If a game is about cooking, at minimum I’ll have to give it a quick testspin. Outside of this whole writing about video games thing, my other lot in life is soul bound to food, so I’m always curious to see how the two can be mixed together. And earlier this week, The Snackbar at the End of the World was revealed, a wonderfully cartoonish action-adventure game set in a magical, slightly post-apocalyptic version of 1960s Italy where you go out and forage for ingredients while fending off monstrous crops before turning them into tasty meals back in your struggling restaurant.
First up, I just have to gush over the artstyle a bit. The whole game is hand-drawn with a colourful, comic book look that has an impressive sense of depth to it. It gives off a deep love of Italian architecture and landscapes, and that admiration clearly extends to the food too. Once you’ve gotten the ingredients you need, you then, loosely in the vein of Cooking Mama, prepare them and make various classic Italian dishes by performing some quick minigames. Simple, but charming! The rest of the time you’re off killing some ghoulies that look like mutated fruit and veggies, with the occasional fungus-possessed hog and, uh, haunted statues? I think?
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I’m also quite pleased about two points made on the game’s Steam page. First is the content description: “This game features cartoon violence, sensitive political themes set in a fictional world, and depictions of an oppressive government committing crimes against its citizens.” There is clearly a romantic quality to the game and I’d be worried if it didn’t acknowledge any of the political context of the decades preceding.
The other line reads, “Every sound effect, musical note, design decision, and line of code is human-made. Because this game is about human relationships and delicious food – and that’s not a story we would ever trust AI to tell.” Thank the lord! Right now there’s no release date attached to The Snackbar at the End of the World, unsurprising given it was only announced this week. But while we all wait for a date, you could perhaps join me in throwing it a wishlist on Steam.