I came back around to this after finishing New Super Mario Bros 2., and found this one to pretty lacking. It's frankly impressive how much of a difference just adding the incentive of coin collecting makes to a game's formula. This one on the other hand just felt like a standard Mario game. Perhaps the most baffling inclusion to this game is the Mega Mushroom (I presume it's called). There haven't been many instances I've found for it's use, aside from cheesing a fortress boss with it. Otherwise, levels are have too many gaps that prevent you from running straight and racking up those 1-UPs, not that you really need them, either. Still, it's fun to absolutely wreck shit on an early level and tear it apart, literally.

At the end of the day, it's Mario, just without anything that stands out.

Cooking Companions might be the best example of a 2 star game I can think of. It’s fun and engaging during the playtime but when it’s done you don’t really remember or care much about it aside from the obvious grotesque bits. Largely forgettable, though fun in the moment. The story is kind of everywhere, while at the same time played as straight as possible with no real “but what does it MEAN?” moment. You can infer it with no issues.

And for those who hate jump scares: sorry, there are a few. Though, they are largely done to a good effect and are part of the story and not just squeezed in to scare the player. It really puts you in the main characters eyes and mind as much as possible.

I’d play this again if anything to try and get the CGs I may have missed while glossing over the story. It does have some great art, I’ll give it that. The only environments seem to decay right before your eyes in a gradual, almost undetectable way until you realize oh something isn’t quite right here, though maybe you should have realized that when the vegetables start talking to you.