Ever since I watched Stumpt play through all of Overcooked, I quickly became a fan of cooking simulator multiplayer games. My husband and I got to put our relationship to the test by playing through all of Overcooked, and even receiving Overcooked 2 as a wedding gift. Which we also beat. And the games are great to break out at parties, because you can pick it up pretty quickly and understand the controls and mechanics.

But there’s only so many times you can have fun playing through the same levels over and over again. And as it turns out, another fan of the game thought the same thing. A soon-to-be-named game developer from London wanted something with more depth.

I’ve always loved playing local co-op games that could be picked up quickly by anyone; the quick fun of games like Overcooked. But I was always left wanting a deeper experience with greater replayability: a co-op game that allows us to play and progress in our own way, and develop our own group personality in the way that many modern singleplayer games do.

But any local co-op game has to be easy to pick up, avoid over-long sessions, and allow anyone to jump in and out as they like.

In January 2021, after a lockdown Christmas of late-night Unrailed! I started work on my own take; combining classic co-op cooking action with roguelite progression, I built a game that anyone could sit down and play, but with the longevity and depth to keep players coming back.

PlateUp! features quick, hectic gameplay with two-button interaction, allowing anyone to jump in to the game at any point and join their friends. Each session is driven by procedural generation and random upgrades, giving novelty, customization and meaningful choice.

-From the developer PressKit

PlateUp! is a cooking simulator game with a roguelite progression system to grant more replayability and development throughout the game. It has a simplistic graphic style that keeps the visuals clean and helps streamline gameplay. The demo is available to download for free on Steam, so after you’re done reading the review, you can check it out yourself. You can also check out RedriaPlays on Twitch if you’d like to see more indie gaming content.

Q: What stands out about the game?

A: The game does exactly what it set out to do. It takes a co-op cooking simulator game and gives it depth and randomness. I’ve played through the demo four times now and discovered new content each time. It’s not often that a mere demo version of a game is entertainingly replayable. The roguelite mechanics are superbly executed. Before the start of each day, you can purchase items for your restaurant from a random assortment. When you level up your restaurant, you can also choose between two game-changing mechanics being added to your current run. Often times, it will add in a new dish, or side dish, or challenge that you can pick between. Like adding fries on the side, or having customers that will order multiple courses. It changes the status quo you may have already established, and keeps the game fresh.

It also does something that other cooking simulator games don’t – it keeps simple, clean visuals. It removes the visual clutter of food icons above each dish in the kitchen so that you can focus on the task at hand. In a game where there is literally always something to be doing, the game intentionally keeps the graphics simplistic. The bright colored timers on each object on-screen are easy to track. Customer orders are displayed on the customer so it’s easy to know what food to bring where. There are also audio cues when something is ready to be attended to, in case the visuals do get overstimulating. 

If there’s something you should be doing in the game, you’d best believe a timer is going to appear and warn you. 

Q: Where does the game draw influence from?

A: The creator is not shy about admitting some sources of influence. They wanted to take a cooking co-op game and give it more depth. The game mimics Overcooked in that they are both cooking simulators that have you prepare certain dishes or side dishes on a timer. The gameplay is similar as well – picking up ingredients, chopping, frying, washing dishes, even putting out fires. 

The game also resembles Diner Bros, which takes a lot of cooking simulator mechanics from Overcooked but adds in restaurant management – upgrades, unlockable recipes, waiting on tables, serving food, and cleaning up customer messes. 

It’s basically Diner Bros Roguelite. But with a lot more restaurant customization options and progression. Diner Bros can be beat, and so like Overcooked, you can run out of content. PlateUp offers such a variety of progression choices during each run that it feels new every single time.

Q: What’s the difficulty level?

Controls are simple on keyboard: WASD to move, P to Pick up/Put down, and O to interact with Objects. Are you with me so far?

The difficulty does not necessarily come in with controls, but with time and task management. The timers don’t change as the game goes on, but there are more things to manage, and more people who want to eat at your successful restaurant. You have to keep things moving. Or, well, shut down your restaurant forever.

With that being said, the game feels like it was designed specifically for a multiplayer experience. A single player will depend more on luck of the draw with upgrades and items to automate some processes in order to handle all of the duties of the restaurant by themselves. The addition of a one-player handicap option could help balance the game a little more, but it simply feels like a game that will always be way better with friends. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Currently, the game also could do with more tutorial segments when new dishes are added. The explanation of new dishes are written and often unclear, which can sink your run immediately. It’s a learning experience, and you are rewarded even when losing a run, but the frustration is real. Nothing like unlocking carrot soup and not understanding why you can’t serve it to your guests! (Hint: You have to interact with the soup pot and a bowl will materialize.)

But starting new runs is fun, and the possibilities are endless. The game also includes “contract” levels, which are not available in the free demo. Based on the screenshots, I speculate that they will be prefabricated restaurants with a sort of challenge about them. This gives players a good option to learn strategies to best utilize each upgrade offered in the game. 

PlateUp is slated to release sometime in 2022 and  as an avid lover of hectic co-op games, it would be a day-one purchase for me. It’s a game I could definitely see myself streaming as a multiplayer game or a collaboration between other streamers. There’s a lot of content available, and if the demo is this much fun, I can’t wait to see what else we have in store.