N
O
W
P
L
A
Y
I
N
G
“I don’t want to do
it again.” “This is
so stressful!” “Can
we stop now?”
It’s fair to say that
my wife Lyndsey
is thoroughly
enjoying playing Overcooked with me.
Sure, we can only play for about half
an hour before the fun becomes so
overwhelming that she has to retreat
to the bedroom. And yes, she does
sometimes insist that the washing up
really can’t wait when I suggest we
start the next level. But we’re having a
great time. Okay?
Lyndz isn’t a gamer. In the past,
bless her, she’s tried her best to get
involved in my favourite hobby, giving
a selection of local multiplayer games
a go. We have played through our fair
share of LEGO games in the past, and
she... well, she knows exactly how to
watch a Blu-ray on my Xbox One. Does
that count?
But recently, she suggested we try
and find a new game that we could
play together. As I searched through
my Xbox’s library of games I suggested
titles like A Way Out (“That doesn’t look
very fun...”) or Halo 5: Guardians (“Does
that have guns? I’m not very good with
guns...”), but in the end we settled
on Overcooked, which I have been
meaning to play for years. It fit the
bill perfectly – it’s fairly simple to pick
up, it only uses three buttons along
with the left stick and the artwork
features an adorable cat in a chef’s
hat. It’s the clear winner.High hopes
All seems well as we start up a new
game. There’s an onion king with a
pet dog. A giant spaghetti meatball
monster forces us to travel back in
time to train hard so that we can
become expert chefs. It is, frankly,
whimsical, and Lyndz is lapping it up.
But I’ve watched a few other people
play this game in the past, so I know
that this excitement is misplaced and
a stress nightmare is about to begin.
The first level starts simply enough.
You’re tasked with making burgers,
the goal is generously achievable andwe are laughing as we both struggle
to get to grips with the purposefully
wonky controls, understand the
physics and avoid dashing into each
other as we zip around the kitchen.
This is fun!
Then, Ghost Town Games hits me
with a sucker punch. “Hey, I got an
Achievement! ‘Lettuce Begin’. Nice,
we played the first level. Wait a
second, did I only get 1G? One single
Gamerscore? That can’t be right.”
I check my profile and there it is. A
single, measly digit at the end of what
was, just seconds ago, a beautifully
rounded number.
Some of you may not understand
this, but I get twitchy when my
Gamerscore ends in anything otherthan a zero or a five. Is that weird?
Probably. But then some people like
to dress up as giant cartoon animals
and do it like they do on the Discovery
Channel, so I’m not too worried.
I don’t immediately panic, because
there must be an achievement for
nine Gamerscore somewhere in the
game. It’s fine! We’ll just get that
achievement and everything will be
a-okay. I look it up – you get 199G
for completing every level with three
stars. FUUU-
I have to forget about this, because
Lyndz is looking confused, and try as
I might I can’t adequately explain why
my Gamerscore has to end in a zero
or a five. So we forget about it (who
am I kidding, it’s all I can think about)extra
Multiplayer fun with a side order of arguments and rage?
Overcooked really is the perfect dish STEPHEN ASHBY
PUBLISHER TEAM17 / DEVELOPER GHOST TOWN GAMES / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE AUGUST 2016096 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE