External Links

Cook-Off
More of a mini-game than a work of fiction, in Cook-Off you are the head chef! Select three dishes to cook in such a way that a panel of four random judges rate them more highly than your opponent's. The idea for this game is loosely based on another mini-game featured in Suikoden 2.
Legacy WebUI format for TADS. No known interpreter can play this type of file on modern operating systems. On older versions of Windows running Internet Explorer with Flash, you can download the HTML TADS Player Kit for Windows to use this file.

Have you played this game?

You can rate this game, record that you've played it, or put it on your wish list after you log in.

Cook-Off!

by S. Miracle

2012
Humor
TADS 3
External Links

(based on 3 ratings)
1 review3 members have played this game. It's on 2 wishlists.

About the Story

More of a mini-game than a work of fiction, in Cook-Off you are the head chef! Select three dishes to cook in such a way that a panel of four random judges rate them more highly than your opponent's. The idea for this game is loosely based on another mini-game featured in Konami's Suikoden 2. It is Steven's first game and as such, is rather experimental.

Ratings and Reviews

5 star:
(0)
4 star:
(1)
3 star:
(0)
2 star:
(2)
1 star:
(0)
Average Rating: based on 3 ratings
Number of Reviews Written by IFDB Members: 1
Write a review
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Flavourless, July 13, 2012
by Sam Kabo Ashwell (Seattle)
Related reviews: fanfiction, food, cooking, minigame, cyoa

Heavily reliant on cult JPRG Suidoken II, this is a minigame about head-to-head cooking contests. The only possible interaction is cooking, which is a two-step process; you pick a base food from a list, then modify it with seasonings from a second list. The modification is more conceptual than literal; mayonnaise turns into cream if you combine it with a quiche, or transforms fried chicken into french fries. Add salt to a sandwich, and it becomes peanut butter and jelly. There's no way of getting any more information about these ingredients -- such as the ones with Japanese names -- or predicting what effect a seasoning will have, short of experience. Other than this, play consists largely of pressing any key over and over to see what happens.

The NPCs -- your cook-off opponent, and the judging panel -- are drawn from Suidoken II, which you are assumed to be familiar with; each is described with only a brief phrase that makes little sense out-of-context. Sometimes there's a hint about the sort of food they prefer, but not enough to formulate anything like a strategy with. Still, random selections will usually be enough for victory. Winning contests unlocks more base recipes, but other than this there appears to be no progress; win or lose, you still go around and play another contest.

The writing has a sort of manic anime feel about it, but is generally not really enough for the job. It doesn't provide either enough information or enough interest. It does not seem designed with a prose format in mind; rather, it's a little as if someone stripped out the text from a medium more reliant on visuals. The effect is a bit like a radio broadcast of a gymnastics contest; sure, you get the general idea of what's going on, but it's clear that you're missing out on the most crucial element.

As a coding exercise, it might be considered a small success; the presentation is smooth enough. As game design, it leaves something to be desired.

Was this review helpful to you?   Yes   No   Remove vote  
More Options

 | Add a comment 

1 Off-Site Review

Sparkly IF Reviews
I especially enjoyed the text produced by the game’s commentator, which created food-specific remarks on what you were supposedly cooking during your frenzied half hour of prep time. The gameplay was distinctive, very much unlike most IF puzzles: the game appealed to the part of my brain that enjoys casual cooking games and puzzles of aesthetics; I have a soft spot for mechanics where you combine X and Y to make a slightly surprising object Z.
-- Emily Short
See the full review

Tags

- View the most common tags (What's a tag?)

(Log in to add your own tags)
Search all tags on IFDB | View all tags on IFDB

Tags you added are shown below with checkmarks. To remove one of your tags, simply un-check it.

Enter new tags here (use commas to separate tags):

Game Details

RSS Feeds

New member reviews
Updates to external links
All updates to this page


This is version 3 of this page, edited by Edward Lacey on 19 April 2013 at 1:42pm. - View Update History - Edit This Page - Add a News Item - Delete This Page