Game Review #235: Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! (Nintendo Switch)

Reviewer: A.J. Splutter Developer: Vertigo Games Publisher: Vertigo Gaming Inc. Category: Strategy, Restaurant Simulator, Quick Time Event Release Date: 4.09.19 Price (at time of review): $12.99

Buy Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! from the eShop here.

Cook, Serve, Delicious!

Have you ever wanted to frantically press buttons akin to the most hardcore of fighting games in order to to please digital customers in a virtual hangout? Well, if you said yes to any of the above, this game might be for you. Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! is a restaurant simulation strategy game by Vertigo Games that has you take charge of a brand new establishment that’s ready to make a name for itself with the help of a brand new chef—that’s you! During the shift, you’ll have to multitask by preparing food, precooking popular items, and performing general cleaning duties (along with the occasional fight against potential muggers)—all in a day’s work, right? This time management, quick-time game is sure to put you in a constant state of panic (in a good way, of course) as you rummage through the options and try and organize everyone’s meals in a timely manner, all while keeping an eye on your inventory and expiration status of precooked items.

Visuals and Audio

The graphics of the game remind me of a picture book that I’ve possibly owned in the past with its lack of edges, unique shapes, and semi-realistic quality, and they were certainly a high point during my time with the game. The music fit perfectly for each location in which I was recruited to cook, and helped bring me into the game. After a short while, I was really trying my best to please these virtual customers, and I was disappointed in myself when I accidentally gave them the wrong order. In fact, when I was in my element, cooking multiple dishes at once and perfectly multitasking, I zoned out the music altogether—It just felt so natural!

Issues

During my extended playtime of Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!!, I didn’t run into any issues that weren’t my fault or at my error—however, a few things could have been changed to help me play in a smoother pace. The way the controls work is through different combinations of buttons. For instance, if you want to place cheese on an order, you’d need to hold down ZL and then press the face button to which cheese is assigned—which could be a different button in every order. To put down a fifth option, since there are only four face buttons, another set of options are made available by holding down the ZR button; but on top of that, if you let go of all Z buttons and press A, you have multiple pages with more ZL and ZR options. Between organizing orders and rushing, I messed up dishes a few more times than I’m proud to admit.

To add to the chaos, after completing many tasks, the game requires you to Press the B-button to confirm them, either to cook or serve the order; but after giving my fingers the workout that the food preparation required, I very often kept holding down combinations that only added more ingredients to the order rather than serving it, making the customers unhappy with my service. I don’t see any improvements over the construction of orders, but the extra B-button press was the thing that really impeded my progress most of the time; and if anything, that’s the feature I would like to see refined for another possible sequel.

Things Were Heating Up!

The only other issue I had with the game was with the directions given compared to the products selected. Since there is little space on the side of the screen where the ingredients are, a lot of the time, the game shortens them to make everything fit snuggly. This wouldn’t be an issue at all, however, my brain can’t calculate things straight away with differing objectives. It might not affect everyone who plays this game, but when the customer tells me they would like “Sweet/Sour” and half of the menu items say “Sauce”, the other half say ‘Sau.’, with a select few not saying anything—like in this example, “Sweet/Sour”—It tricks my brain into clicking on anything with sauce in it without realizing what the order entails, as I’m looking for the Sweet/Sour Sauce option. Again, this is something that won’t be an issue for some people, but with the lack of an “Undo” button, it really messed me up in busy periods of the game.

Final Thoughts

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! is a quirky, fun, and frantic game that lovers of strategy, simulation, and quick time events will fall head over heels for if given the chance to try this game. If you ever feel the need to cook some imaginary burgers to feed to little pixel people on your Switch, I highly recommend this game. With it’s pick-up-and-play nature, trying to best your score, and to deal a perfect service, it’s something I’m sure to go back to in the near future for one more round of frantic fun.