Overcooked! All You Can Eat — Is it worth it?

Overcooked has carried the torch for couch co-op games for several years now. Studios, especially those of the AAA variety, have slowly inched away from local multiplayer. Several large releases don’t even have a split screen option. But Team17’s series of kitchens from Hell have been a constant presence in family game nights, and Overcooked! All You Can Eat is the penultimate entry. It’s the same mindless, chaotic cooking fun from Overcooked and Overcooked 2 wrapped into a freshly optimized package. 

Overcooked! All You Can Eat, which was released for platforms on the PC on March 23, is a remaster of the first two games, and includes every DLC. There are some new innovations, apart from the seven fresh kitchens and three never-before-seen chefs. The gameplay underwent refinement and there’s a new commitment to accessibility. Online multiplayer was added for the original installment, and cross-play is now available for every game. It all feels crisp, and it’s certainly the prime Overcooked experience. If you’ve never played Overcooked, then this is the game to purchase. But at $39.99 USD, it doesn’t feel essential for those that have already had their fun with the series. 

Overcooked! All You Can Eat – It’s all in the details

Nothing has essentially changed about the gameplay in Overcooked and Overcooked 2. Throwing is still a mechanic limited to the second game. There are some minor tweaks to three-star score thresholds, making the difficulty curve less steep. 

Where the remaster shines, and why it may be worth it for those looking to get back in, are the new steps in optimization. Overcooked’s graphics have been completely overhauled for modern sensibilities, and it looks beautiful. Both titles run crisply at 4K. For those who like to count frames, I never dropped below 200 fps while playing. Overcooked isn’t a juggernaut, and as such, the base hardware requirements aren’t intense. 

“The Ever Peckish Rises,” Overcooked! All You Can Eat’s exclusive set of kitchens, does add new elements that don’t appear anywhere else. The most prolific is a cannon that can both shoot a chef with a full plate of food and shift the design of the level. Though all of the DLCs are available off the bat, new players should be wary. The levels contained inside tend to be of the more difficult variety.

Accessibility granted

Overcooked! All You Can Eat takes great steps to make sure that everyone can play. There’s an option to turn on Dyslexia-friendly text. You can scale the size of the lettering in the user interface to ensure it’s easier to read. When playing the actual game, each chef has a different shape under them (as opposed to just a colored circle), so it’s easier for those who are color blind to differentiate. 

Apart from that, one of the remaster’s biggest additions is its Assist Mode. Overcooked is a notoriously difficult series, especially for solo players. The Assist Mode significantly increases the amount of time to get orders out for a more leisurely experience. It also affords the option of turning off order expiration, which can set your score back if it is enabled.   

Overcooked! All You Can Eat probably isn’t for you, at least at full price, if you’ve recently experienced the games. For those looking for a new game to play with family or friends, there are few better than Overcooked. The price tag is an absolute steal in that case. With over 200 missions, there’s hours of entertainment ahead.