Overcooked is a game I had the fortune of previewing at E3 2016, where I found it cute, charming and totally addictive. Overcooked in its entirety is as fun and silly as the snippets I played through at E3, but there’s an important caveat: if you don’t have friends in real life to come over and play couch co-op with you, Overcooked is not for you.
The entire selling point of Overcooked is that it’s a simple local co-op game where you sit on the couch with your friends in real life, same as in Nintendo’s glory days, to play. There is a split-controller method for one person to play two Overcooked characters at the same time, but it’s so baffling, so counterintuitive and so hard to get used to that it might as well not have been included. You can technically play Overcooked alone, yes, but should you? No.
Otherwise, nothing has changed about the simple gameplay. On the top left of the screen, orders come in. You can see their ingredients listed, as well as visual indications of any special directions (not that there are many; it just boils down to “stick in pan” or “stick in pot”). You send orders out, with tips for delivering them in a timely fashion. You do this until the timer runs out, and of course, you must work together with your partners to make sure everyone is doing their part.
The whole time, the level may be twisting and changing around you. The first few levels of Overcooked are straightforward enough, but it’s not long til you get levels that take place on slippery ice, or levels where the entire kitchen layout changes around you every thirty seconds, or even levels that take place in the dark. The levels are organized like classic Mario or Yoshi worlds with loose themes like “city,” “haunted,” and “space.” Players are awarded 1 to 3 stars for completing levels depending on their points total, with a certain amount of stars required to unlock the next level.
Some twists are more successful than others: the volcanic room that collapses around you as fire shoots down the middle, or the level that takes place on two different trucks alternating between fish and chips and a variety of soups, are tricky customers. Still, the frustration inherent in such dynamic levels is what leads to the best co-op experiences. I don’t know how many times I channeled my inner Gordon Ramsay as I called out orders and prodded my friends to keep it moving, but it made Overcooked a really fun experience that could easily take up hours at a time.
The “plot” of Overcooked involves going back in time through all these levels in order to prepare for your battle against the apocalyptic bottomless monster, the Ever Peckish. Characters unlock as you play, all done in a whimsical blocky style that’s very appealing. (My favorite is the wheelchair raccoon.) The dialogue has a few typos and could have used a copy editor’s deft touch, not that it matters.
The heart of Overcooked is something that can’t be standardized across gameplay sessions: your time with your friends, yelling and laughing as you try to complete orders, organize your strategy and get three stars. Depending on whether you can wrangle up a friend or two (or three), you may or may not have as much fun with Overcooked as I did. But the simple gameplay masks some quite challenging levels. The best part is that it’s appropriate for kids and could well be played with young children or siblings who want to play games too.
Overcooked is available to download August 3 for Xbox One via the Xbox Games Store, PlayStation 4 via the PlayStation Store and for PC via Steam for $16.99. If you live alone or don’t care to game with others in real life, Overcooked is not the ticket. But if you have a willing friend or two, Overcooked is accessible, well-designed and provides the kind of couch co-op experience I have sorely missed.
