Ore-no Ryouri

One of the training sessions from in game.

hidden gem, played demo on jampak cd

Not sure if this was a widely released game, but do know my first introduction to the game was through the Jam Pak CD back in the early 2000s. This was one of two demo discs I had in my possession and was sampling a little bit of every game that was present which included an RPG, adventure games along with some fun racing types.

While exploring the selections I came across Ore-no Ryouri. At a glance, it came off as a cooking game. However, after starting the demo the notion of it being a simple cooking game was far from fact.

You begin the game as an up and coming cook that runs the restaurant. Customers come, order food and you are to cook the food. Simple right?

Wrong. First you have to collect the ingredients and prepare them; yes prepare. Be it chopping or grating you have to actually do this with your controller; all buttons including joysticks.

Once preparations are done, the ingredients go into the pot to begin cooking. Sounds good but you can't take your eyes off the food for too long or else the food will over cook. Why is this important you ask?

Well, over cooked food will upset customers and you won't get a good rating so keep a sharp eye on those dishes. Before you say it, cooking won't be the only task on your platter. As you would guess, there will be multiple customers coming in to order food so be on those orders like soy sauce on rice.

Pest control is another issue and if you fail to exterminate all pests on the screen within the designated time frame, your customers will up and leave. Mind you this will surface at random regardless if you're busy cooking or not. Also, be on the look out for thieves.

They too surface at the inopportune time. If you see a block man come on screen and say something in a high pitched voice, that's the thief. I was playing this on the PSone and had to make use of both the right and left joysticks to run the little bugger down.

Imagine having to leave the kitchen to run after someone or to smash a bunch of bugs all while ensuring high customer satisfaction. If you pay attention to the tutorials, you will have the game mechanics down to a tee. I played the Japanese version of the game so I'm not sure if there's an English version.

Ore-no Ryouri