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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Entertainment Developer: Namco Bandai Publisher: Namco Bandai |
The Food Network has become popular with the combination of celebrity chefs and shows that make difficult meals more accessible to
the everyday home cook. As the first game from the Food Network, “Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked” focuses on the accessibility of
the channel. It doesn’t feature any famous chefs, but it does offer a fun course on cooking techniques using simple motion controls.
As players prepare, cook and serve a variety of meals, two of the network’s more unknown personalities keep players invested in what
is going on with a continuous stream of feedback and details about what the player is making. A small menu of recipes pulls away
from the value of the game, but this game will leave players ready to try what they’ve learn in the game, in the kitchen.
In order for players to serve up the perfect meal, they will have to have equal parts motion control and careful planning. Players start
each meal with basic preparations, such as chopping vegetables, pouring ingredients into a bowl or coating a pan with oil. These
tasks are executed with simple movements like swiping down to mimic chopping, twisting the control to stir and tilting the control to coat
pans with oil. For the most part, these controls are very easy, but the way the game combines these motions to make it feel more like
making a real mean keeps players feeling like their work is really building up to something special.
In order to add some strategy to the easy motion controls is the game’s timing system. Each meal consists of multiple dishes, most of
which need to be served hot. This of course means that players need to plan ahead and pace their cooking so that the hot dishes all
finish at nearly the same time, making sure that nothing gets cold on the serving plate while the other dishes are being finished. This
keeps players invested in their preparations, leaving them alert and focused on all of the timers. There is also a scoring system that
judges the players technique in cooking and measurements at all times, ranging from how quickly players can peel and dice, to how
perfectly a dish is completed.
The scoring system in the game does a nice job of taking the player out of the repetition of basic tasks and makes them focus more on
making players feel attached to the food they are making, but the system still has some flaws. It will score players on everything they do
and the comprehensiveness seems to be a little over the top at times. When the host explains that the players needs some work on
the speed that they enter number on a microwave seems to be a little bit over the top, just like getting negative feedback for adding
pasta to boiling water a little bit too late. It is these moments that players are pulled away from the feel of the kitchen and are reminded
that it is just a game that can be a little over judgmental.
The meals that players make in “Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked” vary from a simple plate of fried eggs and bacon, to grilled ahi
tuna with a Caribbean mojo sauce. Though the game’s visuals are nothing amazing, the food looks fairly realistic and appetizing, likely
leaving players hungry by the time they finish their entire digital meal. Unfortunately, the 30+ recipes that are advertised on the box
actually amount to a measly 12 in-game meals to choose from. For example, the meal that consists of fired eggs and bacon actually
counts as two different recipes, which is still just one meal in the game no matter how much the advertising on the game box says.
This of course means that players will be able to breeze through all of the recipes in the game in a mere three hours of game play.
Though players will likely have picked up a handful of valuable cooking techniques along the way, the small selection limits the game’s
overall appeal. Also, there isn’t much fun in going back to replaying some of the old recipes once they have been completed.
In order to add a little bit more value to the game is a pair of multiplayer modes that let players work as a team or go against each other
head-to-head. There is a pass the controller mode that lets two to four players take turns on one meal, and a two player split screen
cook off that has two chefs going against each other to earn the best overall point total. Neither one has much of an effect on the basic
experience, though there is a certain level of entertainment in making sure that friends don’t overcook the meatballs that they player
already assembled a moment earlier, before passing off the control.
“Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked” works well as offering players an entertaining cooking experience in a videogame format. It used
some very simple motion controls to mimic a variety of tasks in the kitchen and that simplicity is helped by a helpful scoring and
feedback system that keeps players focused on their job. The result is a game that makes it fun to learn the basics of a new recipe
before trying it out in a real kitchen. Though the limited number of meals and terrible replay value may bring the game down a bit,
overall all the game is a recipe for success for anyone that wants to learn to cook better.
the everyday home cook. As the first game from the Food Network, “Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked” focuses on the accessibility of
the channel. It doesn’t feature any famous chefs, but it does offer a fun course on cooking techniques using simple motion controls.
As players prepare, cook and serve a variety of meals, two of the network’s more unknown personalities keep players invested in what
is going on with a continuous stream of feedback and details about what the player is making. A small menu of recipes pulls away
from the value of the game, but this game will leave players ready to try what they’ve learn in the game, in the kitchen.
In order for players to serve up the perfect meal, they will have to have equal parts motion control and careful planning. Players start
each meal with basic preparations, such as chopping vegetables, pouring ingredients into a bowl or coating a pan with oil. These
tasks are executed with simple movements like swiping down to mimic chopping, twisting the control to stir and tilting the control to coat
pans with oil. For the most part, these controls are very easy, but the way the game combines these motions to make it feel more like
making a real mean keeps players feeling like their work is really building up to something special.
In order to add some strategy to the easy motion controls is the game’s timing system. Each meal consists of multiple dishes, most of
which need to be served hot. This of course means that players need to plan ahead and pace their cooking so that the hot dishes all
finish at nearly the same time, making sure that nothing gets cold on the serving plate while the other dishes are being finished. This
keeps players invested in their preparations, leaving them alert and focused on all of the timers. There is also a scoring system that
judges the players technique in cooking and measurements at all times, ranging from how quickly players can peel and dice, to how
perfectly a dish is completed.
The scoring system in the game does a nice job of taking the player out of the repetition of basic tasks and makes them focus more on
making players feel attached to the food they are making, but the system still has some flaws. It will score players on everything they do
and the comprehensiveness seems to be a little over the top at times. When the host explains that the players needs some work on
the speed that they enter number on a microwave seems to be a little bit over the top, just like getting negative feedback for adding
pasta to boiling water a little bit too late. It is these moments that players are pulled away from the feel of the kitchen and are reminded
that it is just a game that can be a little over judgmental.
The meals that players make in “Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked” vary from a simple plate of fried eggs and bacon, to grilled ahi
tuna with a Caribbean mojo sauce. Though the game’s visuals are nothing amazing, the food looks fairly realistic and appetizing, likely
leaving players hungry by the time they finish their entire digital meal. Unfortunately, the 30+ recipes that are advertised on the box
actually amount to a measly 12 in-game meals to choose from. For example, the meal that consists of fired eggs and bacon actually
counts as two different recipes, which is still just one meal in the game no matter how much the advertising on the game box says.
This of course means that players will be able to breeze through all of the recipes in the game in a mere three hours of game play.
Though players will likely have picked up a handful of valuable cooking techniques along the way, the small selection limits the game’s
overall appeal. Also, there isn’t much fun in going back to replaying some of the old recipes once they have been completed.
In order to add a little bit more value to the game is a pair of multiplayer modes that let players work as a team or go against each other
head-to-head. There is a pass the controller mode that lets two to four players take turns on one meal, and a two player split screen
cook off that has two chefs going against each other to earn the best overall point total. Neither one has much of an effect on the basic
experience, though there is a certain level of entertainment in making sure that friends don’t overcook the meatballs that they player
already assembled a moment earlier, before passing off the control.
“Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked” works well as offering players an entertaining cooking experience in a videogame format. It used
some very simple motion controls to mimic a variety of tasks in the kitchen and that simplicity is helped by a helpful scoring and
feedback system that keeps players focused on their job. The result is a game that makes it fun to learn the basics of a new recipe
before trying it out in a real kitchen. Though the limited number of meals and terrible replay value may bring the game down a bit,
overall all the game is a recipe for success for anyone that wants to learn to cook better.
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