Panic Restaurant
released on May 24, 1992
A port of Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World
Hot dogs on legs, jumping eggs, flying apple slices, hungry hamburger buns, pans shooting fried shrimp - WHAT'S GOING ON?? Ever since the mad chef, Ohdove, stole the Eaten Restaurant from Cookie, strange things have been happening! To win back the Eaten, Cookie must face a restaurant that has come to life! Mutant food and appliances are just eager to cook Cookie! But Cookie knows his way around a restaurant, so armed with just a few simple kitchen tools, he is going to challenge Ohdove and the army of mutants!
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A fairly late and mediocre NES platformer that looks and sounds pretty good, but is ultimately very forgettable.
Another game you can beat in 30 minutes and which shows its teeth only towards the end with some really annoying enemy placement.
The gameplay is a simple jump-and-attack affrair with Mario like power-ups gained through the levels and lost upon losing health. While it's enjoyable that the whole game is themed around food, I found the movement to be a bit too slow.
If you want to try something new for the evening, fire it up. It's charming enough to not get boring, but doesn't have enough of an identity to stand out.
Another game you can beat in 30 minutes and which shows its teeth only towards the end with some really annoying enemy placement.
The gameplay is a simple jump-and-attack affrair with Mario like power-ups gained through the levels and lost upon losing health. While it's enjoyable that the whole game is themed around food, I found the movement to be a bit too slow.
If you want to try something new for the evening, fire it up. It's charming enough to not get boring, but doesn't have enough of an identity to stand out.
Okay, Panic Restaurant brought me right back to being a kid – frantic, colorful, and just pure old-school fun! You're slinging plates to take down possessed food, and it's way harder than it looks. Short but sweet, and definitely worth a playthrough if you're into retro arcade-style games.
one of the best the nes has to offer!!!!!!! you're a funny chef killing funny sentient ingredients and there's an EVIL chef!! and the levels are displayed as a six course dinner (six levels!!!) and that has really stuck with me as a fun little thing
MegaTheRealOne said in his review that this was basically Pizza Tower released 30 years ago and that got me interested in playing this game.
It's true, it's basically Pizza Tower in the design. There's a lot of fun sprites and some seem like they're hand drawn. As Mega said, the kitchen theme, while not something original, is done very well here, is charming and, in my opinion, is the only reason to play this game. The last level reminded me of Shovel Knight for some reason. The music is also fun but nothing special.
As for the game itself, it could be better. At the beginning it's fun, the pan mechanics are well done and the variety of weapons is something you look forward to. That is until the game starts to put unavoidable weapons in your way and there's no way to progress without switching the weapons. Besides the pan there's the spoon, which is basically a longer range pan, a plate, which works as a projectile, and the fork (the worst) that keeps you jumping and to kill enemies with it you have to jump above them. If you take any damage you lose them and get the pan back. For example, there's a section where the game forces you to use the fork. Right after, if you are using the fork, you are forced to get the plate. The worst part about this section is that both of this are horrible in said section and you are basically forced to take damage.
The design of the levels, overall, is interesting because it is as vertical as it is horizontal. But again, some sections have horrible enemy placements and weird gaps to jump over which made the game a bit frustrating for me. The health system is another problem in the design for me. Resetting to two hp points with the continues is so annoying and there isn't a reliable way to get max hp back. I have nothing to say about the mini games because I barely played them.
That's it for me. I wish I could enjoy this game more but apparently I'm too casual for it.
It's true, it's basically Pizza Tower in the design. There's a lot of fun sprites and some seem like they're hand drawn. As Mega said, the kitchen theme, while not something original, is done very well here, is charming and, in my opinion, is the only reason to play this game. The last level reminded me of Shovel Knight for some reason. The music is also fun but nothing special.
As for the game itself, it could be better. At the beginning it's fun, the pan mechanics are well done and the variety of weapons is something you look forward to. That is until the game starts to put unavoidable weapons in your way and there's no way to progress without switching the weapons. Besides the pan there's the spoon, which is basically a longer range pan, a plate, which works as a projectile, and the fork (the worst) that keeps you jumping and to kill enemies with it you have to jump above them. If you take any damage you lose them and get the pan back. For example, there's a section where the game forces you to use the fork. Right after, if you are using the fork, you are forced to get the plate. The worst part about this section is that both of this are horrible in said section and you are basically forced to take damage.
The design of the levels, overall, is interesting because it is as vertical as it is horizontal. But again, some sections have horrible enemy placements and weird gaps to jump over which made the game a bit frustrating for me. The health system is another problem in the design for me. Resetting to two hp points with the continues is so annoying and there isn't a reliable way to get max hp back. I have nothing to say about the mini games because I barely played them.
That's it for me. I wish I could enjoy this game more but apparently I'm too casual for it.
A solid little NES game with nice visuals, solid music, and a silly little premise. Biggest issue is enemy placement being a bit jank. Kinda sucks that it has an artificially inflated price cause of the US retro gaming market being dumb.
chef goes BONK