The bare-bones multiplayer worked just fine in some brief pre-release testing on the Switch, with minimal lag or frame rate dips getting in the way of the action.

Overcooked 2, though, adds a handy online multiplayer mode to let you cook with friends. The original Overcooked was thus incomplete unless you had nearby friends or housemates willing to play with you. More often, though, the single-player experience means just running around and doing everything as a lone cook, losing that carefully coordinated multitasking ballet that makes the multiplayer game so much fun. Sure, a single player can set one cook chopping or cleaning dishes, then take control of the other to gather or cook other ingredients. The game was pretty clearly not designed for this mode, though. You can technically play Overcooked 2 as a single-player game, tapping a button to switch between two on-screen cooks. In any case, most of the game's worst qualities simply fade to the background when you're playing with a good group of friends. None of these annoyances is game-breaking, and levels that seem unmanageably hectic on the first try can seem much more routine after another attempt. Even simpler levels often force you to manage elevators, door switches, rotating platforms, and bits of scenery that move and shift on regular intervals. Others use moving, teleporting magic mirrors or rocky outcroppings that rise out of lava pits, making simply getting around a chore. One level requires one player to man a joystick that can guide the other player where they need to go on a platform. Near the end of the game, the level concepts start to get a little too gimmicky for their own good, too. This can be especially annoying in levels where one wrong step means falling into a pit, losing five precious seconds and whatever prepared ingredient you happen to be holding. The overly loose controls don't help here, either, often leading to mistakes in dropping an ingredient on the right tile or navigating precise paths. Players are often forced to push past each other in narrow walkways or fight conveyor belts and windstorms just to simply maintain their position. The increasingly over-the-top level design helps keep things fresh but doesn't help lower the stress factor. It's all about efficiency and effective multitasking, with scoring bonuses and multipliers for filling orders quickly and penalties for missing orders before the time limit is up. That means pulling up the raw ingredients, taking them to a cutting board for chopping, dragging the chopped ingredients to frying pans/pots/ovens/steamers for cooking, then putting the finished dish on a plate and delivering it to hungry customers. Up to four cooks share a kitchen contained on a single screen, working together and running around to prepare food orders that appear in the corner. If you've played the first Overcooked, you know how the basics work. Still, it adds a much-needed coat of polish and some important new features-including online multiplayer-to help bring the game to the next level. Overcooked 2 feels more like an expansion pack for that strong basic concept than a full-fledged sequel. Platform: Switch (reviewed), Xbox One, PS4, Windows, Mac, LinuxĪ couple of years ago, we declared the original Overcooked 'the new couch co-op champion' thanks to its elegant mix of a charming, simple-to-learn concept, clever level design, and chaotic multitasking gameplay.

Game details Developer: Team 17, Ghost Town Games

Overcooked 2 gameplay