RGM Reviews – Overcooked

Developed by Ghost Town Games and published by Team 17, Overcooked is a couch co-op cooking game designed to be played by up to four people. There is a single player mode available, however, to experience everything the game has to offer, I highly recommend having some friends over for a night of unique cooking adventures.

The game starts off with an interesting apocalyptic setting where you are tasked by a talking onion and his dog to make salads for a giant spaghetti and meatball monster. This game does not take itself seriously and it shows right from the start. There is a light story involving time travel and saving the world through the powers of cooking. It’s a ridiculous plot but humorously charming in its own right.

After the opening sequence, the game sets you off in a bus to various kitchens across the map to cook up some tasty meals. Anyone who’s played a Diner Dash type game might be familiar with how the game is set up. You get tickets with recipes on them and it’s up to you to make them as fast as possible. The quicker you serve the better the tip. However, it’s not as easy as it seems to be and Overcooked throws many obstacles in your way. Each level has a unique kitchen and hazard that is meant to challenge you. For example, one of the levels has you cooking on an iceberg that’s slippery and can cause you to fall into the water if you aren’t paying enough attention. If you fall off the map, you have to wait for a few seconds to respawn. This might not sound like a big deal but the game is timed so you only have a couple of minutes per level to get your dishes out to the customers. Also, if you frying some potatoes and fall off, those few seconds could cause them to burn and ignite your kitchen in flames.

Gameplay consists of grabbing ingredients to chop, cook, and serve as fast as possible. The shifting levels, the short time limit, and the chaos of the players moving around the kitchen are what gives the game it’s challenge. Due to the frantic pace of the game, I can’t recommend you play this solo. If playing solo, you are given two chefs and can either switch back and forth to them or control both of them with the two analog sticks. I found the two analog stick method to be difficult to control and opted for the switching method. Even with two chefs to switch to, there’s too many things you need to micromanage and if you complete the level you’ll only end up with one star at best. Stars are used to unlock more levels in the game so they aren’t just for leaderboards. It’s because of this that I only recommend Overcooked if you have people you can play the game with. With the heavy emphasis on multiplayer you would think you can just hop online to play with your friends. Unfortunately, there is no online multiplayer or plans of one in the future. This really cripples the potential of the game for solo players.

Other than the co-op campaign mode, there is also a versus mode. The versus mode has two teams of two chefs each square off to see who can serve the most food in the given time limit. It reminds me of Iron Chef as you and your teammate scramble and navigate the kitchen to chop and cook as fast as possible. I really enjoyed this mode and it really shines when you have four players on two teams competing against each other. You can play with two players, the second chef on the team will also be controller by the player with the control schemes mentioned in the prior paragraph.

Visually, Overcooked is bright and colorful. There are several chefs to choose from and more to unlock. All of them are charmingly cartoonish from a buck toothed goofball to a raccoon in a wheelchair. It’s great that the developers give so many options of different chefs to choose from, there’s something for everyone here. The graphic design reminds me a bit of Animal Crossing on Nintendo consoles. The visuals and animations are cute and charming and serve the feel of the game well. There are about 28 different kitchen levels to play in, so there’s plenty of challenges and content available.

The main controls of your chef are only a few simple buttons. Move with the analog stick, grab with the A button, and interact with the X button (This was reviewed on Xbox One). The RB button is used to swap chefs. The controls are easy to pick up for gamers of any skill level. The one problem I did have with the controls is that they are a bit loose. For example, I was frying fish and chips and went to remove them from the fryer. I couldn’t focus on the area with the fryer I wanted and kept picking up the wrong one. This caused the food to catch on fire and burn half my kitchen down while my wife scrambled for the fire extinguisher and fell off the iceberg. Despite the frustration of the controls, this honestly led to the funniest moment I had in the game. My wife and I were cracking up hysterically as I ran around with a fire extinguisher trying to save our kitchen. Luckily, I was able to record the clip and capture the misadventure for everyone to see. Overcooked is a hilarious game when things go wrong in your kitchen and makes for great stories to tell to your friends.

Overcooked is a great couch co-op game that brought my wife, friends, and me to tears from laughter. It’s chaotic, goofy, but simple to grasp. My only faults are for the slightly loose controls, no online multiplayer, and single player being pretty much impossible. This is a great game for kids, families, and adults alike. I highly recommend picking up Overcooked if you have family or friends you can play with. Hopefully, the developer will consider adding online multiplayer into this game so that everyone can experience the what this indie gem truly has to offer.