Overcooked: A Chaotic Co-op For Everyone

Released across most platforms in 2016 (and finally making its appearance on the Switch in 2017), Overcooked made its way into the gaming world. Developed by Ghost Town and published by Unity, this chaotic couch co-op can bring in nearly any skill level and leave players bumbling around for hours to make the perfect meal for the ever-peckish final boss. This game is great for anyone and can make a fun–and loud–evening with friends that much more fun.

The premise of Overcooked is remarkably simple: to save the world, you must be able to satiate the hunger of the ever-peckish final boss. At the very beginning, you’re thrown to the wolves by the king of the Onion Kingdom and his faithful pooch, Kevin, where you hastily and fruitlessly slice lettuce to throw in the monster’s mouth. You’ll fail, of course, and be teleported back in time to before the final boss, where you’ll have to practice and hone your skills to be victorious!

From here, you and your team must navigate the kitchens, moving trucks, ice flows, lava lakes, and even space stations to prepare for your final battle with ol’ Meatball Face from the beginning. When you finally make it back, it’s a four stage gauntlet, utilizing everything that you used up until then on a disastrously short time limit. Then, that’s it. That’s literally the whole game in a nutshell. And believe me when I say that it’s fantastic from start to finish.

 

In the beginning, the movement will feel a little floaty — with you slipping on the ice far too quickly than makes sense or you throwing food all over the floor. (It’s okay. Julia Child’s rules apply here: what happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen. Just pick it up and keep going.) While it can be frustrating at first, it’s a part of the gameplay that makes it difficult and I chalk it up to the way that it was meant to be, like ragdoll physics in BotW. The only times where it doesn’t quite seem fair is on the ice levels, but really, nothing seems fair there, and the threshold for success is put reasonably low to counteract this.

 

The level designs are simple and charming. Everything about this game is cute — except for those rats that steal your food the second you turn around. Levels are intentionally minimalistic, letting the difficulty originate from the layout of the rooms, the movement mechanics, and the time limit. Nothing is overcomplicated with this, just the right amount of frustrating and fun.

 

You can even unlock challenge rooms for versus gameplay later on if you and your friends want to keep the chaos going and to see who is the better pair. While the versus mode does allow for one-v-one, it’s a whole hell of a lot more fun with four. The switching between two bodies is interesting but extremely difficult and confusing at times, which takes away from the competitive aspect of those levels.

 

One of my favorite aspects in the game was the music, much to my companion’s chagrin. It’s fun, upbeat, and appropriately frantic, speeding up as the time limit ticks lower and lower to zero. It would get annoying when that time limit kept you from your third star, but it was still a great choice on behalf of the team. It set the mood overall, coupled with the minimalistic level design, there wasn’t much to keep your eyes far from the goal.

 

The replayability is definitely high with this game. You can come back and tackle the levels with new people, who can help change the way you can get the job done. Or you can pile on the couch and pull up the versus mode, battling each other rather than a time limit. Like most couch co-ops, you can come back to this game, again and again, trying to beat your high score with practice and a little bit of skill. And if you liked this one, Overcooked 2 was launched in August 2018, so you have even more to look forward to!

 

Overcooked was a fantastic game, even being nominated for the best Multiplayer game (beat out by Overwatch) and taking the award home for the best Family game in the 2016 award season. It’s easy to see why. This game is a fun romp, for kids and for adults. Double with a friend and see which couple can bring home the bacon and win! Or have a fun night in at home with your family, taking on the meatball monster.