As we (potentially gladly) leave the semester and enter into our winter break, there are so many things to do and if you, dear reader, are looking for some games to play, I have some nostalgic recommendations.

Many people probably remember sitting in the computer lab in elementary school and going to coolmathgames.com at any spare moment. It is one of the extremely fond memories that Gen Z tends to share from childhood, and among these childhood classic games are the Papa Louie cooking games.

There are so many variations on the classic set up: the player is, for one reason or another, left alone to run Papa Louie’s restaurant that serves one type of food at a time (whether it is sundaes, pizza, pancakes, sushi, or others). However, the fondness leftover from youth can only do so much to combat the intense lag and graphics that have not aged well.

Fear not, though, as there is now a much less annoying way to relive childhood. Flipline Studios has begun releasing the Papa Louie games with updated graphics and even additional content. As of recently, they have now added to Steam “Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe” and “Papa’s Pizzeria Deluxe” and, in my humble opinion, they are extremely fun.

“Papa’s Freezeria Deluxe” is quite similar to the original (of which I played a lot as a child), though with some fun additions. The holidays that the game cycles through and the festive ingredients that come with them keep things feeling like they’re moving and interesting. Also, the addition of the good truck freeplay allows for some creative play with ingredients that also lets the player get a little bit more money to pay for things like kitchen upgrades and seasonal decorations.

“Papa’s Pizzeria Deluxe” is similar to its predecessor (though “Papa’s Pizzeria” was the first of the “-ria” games), though obviously has slightly different mechanics. However, I do think that it is a little harder than “Freezeria” and, although I did not play the original game as a child, I have heard from streamers that it is also a little more difficult than the original computer game.

Still, both of the games are fun, have a lot of nostalgia running through them and, potentially most importantly, they are quite cheap. The games are both under ten dollars and are available on Steam.