Preview: KuloNiku: Bowl Up! is a Spiritual Successor to Papa Louie's Cooking Games

A very fragmented part of my life was encompassed by playing Flash games on my parents' retro PC. When I wasn't obsessed with playing my childhood favorites on the PS2, you could be sure I was knee-deep in satisfying my dopamine receptors by browsing the catalog on Miniclip or Friv every once in a while.

One of them that stuck out to me like a sore thumb and sort of defined my (minor) guilty pleasure for casual management titles later on was the various Papa Louie cooking games from Flipline Studios. Pizzeria, Freezeria, Pancakeria, Cupcakeria—I played them all, or at least, experienced them to an extent until I dropped one entry for another.

Fast-forward to the current adult who's sometimes stuck in a midlife crisis, and I find myself in a similar position again with KuloNiku: Bowl Up!. It's a cute cooking management game that has its own bag of whimsical goodness, or rather, it's a dish served cozily warm.

I had the pleasure of playing a few hours of the early preview copy, with many of the deeper components still being fleshed out for the full release. For all the cozy game fans or even just the casual audiences like me, this one's a sleeper hit you can't miss. Let's talk about it.

Not Your Average Hell's Kitchen

Up until this point, the only titles I dabbled in previously that were remotely similar were Overcooked 2 and Cooking Simulator, with the former just being a chaotic frenzy for an hour or two with my friends/family rather than a proper management sim.

However, where KuloNiku shines the most is the cozy department. That, and its gameplay variety right from the opening hours, despite the bite-sized impressions it may give off at first glance.

You've got a fairly simple premise—the protagonist takes up the mantle at their Grandma's bowl shop in the local town of KuloNiku. Bakuso, a once legendary eating establishment, is now hanging in the balance on your commitment to it. Cater to customers like they're kings and build enough reputation to sell the name by word-of-mouth everywhere.

Together, alongside your childhood friend, Cassie, it's up to you to return Bakuso to the former glory it was and make it the the best eatery in town. And it all starts with serving a special conjunction of protein and carbs nestled in a hearty bowl.

Worthy of a Michelin Star

Normally, you would have to train for years to handle the heat in the kitchen as an amateur chef, but thankfully, you can put those worries to the side for the most part once you jump into KuloNiku. The gameplay is pretty straightforward, even if the game picks up steam with those order additions or mixups.

The basic gist is to whip up a steaming bowl of meat and carbs, depending on the customer's order. You've got three main stations to work with, from the main ones of boiling the protein to the seasoning station, where you add garnishes to jazz up the bowl's flavor profile.

That flavor profile system is generally very important, since you need to maintain factors like the bowl's sweetness, spiciness, or sourness as specified by the customer. Some customers can request the food to be extra sour, slightly sweet, or full-blown spicy.

Keep those customers waiting too long, and you'll drop their overall approval rating. However, once you get the ball rolling, the snappy controls for each station and quick order assembly make this feel like it'll never have to happen as long as you're attentive.

Oh, and it's worth mentioning that there's an entire cozy mode option you can toggle on and off from the main menu if the time-based or patience mechanics irk you in any way.

All things considered, everything on the gameplay side is very light-hearted, which is honestly great. You don't necessarily need to monitor the cooking process and put on a perfectionist act or anything. The core loop is all about remembering the requested ingredients and adjusting the flavor specification, because all of that gets tested in the Meatball Brawls.

A Masterchef in the Books

One of the highlights of the game so far was the Meatball Brawls. A special event that can take place on off days from managing the restaurant or during key story events with NPCs from around the block.

Meatbrawls, as Mami referred to them, pit you against a character in a one-on-one three-round battle as you pull out your culinary skills to impress the judges and audience members to win their approval points. The one with the most at the end is the winner.

The gameplay is still generally the same, but this time, you've got a couple of minigames added to the cooking process. Again, they're relatively chill since they're just basic QTEs that fill a completion gauge whenever you attempt actions like slicing or garnishing.

It felt like a pleasant surprise that Meatbrawls can be a bit challenging if you're not actively taking advantage of the scoring system here. See, you've got the judges on one end having their own unique requirements and taste profiles to keep in mind, but you can earn bonus points for impressing the live audience by tailoring specific actions for them in each round, like focusing on preparing the boiling stuff.

The audience bonus scoring meter is shared between both opponents, and whoever racks up enough points to complete the gauge gets the full approval rating. It adds a slight risk-reward layer, showing who'll pull out the stops first to get that red heart on their badge.

The only caveat was how, at one point, another competitor and I scored the maximum ten points for the win. The clear assumption would be that the game would call it a draw, but it weirdly gave me the win, even though the scores were the same. If they can increase the maximum score limit from ten for the full release, that'd make it more understandable.

Honoring your Grandma's Legacy

When you're not serving up an endless array of heartwarming bowls to hungry customers, you can hang out and strengthen your friendships with various characters. And surprisingly enough, they're pretty charmingly written here.

From getting to know more about your supposed past with Cassie in her hangouts and feeling a bit of an intimacy bond to hilariously dressing up Stella in a maid outfit—it's the usual comedy gags you'd see getting pulled off in anime. Still, it's really engaging for those who don't mind the low-poly visual style or just the quirky slice-of-life setting in these kinds of media.

Speaking of which, increasing those bonds as well as earning cash from the Bakuso management can lead you to earn some cheeky rewards. You can buy various goodies and new ingredients to use at the Ume General store, whose inventory refreshes every Friday in-game to incentivize purchasing from there more often.

And with those new ingredients, you can also later craft new recipes to make for the restaurant when you've got ample time on your hands. Because I mean, who doesn't love broadening their culinary expertise, am I right?

Overall, the game's focus on simplicity in the gameplay mechanics, along with a cutesy presentation, is solid groundwork for making it stand out in the indie landscape.

But even more so, Gambir Studio really put care into making it a worthwhile title to check out if you want something cozy to binge on, especially if you've got the Steam Deck.

KuloNiku: Bowl Up! has almost all the right ingredients in place—fulfilling and uplifting to play for an hour or two, just like sipping on a hot bowl of soup in the cold winter.

As long as they can further fine-tune the Meatball Brawls and story elements while also possibly paving the way for new additions post-release with updates to make players revisit the game periodically, I'll definitely be having my eyes set on the full release alongside my friends who equally enjoyed the free gameplay demo on Steam.