NOTE: This review is part of my steam curator review and is the extended version. Check my steam curator page at https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39607348-Random-Game-Reviews-by-Labprofess/ . Follow appreciated!


Hot Pot for one is one of those hidden gem games that a lot of people simply ignore thinking “they are too short” or “how can such short game be fun?”, but until they play one of those “short watch more, interact less novel” games they won't understand how people find them enjoyable. I myself just played one game similar to this before, but that was enough to interest in these games. Honestly, before I played that I myself didn't think short games like this can be any fun, but boy was I wrong. In this game, you are preparing a dinner for you and your friends while spending the holiday abroad far away from your family. This game teaches you that you don't need your family, even on holidays to enjoy yourself. A powerful message that not everyone has had to face, but most likely will be forced into by unconventional circumstances.

Hot Pot is basically a beautiful graphical cooking simulator, except that you cook the way you want (did I mention that if you wish you can simply eat the raw ingredients?). This game uses a perfect blend between bright and dark colors to create a winter night scenery in your cozy home while its freezing outside. A major plus of this game is that it uses different graphic setting levels to accomodate any type of gamer. The ones with a potato as their PC up to the ones those GTX 3080 owners. The graphics are good, but what about the detailing? Amazing. Actual food items and stuff on the walls, like in a real kitchen. Excluding the anime poster. No one has that.

Now, how do I rate this game on a scale of worth it or not? Worth it. This game is advertised as 15-30 minutes however its more towards the 30 minute mark. In addition, one can replay the game due to its replayability and to test one's cooking skills guaranteeing around one hour, maybe even two of fun. Regarding glitches, I replayed the game twice but haven't found any. There's also no other issue such as flickering. I did however notice that when I started the game, I was on 30 FPS for a few seconds, but after that it worked flawlessly and it never dropped below 60 FPS. Maybe that was just an issue of my program (I use NXZT CAM as reference) but nevertheless noting it down. So what else is there to say? Having read all the above, I hope I convinced you to give this type of game a chance. I'm sure you won't regret it!