (Switch and mobile)
• 2.9mmobile downloads in the first 30 days (Sensor Tower estimate)
• 64on Metacritic, Switch (7 critics)
• 4.8/5US App Store rating (62K ratings)

Review scores

Critics were charmed by Café Mix’s looks and easy-going pace but divided over how much puzzle lay beneath the whipped cream. Three verdicts from the 2020 launch sum up the spread:

• Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report, who left the game unscored, called it “a delightful little puzzle game with some neat ideas and an adorable visual presentation”.
• TheSixthAxis gave it 8/10, with Drea Bunce finding “an easy-going and relaxed puzzle game, with plenty of nostalgic elements of my childhood”.
• Dave Aubrey of Pocket Gamer was less won over, scoring it 3/5: “that adorable aesthetic can’t mask a simple, but tiring puzzler.”

Café Mix drew middling reviews at launch, with 64 on Metacritic for the Switch version and a Top Critic Average of 66 on OpenCritic, where 38 per cent of critics recommended it. Almost everyone liked the look of it, praising the cute Pokémon art, the café theme and the relaxed tone, and several reviewers found the swirl-and-link mechanic simple to learn and satisfying to handle. The doubts were about depth and pacing: Pocket Gamer found the puzzles repetitive and the café trappings largely cosmetic, Switch Player felt it slowed down later on, and Pure Nintendo thought the icon physics imprecise. The Switch version’s reliance on the touchscreen, which rules out playing on the TV, was a common complaint, and some critics, LadiesGamers among them, questioned the ethics of free-to-play design in a game rated for everyone. Players on phones have been kinder, rating it 4.8 out of 5 on the US App Store.

Awards and honours:

Media & artwork

• Box art from Pokémon Café ReMix and Pokémon Café Mix

Further reading

More Pokémon puzzle games, Genius Sonority titles and free-to-start games on the site: