I am now two out of two for enjoying mobile games on a console. The latest experience came via Spongebob Squarepants: Krusty Cook-Off – Extra Krusty Edition, a lite version of Overcooked, but entertaining, nonetheless.
The game puts you in the driver’s seat as Spongebob Squarepants (or other characters, if you unlock them) and you are tasked with creating food/drink for customers. If you do it fast enough, there are coins waiting for you. If you do it slowly enough, the unemployment line. The game is fast-paced, addictive, and about as casual as it gets with an experience on a console.
Now, let’s get flipping into this.
Not overcooked, but certainly not raw
The gameplay structure for this title is to put the right ingredients in the right order in order to get the order right. Yes, I have fun with words. Anyway, if you can imagine the game Overcooked based in first-person with no running around, then you get the gist of what you’re playing. You essentially get parked in front of a sea of ingredients, wait for customers to come up and give their orders, then press the right buttons quickly to put the ingredients they want on the order they requested. It’s literally just that simple.
The first stage of this game has you making pancakes for folks. The options start out with pancakes with pink or purple jelly (or plain) and/or a cup of coffee to wash it all down. You use the Joy-Cons to put the right material on the pancakes and then send it off to the customer using ZR. Sounds simple, right? Oh, that serving experience gets busy quickly.
As the first level progressed, the ingredients became more complicated, as did the customer orders. Toppings were added into the mix and multiple pancake types came into play. To boot, the customers became increasingly impatient, which meant less prep time to deliver the orders. The game can get intense and crazy at times, which is great for adults, but might be frustrating for a younger audience of gamers. As an adult with 40 years of gaming experience, the pace didn’t start to become a problem until the latter part of the first level. Once three orders per customer became a thing, then it was like wrangling cats, where mistakes do tend to happen. For a younger audience, they may hit their limit quickly, which is a huge concern when you’re trying to market to the crowd absolutely in love with this show (that might be all of us). As you push through multiple levels, the game maintains that complication, which means it will just increase the complication. Again, this might be a difficulty issue at some point for younger gamers. For older gamers, this becomes a challenge, but a good one. You always need a nice uphill swing for difficulty in a casual type of game.
From my experience with the game, it took about an hour and some change to get through the first pancake restaurant. At one point, I was wondering if it was only going to be pancakes made throughout. Yes, it took time to get through the pancake level. Thankfully, pancakes were specific to that first level. When you complete one food prep level, you’re then moved to an entirely different food. That new food has a complicated life of its own.
After pancakes, it was Krabby patties. The Krabby patties had their own form of complication, where you would put lettuce and cheese on the patties, as well as have to lay down buns on the plates before moving the patties over from the grill. There was a different order of operation for this level that made it seem unique in how it challenged you. It certainly kept the gameplay fresh, even though getting to another restaurant scenario would probably take a long time for some gamers, depending on their feelings about the game’s potential difficulty. While the controls felt the same, the scenario was different. That helps to keep a gamer attached to a casual gaming experience.
Ultimately, the game was a treat and it certainly brought out my love for casual gaming. It reminded me that short stints of gameplay of this type are good for the soul, as they’re just the right amount of entertainment and the exact amount of not caring or obsessing over a game. It was just relaxing, even when it got tough. I enjoyed the cognitive playfulness of having to get orders prepped quickly and get them out. It’s the same feeling that Overcooked brought with it but on a less stressful scale.
Rewarded for cooking well
In the tradition of casual gaming experiences, what motivates gamers to come back to a game like this beyond just having fun? Well, the game does feature a decent reward system that will upgrade gaming elements (drink machines, grills, plates, etc.) and customizable attributes that will encourage everyone who plays to keep playing.
The upgrades in this game help to facilitate a more digestible gameplay experience. For example, during the first level, you can upgrade the coffee machine 3-4 times with coins gained from completing each stage and obtain the ability to distribute more coffee at a faster rate to customers. You can do this with plates, grills, and even the ingredients. The more stages you pass, the better you serve the customers, and that equals more coins that you can spend on upgrades. This also helps to encourage you and smooth out your gameplay as you head toward a more complicated part of each level. Each level has its own set of upgrades and that means that you’re always purchasing new items to use. That also keeps the gameplay fresh. The game uses this to motivate you to revisit stages in hopes of performing better and gaining more coins. The upgrades are a simple concept that made games like Plants v. Zombies and Angry Birds last as long as they did with consumers. It works here with Spongebob Squarepants: Krusty Cook-Off – Extra Krusty Edition and it makes the game a little bit more engaging and fun.
As for customizables, they’re for people who enjoy that stuff. While I think upgrading Spongebob’s attire and his homestead is nice, I can’t say I’m completely motivated to gain coins and use them for this. As a person who enjoys feeling completeness in my gaming experience, it would be the only reason I would pursue more coins.
Other odds and ends to the rewarding part of the gameplay include obtaining tickets and coins through goals the game gives you. The tickets can be used for a claw machine that can equal out to more coins or collectibles. The game throws a lot of encouragement at you to keep playing it, which is something traditionally found in casual games of this nature and structure. Thankfully, it is not overwhelming, and it works in bringing you back to the game. For example, I’m thinking of revisiting the game before I dig into another review. I can’t dig into it, but the option is there.
Compared to the likes of Overcooked, this game isn’t as intense nor is it as deep. I think Overcooked’s co-op and big-screen presence make it top-tier when it comes to cooking games. Now, that doesn’t mean that Spongebob Squarepants: Krusty Cook-Off – Extra Krusty Edition isn’t good. That isn’t the case at all, rather it isn’t as big and intense as Overcooked, which is perfect for casual gamers. It’s just the right amount of intense and fun. I can dig that completely.
That wicked Switch
I have had issues with the Switch’s control design in the past. Mainly, my big hands hate the Joy-Cons. They’re just so tiny and sometimes painful to use. When you’re used to PlayStation and Xbox controllers, that sentiment is justifiable. Having said that, I think this might be the first game in which I enjoyed the Joy-Cons and enjoyed having them detached from the system. While the game does force you to detach them, for whatever reason the JC scheme was designed well for this gameplay experience. I truly enjoyed a detached control scheme for Spongebob Squarepants: Krusty Cook-Off – Extra Krusty Edition. It was comfortable and the simplicity of the button scheme for the food prep made sense for this little bundle of Joy-Cons. They worked very well. So, no complaints in the controls part of this review. I’m equally as surprised as you.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Spongebob Squarepants: Krusty Cook-Off – Extra Krusty Edition is a fun game that is built on a casual gaming backbone and runs well on the Nintendo Switch. While it will never reach the impressive gameplay heights of the Overcooked series, Spongebob Squarepants: Krusty Cook-Off – Extra Krusty Edition delivers fun levels, good controls, and enough reason to return to it over and over again.
