This Christmas, anyone trying to prepare a turkey dinner for their large family should know this, according to a recent report. reconnaissanceCooking a festive meal is one of the main causes of holiday stress.
Virtual caterers know what it’s like to feel hot, too. In the restaurant management and kitchen simulation game Overcooked (2016), stirring and serving can be done at such dizzying speeds that it feels more like a shooting game than a cooking experience.
Along with the official Halo and Witcher titles Cookbooks – The latter recommends using the unusual Dwarf and Onion Soup – Food preparation in games is a mixed bag, and has been for decades. Data East’s BurgerTime (1982) saw chef Peter Pepper climbing stairs to revitalize the burger’s ingredients: buns, patties and lettuce. He also had to stop the treacherous Mr. Pickle and Mr. Hot Dog from sabotaging his mission by shooting them with a pepper-filled bug.
Through the Iron Curtain, Hasse Wolff (1985). VEB Polytechnic borrowed from Namco’s Pac-Man (1980) and the Soviet animated series Well, Just You Wait (1969) to create a wholesome version of the pill-popping maze game. Distributed not among capitalist arcades but throughout community centers, Hase tasks players with guiding a rabbit around the screen devouring vegetables while avoiding a hungry wolf. The game should strike a chord as anyone experiences a double helping of buds.
The Eastern Bloc may have anticipated the rise of whole-food vegetarian diets, but Dreamworks’ Someone in the Kitchen (1996) inadvertently anticipated smart appliances with its depiction of talking kitchen appliances. To beat the game, you have to take orders from a talking toaster, grease the burner properly and adjust the heat settings very carefully – and that’s just to prepare eggs Benedict.
It may not sound appetizing, but the math program Reader Rabbit (1996) from The Learning Company set another interactive first: displaying fractions across slices of pizza. The game also presented challenges of preparing pudding to be completed by adding and subtracting cups of sugar, and cats addicted to fast food. Fortunately, the rabbit of the title doesn’t end up as Hasenpfeffer’s Dutch Christmas dish.
As games and consoles became more powerful, a title was released to rival the George Foreman Grill for its versatility. SuperVillain’s Order Up! (2008) is RPG Where would-be chefs learn the basics through fast food — and then participate in the Fortified Chef competition after purchasing dinner. Trying to impress a food critic in the game is as difficult as timing Christmas gravy correctly in the real world.
There are more vital food challenges in Klei’s survival game Don’t Starve (2013), where players forage for food in a hand-drawn world to avoid permanent death by starvation. The main character, Wilson, must eat cooked eel and hand-made jam before it spoils, and at the same time he must keep a close eye on his health, hunger, and sanity. It might be one of the darkest recipes to hit your screens this Christmas unless you’ve sampled it already Cooking Prices (1971)our latest edition of the popular kitchen show hosted by horror icon Vincent Price.
Just like Dungeon Munchies (2019) but lighter, than maJAJa, which is a side-scrolling game RPG Both Super Mario Bros. flavors. (1985) and Castlevania (1986). Players control a zombie who discovers a necromancer in the chef’s whites: one who orders you to collect fried mosquitoes, jelly, and other underworld ingredients if you want to gain your own superpowers.
For adrenaline junkies, getting food can sometimes seem like a drag between missions. But just as Naked Snake from Konami’s Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (2004) has to catch and eat snakes before his stamina meter goes down, grizzled Kratos from God of War: Ragnarök (2022) pauses between operations Killing to track down an enemy. Cookbook in the Land of the Nine area of the game. By following clues and collecting Prongfruit, Bantam Melon, and other exotic ingredients, he was rewarded with a stat-boosting comfort meal.
For a more enjoyable hunter-gatherer experience, foodies can enjoy Mintrocket’s Dave the Diver (2023) and enjoy equal parts customer service and underwater exploration. The objective of the game is to dive into the deep Blue Hole and retrieve fresh ingredients to supply the sushi restaurant. Anyone trying to throw one of Dave’s bomb-proof fish will appreciate the relative ease of off-screen cooking, where the pitfalls of a stressful Christmas dinner – say, running out of brandy butter the night before – can be fixed with a quick dash to the corner shop.
And if the unthinkable happens and your meal gets burned without any medicinal ceremonial spirits to ease the pain: Auroch’s Brewmaster (2022) offers refreshment in the form of a beer production simulator. Prospective brewers can follow specific tasks to collect barley, grains, and hops, or go to the sandbox and mix as many ingredients in as large a quantity as they like. The latter may be the wisest choice for anyone hosting a house full of in-laws, because unlike the game, real life doesn’t come with a time-skip button. Merry Christmas.