Pocket Chef™ Review

By , on February 5, 2010


Pocket Chef™
  • Publisher: Gameloft
  • Genre: Family
  • Released: 1 Feb, 2010
  • Size: 119.0 MB
  • Price: FREE!
Download on the AppStore
4 out of 5

PROS

  • Clean 3D art-style that's appetizing to the eye.
  • Plenty of recipes to play and make at home.
  • Bouncing jazz soundtrack.

CONS

  • Controls aren't always intuitive and can feel overly sensitive at times.
  • Easy to lose a star for a minor mistake.

VERDICT

Pocket Chef gives you a chance to not only live out some cooking fantasies, but is also a great game that gives you the tools to try it for yourself at home with or without the mess.


  • Full Review
  • App Store Info

Whether or not French cuisine agrees with you or not, it's not hard to recognize that France is the home of exquisite food. So it's no big surprise that French publisher Gameloft has created their own spin on cooking games with Pocket Chef being the first 3D version to hit the App Store.

There are no real surprises when playing each of the cooking mini-games. The gameplay is refined from popular variants like Cooking Mama, requiring players to slice, tap, swirl and drag food to successfully craft each meal. While each mini-game is often great at boiling down the actions it depicts, slicing can become a hazardous chore with tiny movements easily resulting in bad cuts.

Going to 3D was a huge risk for Gameloft with semi-realistic depictions of food in their various states could have easily looked distasteful. Thankfully the simplified, clean art style makes it easy to identify the food and may even tempt you with how delicious it looks. As a bonus the game also comes with a recipe book of all the foods you've unlocked which you can browse at your leisure while listening to the crooning jazz soundtrack.

Pocket Chef is simply stunning in its execution and brings 3D flair to the cooking game genre. Anyone who has enjoyed cooking challenges or is even a bit of a closet chef will find something to love here, be it the fun mini-games to the helpful recipes you can try out. Great fun and great value.

Screenshots

Screenshot 1 of 5 Screenshot 2 of 5 Screenshot 3 of 5 Screenshot 4 of 5 Screenshot 5 of 5