Overcooked All You Can Eat Video Game Review

A raccoon, a grannie and a unicorn walk into a kitchen…

This may sound like the beginning of a bad joke but it’s par for the course in the chaotic world of Overcooked! Since its initial release in 2016, the couch co-op cooking sensation has made friendships, destroyed friendships and become a household staple in the video game community. Now, after the sequels and multiple DLCs of past years, it’s time for us to tuck into the veritable feast that is the enormous, and absolutely delightful, ‘Overcooked! All You Can Eat’.

What Is It?

All You Can Eat is the third instalment in the cooking sim franchise and brings together the previously released content from the past games as well as new and exclusive content! If you have enjoyed Overcooked in any of its earlier forms then you haven’t seen anything yet–this is bigger and bolder than anything the folks at Team 17 have given us yet in this franchise, as all the past offerings are blended together and remastered into this mighty main course.

“Yes Chef!”

What immediately strikes you about All You Can Eat is the vast number of chefs at your disposal. The massive amount of choice has never been greater with over 130 characters and skins available, including plenty of new additions exclusive to this release. Come on, who wouldn’t want an Axolotl prepping food in the kitchen?!

“Get Out of My Kitchen!”

The Onion Kingdom has never been larger! There are now over 200 immersive levels to play in, including 22 brand new AYCE exclusives such as the Baked Bazaar and Pepper Plaza. Not to mention the fact that, for the first time, Overcooked is coming to us in stunning 4K. The resolution and colours of these crazy little biomes look absolutely gorgeous… in fact, good enough to eat!

“Let the Chaos Begin!”

The beauty of All You Can Eat is just how much choice you have when it comes to modes of gameplay. There’s campaign mode, arcade mode, survival, practice, online, offline–it’s exhausting, but in a good way!

But the real star of the show is the phenomenal Assist Mode! Now for some context, all four of my children love some couch co-op time with Overcooked… but there was always the issue of the younger kids not being able to keep up, get those orders out and gain enough stars to progress further in the game. Well, thankfully those days are long gone. With Assist mode it has never been so easy to have fun with Overcooked.

There are so many ways to tweak the settings and offer players an experience that is tailored to their needs. Thanks to Assist mode it is now possible to increase order time, increase time allowed for the level and even shorten the respawn time (take that you unstable iceberg!). Not only that, players can take it a step further so everyone can join in the fun–there is the option to turn off order timers, turn off burnt food fires, reduce the amount of orders coming your way and even skip pesky levels that previously made you throw your controller away in anger and disgrace.

What’s also a nice touch is that Team 17 have gone the extra mile to make the game accessible to as many people as possible. From a scalable UI to dyslexia friendly text options and a reduction in camera shake and flashing, there has clearly been a lot of thought put into the finished product!

“My Compliments to the Chef!”

Overcooked! All you can Eat really is a marvel. It manages to capture everything that people loved about the original releases and just make them that much more accessible and varied. In this case, bigger is definitely better; we’ve had this game for some time now and we still haven’t fully explored the vast amount of content to be accessed. If you want a cosy and relaxing game with family and friends, you’ve got it. If you want to go hard core and amp up the pressure, feel free. With All You Can Eat you really can have it your way and make the settings your own. This is so far from being Overcooked JR. where everything has been dumbed down and made into a game for tiny tots. Instead, it strives to be all things to all people whilst providing fresh content in what is a true celebration of this crazy cooking smash.

If you own previous releases of Overcooked! don’t write this off as an unnecessary bit of fluff; it really does pack a big punch and is a vast improvement on what came before. From the gorgeous visuals and colours to the sheer bonkersness and variety in the chef designs, you’ll struggle to find a bigger party game out there! Overcooked! AYCE is like your favourite comfort food, you know what you like, and now you can get as much as you want. So go ahead and dig in, there’s plenty for everyone!