Game & Watch: Chef

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1

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Review:

The Game and Watch was a line of single-game handheld game devices that Nintendo started selling in 1980, five years before the Nintendo Entertainment System and 9 years before the Game Boy. They were advanced for the time, though of course by today’s standards they will seem extraordinarily primitive, with each game consisting of only a few images, with the game implying movement by making these images appear and disappear.

Over the years, these games have repeatedly been simulated (they can’t exactly be “ported” as their original display method was different than those of more modern videogames) in various forms. In 2010, a series of 9 such simulated Game & Watch games were released separately on Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service, and those games were grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS.

Chef, first released in 1981, is the twelfth Game & Watch game ever released, the fourth game in the “Wide Screen” line of those handheld devices. Its gameplay is extremely simple – you play a stick figure (since retroactively referred to as Mr. Game & Watch) moving back and forth across the screen to juggle ingredients in a pan. Like many games in the series, this game has “Game A” and “Game B” options, but that only seems to function as a difficulty selector, with “Game B” being more difficult, having the player juggle four ingredients instead of three.

In a sense, Chef is a combination of the gameplay of Ball and Vermin, combining Ball’s juggling with Vermin’s lateral left-right movement. Unfortunately, this game isn’t nearly as compelling as those ones because its juggled elements fluctuate in their timing, making it difficult to anticipate where you need to be.

In addition to the Game A and Game B options, players can opt to read instructions (modern typed instructions, nothing the original had), look at a “time” function (just looking at the device’s screen in its non-gameplay state), and…that’s about it.

The game itself uses simple monochrome visuals like the original game had (with static color overlays), with a border made to look vaguely like the original Game & Watch system. Its sounds are just clicks and beeps that were in the original game. Only the synthesized music in the main menu provides any significant new presentation element here.

Before wrapping this up, I should note that a version of this game was included in Game & Watch Gallery 2 for the Game Boy Color, which is also available on the Nintendo 3DS via Virtual Console. This game is also present in Game and Watch Gallery 4 for the Game Boy Advance, which is available on the Wii U Virtual Console.

For a mere $2, Game & Watch: Chef is a solid “port” of one of Nintendo’s earliest handheld games. It’s fairly simple and shallow by today’s standards, and the presentation won’t excite anyone except those who had nostalgia for the original game. Unfortunately, by making the game’s timing inconsistent, it also makes it far less compelling than either Ball or Vermin, two games it is similar to. As a result, unless you’re the sort of person who’ll get every game in the series, you’re better off sticking with one of those better games.

tl;dr – Game & Watch: Chef is a recreation of one of Nintendo’s first handheld videogames (predating the Game Boy by eight years), and it’s faithful to the original, which means an archaic presentation and simple, shallow gameplay. Unfortunately, this game plays somewhat similarly to both Ball and Vermin, and inconsistent timing means it’s not as good as either of those games. Unless you’re a collector, stick with one of those.

Grade: D

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