Ready, Steady, Replace Your Joy-cons And Cook
Yum Yum Cookstar is a new cooking game experience!!! In this new game, players will stir, fry, chop and bake their way through 70+ recipes in an energetic new competition hosted by Chef Yum Yum, developed by 1st Playable Productions and Planet Entertainment.
Available Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows at around £34.99.
Straight away, you are introduced to the one and only Chef Yum Yum. She is overly enthusiastic (probably from all the sugar) to get you practising making your first recipe. Let me clear something up; I am not a chef, and I can just about make a Pot Noodle. So here we go, the first lesson making rainbow waffles. The game’s format is what I expected: a series of mini-games. I am playing this on Nintendo Switch, so I had the choice of either using the joy-cons or, for some mini-games, the touch screen. I chose the joy cons for reasons I will go over later in the review. Chef Yum Yum informs you that you must prepare these rainbow waffles and present them to the judging panel. Talk about instant pressure on a thirty-something inexperienced chef. Complete dreamlight valley recipes list and how to cook them. This ensures you have easy access to all the delightful culinary creations you can master in the game.
Firstly you must prepare the ingredients and put them into a bowl. It is a remember sequence game. I love these types of mini-games, so I was in my element. I aced it! Move over, Jamie Oliver; here comes Yum Yum Matt Sugar Buns Turley. How accurate are the measurements for the recipes? I cannot say so. If players wish to recreate the recipes in real life, I will leave that as a warning, as I don’t want to see a mass influx of diabetes. There are several mini-games to prepare, cook and finish each recipe.
Each mini-game is a little different from the others. There is a scoring system, usually timing based from bad to perfect, depending on how good your timing is. Hitting the perfect timing results in a combo which stacks your points up. The higher the score, the more the judges will be impressed. My reflexes are not as good as they used to be, so my dreams of becoming the next true heir to Yum Yums’ legacy were dampened a bit. It has been refreshing playing these mini-games throughout the game. Very similar to 3ds games, like brain training exercises, as most of the mini-games require you to work on your reflexes and memory skills. Something I needed to get back up to scratch again.
You are introduced to the three judges. First up is Max Picante, a celebrity chef, who is the easiest judge to please. I could serve my Unicorn cakes burnt and hard as a rock, and he would give a rating of 8 or higher. Next is Basil Wellington, a food critic who is the most demanding judge to please. Lastly is Ambrosia, a pop star with a lot of sazz. Nothing brings more joy than getting all tens off the judges, and I have beaten the Valkyries in God of war, including the Queen. A fun random fact about this game is that the writers of National Lampoon wrote the lines for each of the judges. Who saw that coming?
The game isn’t all rainbows and sprinkles, though. I did experience some frame drops and stuttering, mainly when transitioning from the mini-games to judge panels. I cannot express this enough if you are playing via a Switch console, buy yourself some third-party joy-cons just for this game. As fun as the Mini-games are, they will destroy the joy-cons, especially when tasked with the later game’s more challenging recipes and complex modes. As with all mini-game-based games, they all succumb to a sense of repetition.
Yum Yum Cookstar was a nice breath of fresh air, proving that I need to train my brain more often. Considering it has a childish design, one would think it solely targeted younger gamers. However, with the comical lines of dialogue the judges have and how challenging some of the recipes can be, it’s a game perfect for everyone of all ages and genders. With extra modes like tournaments, you can challenge others for the best scores. There are different difficulties, one of which I still need to attempt because it is a mode where all the instructions and timing commands are turned off. I am no heir to Yum Yums Chefs Hat just yet.
Review Code provided by Plaion
