A few days ago, I was talking about the games I like and how they reflected the yin and the yang of my being. There’s a new game that has me thinking about where the two categories (hard games and cozy games) intersect. In the last post, I did not mention a series of games that are very near and dear to my heart. It’s the Cook, Serve, Delicious! series by David Galindo, the face behind Vertigo Gaming, Inc. The first one came out in 2012, and it was championed by Ryan Davis of Giant Bomb and Northernlion. Galindo (chubigans on Twitter and what I call him in my head). After Ryan Davis died, chubigans named one of the burgers after him. Chubigans has been quite vocal about his success being in large part because Ryan Davis and Northerlion pushed his game hard.
I was skeptical. A restaurant sim that is nails hard? How would that even work? I play cozy games to relax and I play hard games to stress myself out. Why the fuck would I want to do both at the same time? Is it even possible?
In a word, yes. I started the first game and got quickly addicted. It had romance, funny emails, and making delicious foods. What more could I want? I 100%ed the game (before all the arena stuff was added) and enjoyed it thoroughly. You could play as characters from other indie games for the arena fights, which was a hoot. I played it compulsively, and the tapping out the letters of the ingredients as fast as I could was oddly relaxing.
The second, Cook, Serve, Delicious! 2!! was released in 2017, and I snapped it up immediately. They made several improvements such as streamlining the chores, getting rid of 20 days per star (it was a LOT), and being able to decorate your restaurant. I spent many hours in the restaurant creator and really enjoyed that aspect. I got decorations/equipment as rewards for completing levels and getting stars. The food continued to look incredible and the main gameplay of typing ingredients and getting out the dishes remained satisfying.
On the other hand, I was sad he got rid of the dating, but I understand why. It was very shallow in the first game, and it would have probably been too difficult to expand it properly in the second game. I also didn’t like that there was no big deal when you reached 5 stars. I was expecting there would be, but it simply expanded to 10 stars. That was deflating. Plus, there is no real ending to this game–not that I can remember. There was one to the first game, although it wasn’t anything to write home to, either.