Food Fight!
Brunch Club is a food-themed action party game that serves up an amuse-bouche of entertaining modes. Play solo or with friends in both coop and competitive challenges that will test your ability to work as a team. Almost a year after Brunch Club originally released on PC and Switch developer Foggy Box and publisher Yogscast Games are looking to extend its sell-by date by bringing it to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Is this a recipe for disaster or a masterclass in fine dining, let’s apron up.
Gamers today have a plethora of titles that look to bring an element of party fun to the table. Brunch Club is somewhere in the middle of all this, so how does it compare and what is it all about? The simplest way to explain what style of game Brunch Club is would be to look at the excellent Overcooked! series or Human: Fall Flat and then marinate it overnight with a dash of Surgeon Simulator.
Brunch Club is broken down into several modes and bite-sized mini-games that require different skills in order to complete the task within a time limit, some are straightforward while others will leave you with egg on your face. Solo play is fairly standard but becomes repetitive and didn’t hold my interest for long, partly because I didn’t really know what I was doing initially.
Although the menu details each event and the objectives, there’s no real tutorial. I found myself repeatedly dying within moments until I lucked out or eventually figured out what to do. The best tip is to keep playing and you’ll pick it up as, to be honest, each challenge generally uses the same mechanic. Getting to grips with how the game controls will be the biggest hurdle to jump, even when you think you have everything perfectly lined up something is bound to go disastrously wrong. The way Brunch Club handles seems a perfect fit for VR.
Game of Scones
Standard mode is split across eight amusingly titled themed levels, highlights being Toastal Recall and Night of the Living Bread. Using a tunnel of light, much like an alien tractor beam, you must possess random food items and spin, pivot or bump them towards their destination. Recipes are provided and must be assembled correctly. On top of being timed you also have a limited amount of lives, so try not to let anything fall on the floor. Scenarios can be made easier reducing the penalties incurred.
Thankfully levels can be played with friends, or ex-friends depending on how things pan out, and this is where Brunch Club really becomes fine dining. FACE/OFF adds competitive multiplayer to the aforementioned mode in best of rounds. I enlisted the help of my 6-year-old for this component which was met with varying degrees of success. Ok, I lied! there was no success whatsoever because it ended with screaming, rage quitting and tears – and that was just me. Other modes include – 5 Second Rule (work as a team to traverse checkpoints without letting the food touch the surface for more than five seconds) and the jewel in the crown – the Brunch Club Arcade.
The Arcade is a small collection of competitive mini-games that are quickfire unadulterated child-like fun. Riceball Rumble, Food Ball, Butter Brawl and Conveyor Clash test reflexes and tactical thinking in a frantic fight that brought back memories of Fuzion Frenzy. Without a doubt, this is the best mode Brunch Club has to offer and we all love to gloat after besting our besties. It’s just a shame that there are so few mini-games to choose from and ideally we’d love to see more in the form of a sequel or DLC packs.
Final Words:
You don’t have to be a Michelin star chef to enjoy this wacky party game but one wrong move will leave you angrier than the love child of Bruce Banner and Gordon Ramsay. Brunch Club is visually pleasing and in line with other comparable party titles, the soundtrack is joyful but often drowned out by the sound of screaming (not in-game). While the single-player experience is a little flat, the game really comes together in multiplayer mode. Here for fun? then stick to the quick-fire mini-games, like Riceball Rumble, which provide amusing entertainment for all.
Review code provided
Platform: PC, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo
Release Date: 11/08/2020
No. of Players: 1-4
Category: Arcade, Party
Developer: Foggy Box Games
Publisher: Yogscast LTD
Website: www.foggybox.co.uk
Twitter: @FoggyBoxHQ
Download link: Microsoft Store
TWO BEARD GAMING 
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