Cannibal Cuisine - from developer Rocket Vulture - is out today, bringing its chaotic and fast-paced gameplay to PC and Nintendo Switch. Don’t be fooled by the innocent vibe it conveys thanks to its cutesy art design, though. Cannibal Cuisine takes a more violent approach to cooking than its spiritual counterpart, Overcooked, providing a bloody good time whether you’re playing by yourself or with friends.
Why Would Anyone Actually Want To Visit An Island With “Cannibal” In Its Name?
After centuries of undisturbed peace, Cannibal Island erupts with the God, HoochooBoo, popping up all over the island in the form of black, living mounds with teeth - looking remarkably similar to an upside-down chin or No-Face from Spirited Away. Hoochooboo is hangry as all get out, demanding the island natives appease his appetite with human sacrifices. Thankfully, Cannibal Island is chock full of tourists who decided not to let the island’s name sway them from their beach getaway, allowing you to reap all the benefits for Hoochooboo (and sometimes, even yourself).
It’s up to the players to chop up, cook, and feed tourists to the island god to devour. As tourists make their way into each level, players need to chop them up using their weapon, while being mindful of their own health since the tourists won’t go down without a fight. Players can then pick up the raw meat from the deceased tourist and place it on the grill to cook with any other ingredients that Hoochooboo may be requesting. Alternatively, players can eat the meat themselves, which can be used for regaining health.
Once the food is cooked - and before it burns off into oblivion - players need to grab it off the grill and feed it to Hoochooboo who will rate it based on how well it’s cooked. The more points you get, the better your star rating is once time runs out, with a successful run unlocking the next level.
Lone Wolf Or Hunting Party
The playable island natives can be customized with headwear, weapon, and color, while also being granted a special ability to aid in their task. These include things like a ground stomp that stuns tourists for a bit, a dash that allows for quick travel and easily getting over small gaps, and breathing fire, which can decrease the amount of time food needs to spend cooking on the grill. Each ability provides some sort of assistance without much downside, which is nice when playing alone. However, Cannibal Cuisine is definitely a title where strength in numbers is way more efficient and fun.
Divide and conquer is the name of the game when playing in the game’s local or online co-op multiplayer mode. With each player having a specific role, the process can be as efficient as an assembly line, assuming all of the players are on their A-game. Even then, it’s easier said than done, since levels have their own obstacles to overcome such as rivers to cross and walls to jump over. One screw up often creates a domino effect that’s hard to recorrect quickly, but the chaos - and likely yelling at each other - is all part of the fun. A PvP mode is also available for players to compete against each other.
Tastes Like Chicken
The character placement and controls in Cannibal Cuisine could use a bit of tightening - for instance, there seems to be a pretty wide and inconsistent margin as to when a player falls into a gap and when they don’t - but for the most part, Cannibal Cuisine is just as fun as other co-op party games such as Overcooked and Tools Up! Its bloody cartoon violence - and, you know, cannibalism - is probably a bit too much for younger players. But for groups of older gamers who are fans of this sort of game, you’ll likely eat up Cannibal Cuisine. Which is better than the other way around.
A PC copy of Cannibal Cuisine was provided to TheGamer for this review. Cannibal Cuisine is available now for PC and Nintendo Switch.