Cook for your life

Battle Chef Brigade is a peculiar mix: part side-scrolling action/combat game, part puzzle game, and part fantasy adventure where fates are decided by Iron Chef style cooking competitions. Fight monsters, cook their parts into a meal, and win chef battles to earn your way into the noble Brigade!

Taken separately, each part of Battle Chef Brigade isn't very good. The action game is shallow and button-mashy, since advanced techniques like magic aren't as efficient as regular attacks; the puzzle game is mechanically straightforward, yet still impenetrable in some key ways (like balancing a dual-element objective); and the adventure game has significant pacing issues, as key story threads sometimes disappear and reappear by surprise.

But the game is absolutely greater than the sum of its parts. The time limit for a chef battle makes fighting monsters and finding good parts feel more tense, and various twists to the puzzle mechanics (like pans and kettles with different effects) keep the color-matching interesting even after dozens of battles.

And, especially, the poorly-paced story is nonetheless highly entertaining thanks to an evocative art style, surprisingly-excellent voice acting, and some great writing. Both light-hearted and heart-wrenching moments make the game's characters feel charming and real.

While elements of Battle Chef Brigade may appear familiar, the package as a whole is definitely unique, and also a treat to play -- if a bit over-long by the end.

Some extra tutorialization around how a dish's score is calculated, and some more depth in the monster-fighting action, could make a really impressive sequel.

Better than: most beat-em-up, match-three, or cooking games.
Not as good as: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trilogy
It's hard: to find other games with meaningful comparisons.