It's one of humanity's survival instincts: to live, we must eat. Luckily, humanity has made consuming food not just a necessity, but an art of its own. Culinary prowess has spawned many engaging television shows, but perhaps the most fun to engage with are cooking video games, which have become their own acknowledged genre now. Even non-cooking games are getting cooking game spin-offs.
Needless to say, cooking has become a complex and important mechanic in several AAA games, so it's no surprise players would want a game dedicated entirely to making and serving gourmet meals. Video games can make anything look absolutely mouth-watering. Let's take a look at some of the most fun cooking titles out there while trying to give lesser-known titles their due.
10 Happy Bakery
A relatively hidden gem on the Nintendo DS, Happy Bakery is an adorable title released in 2009, apparently as part of the Happy Series, along with games such as Happy Party With Hello Kitty & Friends. This game is all about fun and aesthetics, with an artstyle and graphics similar to games such as Tamagotchi.
Players go step-by-step to create all sorts of delicious treats and goods. Not only does the game focus on the baking aspect, but selling your baked goods, seeing your popularity grow, and even searching for "bread fairies" are all parts of this fantastical food adventure.
9 Battle Chef Brigade
Unlike traditional cooking and chef games, Battle Chef Brigade focuses more on a unique storyline and collecting the ingredients to be used. The collection process is akin to a brawler, while the actual cooking itself involves puzzles and time management. The charm from this game really stems from its characters and genre-spanning gameplay.
Gamers who love cooking competitions but prefer the mechanics of brawlers and/or puzzles will perhaps find their niche with this original and anime-influenced game.
8 Good Pizza, Great Pizza
Thanks to the game's recent launch to the Nintendo Switch, Good Pizza, Great Pizza is getting the attention it deserves for being a delightful cooking game focused on one of the most popular types of fast food.
Not only will players have to craft individual pizzas according to the customers' wishes, but tallying up the revenue and costs at the end of the day makes the game feel much more like a long-term project to become invested in. The game has chapters to unlock and a proper ending, and lots of cheese and sauce along the way.
7 Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale
Cook-Out: A Sandwich Tale is a VR game that brings players one step closer to an authentic cooking experience as a virtual chef. Employed by a sandwich shop in a fantasy world, players will work alongside up to four other players in order to complete orders as efficiently as possible.
By preparing ingredients and placing them on the rotating wheel in the center, players will be able to create a factory line for their sandwich creations as each player fulfills a certain role. The game is a fun experience that's augmented by the realistic VR controls and a fantastical background world full of creatures and folks demanding sandwiches.
6 Cafeteria Nipponica
Another addictive game from Kairosoft, Cafeteria Nipponica challenges you to use what little money you start off with to create an amazing restaurant that is the talk of the town. The game focuses both on the management of the restaurant and dish-creation, with dozens of recipes able to be unlocked.
Players will rise to the tasks that rest on a restaurant owner, including meeting the needs of different customers, hiring staff members, and upgrading the building and decor. This game offers charming graphics and hours of gameplay for aspiring chefs and entrepreneurs.
5 Cooking Simulator
Cooking Simulator may be the most realistic cooking game out there in terms of graphics and the overall kitchen experience. Originally released in 2019, players will use all the tools and ingredients at their disposal to create a dish that would please not just a video game character, but real-life customers, too.
Luckily, the kitchen setting is beautifully decorated with the best appliances and stocked with every ingredient needed to create masterpieces. The player is given a real recipe, and the game takes into account accurate measurements of each ingredient, meaning that this game could technically pass as educational.
4 Cooking Mama
Cooking Mama is perhaps the most well-known franchise of cooking games out there. Despite the recent controversy surrounding her latest title, Cooking Mama continues to be a gaming icon known for the wholesome fun that any Cooking Mama game promises.
Most of the games in the series were released for Nintendo DS or 3DS, which helped it gain notoriety due to the sheer number of systems sold. The DS family also allows for the option for stylus control as well as button control, which is perfect for more fluid activities such as chopping and mixing. The sheer variety and adorableness of the meals players can cook are all part of the appeal, from a simple strawberry milkshake to a rainbow grilled cheese.
3 Ore No Ryouri
Before there was Cook, Serve, Delicious!, there was Ore No Ryouri. It was originally released in Japan on the PlayStation in 1999, and fans of the game remade it in 2004. It was this love from fans that eventually led to the development of Ore No Ryomi 3, which was retitled and sold in 2012 as Cook, Serve, Delicious!
Ore no Ryouri translates to "My Cooking," and involves lots of chopping, blending, and sautéing that will keep players in the zone of cooking. The 3D rendering of preparing ingredients is reminiscent of Cooking Simulator's much improved-upon graphical setup.
2 Overcooked
Overcooked quickly became the multiplayer game to share with friends after its release in 2017. Its fast pace, fun style, and overall chaotic nature make it stand out from other multiplayer games, Overcooked's cooperative nature is the heart of the game, making it a bonding experience rather than a divisive competition.
The 2018 sequel, Overcooked 2, brought even more wacky gameplay mechanics and surprises into the mix, upping the difficulty and adding more food favorites such as sushi and pizza.
1 Cook, Serve, Delicious!
The widely successful game that sprung from Ore No Ryouri, Cook, Serve, Delicious! has become a series of its own, with Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?! being released at the beginning of 2020.
There are many factors that make this series one of the best out there; the realism and detail in the graphics, the variety of meals, the complexity of the controls while cooking, and the sheer joy and elation from a meal well-prepared. Players who love the meticulous nature of cooking and cooking games will fall in love with this series.