[Review for iOS]
The game itself is pretty simple—multiple customers approach your station and order at once, making you juggle between cooking and prep stages. Don't let food burn while it's cooking, prep the food right and serve it fast so you can free up prep spaces. If you take too much time, your customers will be upset and leave. You earn gold during these runs, which you can spend on upgrading your station and restaurant. If you've ever played a game in the Cook, Serve, Delicious! series, this will sound familiar. If you've ever gotten halfway through a CSD game, it will feel mindless to play, offering very little in challenge or substance. It might work for its young target audience, but if I were a parent, I don't think I'd let my kid play this.
I'm not familiar with the usual advertisement standards when it comes to mobile games for kids, so when I downloaded Krusty Cook-Off, I had hoped that its ads and other mobile-oriented horrors would be toned down. I understand that app publishers have a tendency to prey on kids with unrestricted smartphone access, but I did expect something better from a Nickelodeon-branded product. You can pay for premium currency through the app to spend in-game, and that much I expected, but you can also watch ads and complete "tasks" for them as well. The ads range from mostly normal to extremely questionable—including casino games that advertise the ability to put money straight into (or take it straight out of) your PayPal account. Of course, every ad is the kind that takes you straight to the download page the first time you try to tap the X to close it. The tasks are even more sinister—the ones that net you the most gems require you to sign up to questionable "sweepstakes" by entering personal information such as e-mail accounts and phone numbers. In a game marketed directly towards younger children, and coming from a brand that parents should find more trustworthy, it's incredibly off-putting... almost as off-putting as the disgusting cutscene character animations.
The game itself is pretty simple—multiple customers approach your station and order at once, making you juggle between cooking and prep stages. Don't let food burn while it's cooking, prep the food right and serve it fast so you can free up prep spaces. If you take too much time, your customers will be upset and leave. You earn gold during these runs, which you can spend on upgrading your station and restaurant. If you've ever played a game in the Cook, Serve, Delicious! series, this will sound familiar. If you've ever gotten halfway through a CSD game, it will feel mindless to play, offering very little in challenge or substance. It might work for its young target audience, but if I were a parent, I don't think I'd let my kid play this.
I'm not familiar with the usual advertisement standards when it comes to mobile games for kids, so when I downloaded Krusty Cook-Off, I had hoped that its ads and other mobile-oriented horrors would be toned down. I understand that app publishers have a tendency to prey on kids with unrestricted smartphone access, but I did expect something better from a Nickelodeon-branded product. You can pay for premium currency through the app to spend in-game, and that much I expected, but you can also watch ads and complete "tasks" for them as well. The ads range from mostly normal to extremely questionable—including casino games that advertise the ability to put money straight into (or take it straight out of) your PayPal account. Of course, every ad is the kind that takes you straight to the download page the first time you try to tap the X to close it. The tasks are even more sinister—the ones that net you the most gems require you to sign up to questionable "sweepstakes" by entering personal information such as e-mail accounts and phone numbers. In a game marketed directly towards younger children, and coming from a brand that parents should find more trustworthy, it's incredibly off-putting... almost as off-putting as the disgusting cutscene character animations.