Nordcurrent
Cooking Fever
Rating:
3 Stars
It has been a very long time since I've reviewed a game; although, I’m not entirely sure that this is even a review, a public service announcement, a blog, or what. I stopped writing reviews on principle. I don’t really believe most of what is put out is “bad,” and you can see that based off of the review scores I would attach to my early reviews. A lot of gamers and developers have gone a long way to argue that video games are art, and – assuming that is so – art is a subjective matter. So if these games are going to be viewed as art, then quality is really in the eye of the creator. That’s not to say that things can’t be bad, but very few things, at least until this past year, are released completely broken. In reality, it all comes down to a difference in opinions on what people find fun, and I respect that. Just because I don’t particularly enjoy MMORPG’s doesn't instantly make all of them bad. I think there’s pleasure to be found in most any game, evidenced by my review of “Duke Nukem Forever” which was absolutely obliterated by other reviewers everywhere. “Duke Nukem Forever” might be an extreme example, but sets an important precedence. Sometimes things don’t meet expectations, other times they just might be of very little interest to you, but neither of these things make a game terrible.
In the current day where studios pump out annual titles which all try to match the financial success of “Call of Duty,” there has spawned a belief that every title released has to be the number one seller or it’s a piece of garbage. Despite the iconic words of Ricky Bobby, there is – in fact – a whole spectrum of bad to good in which things can land. Companies gauge their success on Metacritic scores, but most review sites treat a scale of 1 to 10 as a scale of 1 or 10. That’s why I dropped the scoring system in favor of simply explaining what I enjoyed and what I didn't enjoy. That same belief is what later led me to drop reviews overall. Really, what authority am I on what you think is fun? We may have similar tastes, but I would rather you experience it for yourself and make your own decision. If you’re interested in knowing what games I do like (I’m flattered, and thank you for reading!), I generally prefer to cover the things that interest me. If I don’t like it, I probably won’t talk about it as much, and what better endorsement is there than free advertising?
Enough about me, though. The reason I’m writing all of this is because of a recent experience I had with a game which was an absolute blast, until it destroyed its own experience for me. There is a parasite that has infected the gaming industry to the frightening extent in which we’ve come to accept that this is “just how things are now.” Micro-transactions have infiltrated every kind of game and have hurt or even completely destroyed many promising titles. Obviously, from a financial standpoint, micro-transactions offer unmatched benefits, but at what cost? Some games can pull it off, such as “Grand Theft Auto V.” The micro-transactions are there, but they are unobtrusive and have minimal effect on those who chose not to use them. Other games are playable, such as “Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time,” but created a very frustrating environment where you’re constantly pestered and feel penalized if you don’t buy in. Then there are games, such as the one I’m reviewing, which essentially render themselves useless you shell out some cash.
The jarring end to my playtime in “Cooking Fever” is what ultimately inspired me to write this review. I was so disappointed that I was barred from progressing through the game without grinding tirelessly or shelling out some cash. I would have happily spent a few dollars to purchase this game or even put up with intermittent advertisements since the game was a free download. What I refuse to do, however, is pay into this unhealthy ecosystem created by micro-transactions, just so I can continue to play this one game. There are other experiences out there which I would rather spend my time on, and this is why my time with “Cooking Fever” has come to an end. This is why I’m writing my first (and possibly last) review in years.
The Fun Stuff:
“Cooking Fever” follows a similar formula to the one perfected by “Diner Dash.” Serve customers, do it correctly, and do it quickly. In return, you earn some money, customize or upgrade your restaurant, then do it some more. “Cooking Fever” takes it one step further by packing in multiple restaurants with many different foods to serve while negating the seating of the customers and color matching in favor of the actual assembly of their orders. You can then upgrade your kitchen, your restaurant, and eventually buy additional restaurants to get new levels.
When you begin each restaurant, you start with simple orders. As you beat levels, you gain additional dishes to serve or different toppings and sides for the foods, such as lettuce and tomatoes for burgers, bowls of rice and soup, or fruit toppings for cakes. Meals become more complex and the number of orders increases as well. You also unlock the ability to upgrade your food and ingredients. Eventually, it becomes necessary to upgrade your food as well as your restaurant in order to earn enough money to 3-star levels, as it uses the same grading system popularized in “Angry Birds.” As you beat levels, you earn XP which allow you to level up, earn bonuses, and unlock additional restaurants. Customization is always a nice touch, so letting you pick and choose which restaurants you want to play, as well as customize your interior and kitchen via upgrades, is fantastic.
“Cooking Fever” is also very pretty, with a detailed-yet-cartoony graphic palette, reminiscent of early “Roller Coaster Tycoon” games. The restaurant environments are fun and feel like they belong in a Saturday morning cartoon. The foods themselves actually look delicious and make you want to go out and buy something similar in real life. Menus are laid out nicely, are easy to follow and understand, but are just on the verge of packing in too much information.
The Frustrating Stuff:
This style of game benefits greatly from a touch screen control scheme. On a 5” screen, however, it can be rather problematic at times. The game looks pretty, but over half of the screen real-estate is wasted on displaying the backdrop, customers, and their orders. This severely limits the playable area and makes everything very cramped. Combine that with opacity of a human finger and you’ll find there’s going to be the occasional misstep combining ingredients, which can’t be undone. It’s not game-breaking by any means, but it’s most definitely frustrating when it happens. If you have the hardware, opt into a tablet experience for this game.
That point may be moot, as there is one glaring issue with this game: the premium currency, or rather, the lack of readily available premium currency. After 3-staring every level in the first restaurant and about half the levels in the second restaurant, my progress came to a grinding halt. Even with virtually perfect runs, I could only 2-star the remaining levels in the restaurant. After burning through all of my gems (premium currency) to upgrade the restaurant and food, I bought every single upgrade possible that only required coins (base currency). Still, I could not earn enough to 3-star a level. There is a casino available in which players can gamble coins in hopes of earning gems, but after spending over 450,000 coins max-bidding at 500 and only winning gems once, I gave up.
The only other way to earn gems was to level up, which would require playing the same levels over and over again numerous times, or to earn them from the daily bonus. Gems, however, were not awarded until the 7th consecutive day played and I was only on my 3rd. The reward is also only 2 gems, and the lowest upgrade cost 10. This means I’m left with three options: hours of grinding, waiting it out for a week and a half, or buying gems. This is where my playtime came to an end, as I lost interest for having to wait days to really be able to play and progress. Perhaps it was so jarring because the game presented itself as a “play at your pace” kind of game and has the “Diner Dash” model, which traditionally would let you play as much or little as you wanted. It also could be because the currency system is set up similar to games like “Tiny Tower,” but completely bars progress instead of just slowing it like in those games. Either way, this is where the game ultimately ruined itself for me.
Bottom Line:
“Cooking Fever” was an absolute blast, while it lasted. As a free download, I highly recommend you pick it up to at least enjoy as much as you can. With the right pacing of upgrades, it might be possible to prevent getting locked up as quickly as I did; however, you will inevitably hit a brick wall at some point. If you so choose, you can always buy gems… although I strongly encourage you to vote with your money and refuse to give in to the temptations. While micro-transactions will never go away, hopefully we can fight this current trend in which they have infiltrated virtually every game released today. While I wholeheartedly believe developers deserve money for the work they have done, I don’t believe it should be paid out in a way that compromises the quality of the game.
“Cooking Fever” was developed by Nordcurrent and is available on Google Play for Android and the App Store for iPhone and iPad.