Innchanted (2023)

I picked up Innchanted last year to play with my game night group and we quickly latched onto its mechanics, being seasoned veterans of Overcooked and PlateUp!. Fans of those games are sure to find something to like here, with snappy controls and a premise that stands apart from its peers, even if you do end up working a kitchen more than an inn, in spite of the title.

This game leans into its story harder than those others, which is neat but I feel ultimately works to its detriment, with unskippable dialogue that you have to mash through even when retrying levels for the best score. The characters are very cute and really I'd love to see them get a story that gives them more room to shine.

What the game does very well though is offering a bunch of unique recipes for you to throw together. I like the various potion effects a lot and appreciated that they never got too complex. The game does frontload itself by introducing a ton of mechanics one after the other, but the back half is more focused on presenting you with increasingly challenging layouts rather than additional recipe complexity. Getting a good score in most levels is about anticipating more challenging orders coming in, preparing for them, and being able to make snap decisions about what gets priority when something unexpected comes up.

I guess the last thing I'd mention is that there are a bunch of little upgrades for you to unlock with currency you earn from successful orders, many of which are worth your time to get. It's a bit odd though because you often get access to upgrades that remove friction from mechanics that the game actually has yet to formally introduce, which makes for odd pacing. It's by no means a dealbreaker but seems simple to solve for the devs so I have to wonder what happened there. Some less consequential upgrades also include decorations for your inn, which is a lovely idea! I wish there were more reason to hang out in it so I could appreciate them more.

This is a wonderful overcooked clone with its own personality. You need to cook, prepare potions and wash wombats, you know, usual Inn stuff. Gameplay is great fun. Not as challenging and complex as Overcooked, but still frenetic. What's also lovely is the characters and story. You need to run an Inn that was usurped by the pale wizard Colin (last name Iser) and beat him at his own game with the help of the land mobs and the wombat riders. It's unapologetically Australian, written and scored in cooperation with first nation people. It's also wonderfully queer

The only slight problem design-wise is that there is a shop with upgrades, but most of the time upgrades for specific mechanics unlock before the mechanic was introduced. And since you buy upgrades with money, if you replay levels to get all the starts, you can unlock everything with no friction. So overall the shop and the money is meaningless gameplay-wise. But that's just an unimportant nitpick.

I'd recommend this game for anyone who likes overcooked-style co-op and has a strong relationship that can survive the ordeal.