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Love cooking and video games? Steam has both these bases covered under one roof: cooking games! If you love creating yummy virtual dishes to wow your favorite NPCs in the game, cooking games got your back.
While you can take up the culinarian job in FFXIV, cook foods to raise your stats in Genshin Impact, and for your health and stamina in Skyrim, these are not inherently cooking games. Cooking in these games is one of the many skills you acquire to improve your overall skills.
Hence, today we will cover allrounder cooking games where culinary skills are your main and utmost crucial skill.
So what makes cooking games so much fun? Imagine playing a game as an alchemist, the only difference being your ingredients curate food instead of potions. You can forage for various ingredients or grow them in your in-game garden/farm and come up with fun and exciting dishes on the fly!
#1. Good Pizza, Great Pizza
Good Pizza, Great Pizza is a fun and adventurous game where you, a sole pizza shop owner and chef, bake the best and most creative pizzas for all. This game’s smooth and transitional graphics, as well as the soothing background music, made it all popular among phone and PC gamers alike!
TapBlaze first launched this pizza business simulator game on iOS in 2014 and soon introduced it for Android devices in February 2015, Amazon App Store in 2016, and finally on Steam on 5th June 2018.
But it gets better as Good Pizza, Great Pizza is also available on Nintendo Switch ever since its 3rd September 2020 release!
So what makes the game such a cult favorite? In this game, you are not just a pizza chef and pizzeria owner but also the interior decorator of your shop and the farmer for your fresh ingredients.
Not to forget, the game offers more than baking pizzas. Your daily customer base evolves alongside you. You see some finding love (and even act cupid for two shy customers in love), help a homeless man out of poverty, and even face an ancient pizza-worshipping cult looking to see your worth as the za-master.
With your profit, you can redecorate your shop any way you please and even opt for seasonal decorations during Halloween, Mother’s Day, Summer events, and more! These include opting for new furniture, wall decor, table decor, and banners to showcase your pizzeria’s zeal for the holidays.
By the way!
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Good Pizza, Great Pizza is filled with being involved in your customers’ character and story developments, curating new recipes, and running a smashing pizzeria business right from your devices!
#2. One-Armed Cook
Why cook alone when you can invite your friends to co-op in your adventure? Up to 4 people can play One-Armed Cook together for free on Steam. Now you might wonder how this cooking game is so different. As the game’s name goes, here you prep, cook, and serve your customers with just one arm active.
This co-op cooking simulator is quite challenging, given that you can only use one arm to operate every action. It can be difficult initially, but once you get the hang of it, the executions are clear as day.
There are not many visual instructions on how to play the game. Thankfully, the graphics are perfect for a simulator cooking game, which adds some ease to the self-tutorial. Moreover, playing with your friends helps coordinate work and actions, where everyone can learn the game quickly and execute everything perfectly!
It’s chaotic, fun, and perfectly emulates the high-powered kitchen functions of a busy burger shop. But when you play with equally-enthusiastic friends, the One-armed Cook is a fantastic experience.
#3. Overcooked! 2
Chaotic, panicky, and full of energy, Overcooked! 2 is one of the quintessential co-op cooking games out there. It has the same hype as Overcooked, with more madness and various new recipes to try out.
You can get the Overcooked: All You Can Eat, a compilation of both games for:
- PS4
- PS5
- Xbox Series X/S
- Xbox One
- Nintendo Switch
- Windows
- Google Stadia
So what is Overcooked! 2 all about? New food, new kitchen setups, and the classic co-op experience with your closest friends. The overwhelming helter-skelter energy of this game is through the roof! You are surrounded by fire, meat, a ticking timer, and plenty of obstacles, but the recipe and execution are your priorities.
Overcooked! 2 is creative with its challenges, interactive gameplay, quirky new dishes, and new and hidden levels for you to discover. But it doesn’t end there. The story gets gripping as you and your fellow chefs traverse various areas of the Onion Kingdom, rescuing everyone from the Unbread. Unbreads are devious zombie toasts, so be careful!
As for the recipes, you can create almost anything from delicious dim sum to filling burgers for your clientele. And all these are possible thanks to the new kitchen layouts, which allow players to work their best against the clock and breathe life into their food tickets.
This is a game for those who like to break a sweat with friends during LAN parties, or just enjoy the adrenaline rush this game offers.
#4. Bone’s Cafe
Bone’s Cafe is Overcooked, but make it a graveyard rave. The demo is free on Steam, and if you like the game, the entire game is available for US$14.99.
Bone’s Cafe by Acute Owl Studio is a game with undead cooks creating delicious meals for all! The game is a co-op for up to 4 players, so bring your friends to this necromancer’s den!
As the story goes, you are a necromancer who dropped out of school to open your very own cafe. No need to go look for employees, as you can create an undead horde of minions to work for you! You and your friends can customize the kitchen layout, order the minions on their tasks, and enjoy the “lively” atmosphere that Bone’s Cafe creates.
But what makes Bone’s Cafe stand out? Well, unlike other games, the ingredients are right at your arm’s length, i.e., your customers! Kill your customers and use their meat to satiate them with fully cooked, scrumptious meals.
No need to do this each time, as you can train your undead minions to automate this action for all the ingredients. Now you and your friends can concentrate on expanding and improving this deadly business further!
What makes this game more fun is its playful pixel graphics, cute soundtrack, and the cutest, most adorable little skeleton chefs and servers cooking up a storm in your spooky quaint eatery.
The Takeaway
All in all, these are four of the best cooking games on Steam that you will love! They are quirky, fun, and full of flavors. These games have unique culinary features that encourage you to be creative, where the chance to have fun is gastronomical!
Happy gaming!
