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Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked

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Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked
Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked
Cover art
Developer(s)Red Fly Studio
Publisher(s)Namco Bandai Games
EngineInfernal
Platform(s)Wii
Release
  • NA: November 3, 2009
Genre(s)Simulation, minigame
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked is a cooking simulation-styled minigame compilation developed by American studio Red Fly Studio and published by Namco Bandai Games. It was released exclusively in North America on November 3, 2009, and is the first video game to use the Food Network license.[1][2]

Cook or Be Cooked contains twelve different meals to prepare; the player must go through recipes and complete the meals by completing minigames correctly. The game features a single player mode, a hotseat mode allowing up to four players to prepare one meal, and a multiplayer cook-off mode between two people. Cook or Be Cooked garnered mediocre reviews from critics upon release, who noted a lack of content in the game.

Gameplay

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The player must cook multiple recipes at the same time to complete a meal.

The game places the player in a 3-D kitchen environment and tasks them with cooking meals to be judged upon completion.[3] The kitchen features multiple working areas, each with a dedicated camera angle.[4]

From a first-person perspective, players utilize the motion controls of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to cook and prepare food.[3] Meals consist of multiple dishes which must be served at the same time so that they remain hot enough to be enjoyable; the game requires the player to manage their time while cooking. There is also an ability to speed up the flow of time to skip the tedious waiting periods between recipe steps, but it must be used cautiously to avoid missing timing cues for certain next steps.

There are twelve recipes, half of them being American and half of them being international, split among the three daily meal times (breakfast, lunch and dinner), ranging from a cheeseburger with a side of potato salad to a homemade marinara pasta dish,[4] and the game's instruction manual contains an appendix that provides real-life instructions on how to cook each of them, based on the recipe book Food Network: How to Boil Water. The game responds to the player's performance during and after the recipe, with Food Network's Mory Thomas and Susie Fogelson (appearing in the game in shrunken form after warping through a television screen) providing in-game commentary about real-life cooking tips and the player's performance, as well as judging and assessing the recipe's final score with a taste test.[3]

History

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The game was first publicized by a press release on April 29, 2009, in which the game's title and the partnership between Namco Bandai and the Food Network was announced.[5][6] The game was released on November 3, 2009.[3]

Reception

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Cook or Be Cooked received "mixed" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[7] GameSpot's Shaun McInnis noted that though the gameplay itself controlled tightly and was fun, it held little replay value because of the lack of dishes to create.[3] David Wolinsky of The A.V. Club described the game as immersive when it worked, but felt the game's small selection of recipes made the fun short-lived.[1] 1Up.com's Mike Cruz stated that the game could be finished in one sitting.[8]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Wolinsky, David (November 30, 2009). "Food Network: Cook Or Be Cooked". The A.V. Club. G/O Media. Archived from the original on August 5, 2011. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  2. ^ "Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked". Nintendo. Archived from the original on October 28, 2009. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f McInnis, Shaun (November 19, 2009). "Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked Review". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  4. ^ a b Clements, Ryan (October 23, 2009). "Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked Hands-on". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on July 22, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2023.
  5. ^ "Namco Bandai and Food Network Announce Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked for Wii". Namco Bandai Games. April 29, 2009. Archived from the original on June 21, 2009. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  6. ^ Thorsen, Tor (April 29, 2009). "Namco's Wii wave exercises, cooks, and cheers". GameSpot. Fandom. Archived from the original on February 8, 2022. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked". Metacritic. Fandom. Archived from the original on August 18, 2024. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
  8. ^ a b Cruz, Mike (November 10, 2009). "Food Network Cook or Be Cooked Review". 1Up.com. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on March 10, 2016. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  9. ^ T. Bell-Edwards (November 23, 2009). "Food Network: Cook or be Cooked Review". GameRevolution. CraveOnline. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  10. ^ Liebman, Dan (March 8, 2010). "Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked - WII - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on March 12, 2010. Retrieved July 19, 2018.
  11. ^ Ronghan, Neal (November 24, 2009). "Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked". Nintendo World Report. NINWR, LLC. Archived from the original on September 2, 2023. Retrieved August 18, 2024.
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