Battle Chef Brigade

It takes a while to wrap your head around, but this game is really a fun and fast-moving puzzle game disguised as a somewhat generic platformer. Truly, Battle Chef Brigade's biggest problem is that it takes itself far too seriously, given what it is. In a vivid world where you meet magical cooks and friendly monsters, the stilted tone of the writing might trick kids into thinking the game is far more boring than it really is. The abundance of plot and people continually talking -- and the fact that you can't do anything in these exchanges -- doesn't help. But once you get past that, there's a very kid-friendly game that moves quickly and has a decent amount of versatility at its core.

Most of the game boils down to hunting monsters with a mixture of magic and melee attacks and then solving Bejeweled-style puzzles during timed competitions. Since you (of course) can't taste anything yourself, flavors are represented in dishes by colored tiles arranged a grid. When three (or two, of some types) of tiles are lined up, they will condense into a single, denser version of that flavor, which can also be combined with other dense tiles. The flavors you get come from the animals and beasts you hunt, so each match is a judgment call of how long you should be in the field versus how long you should be over your range. There are daily cook-offs that give randomized challenges, but right now, barring any future updates, that's about the extent of the shelf life the game offers. Although the overall product is a little lacking, there's still some fun to be had here with its imaginative setting and unusual assortment of action.