Cooking Mama Let's Cook! vs Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands
Cooking Mama Let's Cook!
Cooking Mama Let's Cook! is a true cooking simulation where you actually learn how to prepare the dishes yourself rather than simply clicking on the stove and waiting for the foodstuff to be cooked on its own. You can hone, in a casual sort of way, various actual cooking skills like chopping, baking, stewing, etc as you play the game. Not to mention, the dishes you've prepared can then be served to the customers in your virtual restaurant as well. The cash you earn can then be reinvested into your shop in the form of more kitchen appliances, better tools, more tables or nicer decor.Cooking Mama Let's Cook! sets the precedence for a whole new kind of cooking-themed games where players actually get to cook the stuff they want to serve. It may feel a bit arcade-y, due to all the cartoons and effects, but it does pave way to one of the most realistic cooking simulator I've seen on virtual reality, CyberCook Taster.
Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands
Stranded Sails - Explorers of the Cursed Islands is a farm simulation/adventure game where you’ll not only need to maintain a farm and make sure that your surviving crew’s needs are being met; you’ll also need to set off on mini-expeditions to explore the many mysterious islands within the archipelago and to discover the secrets they hide. Maybe, if you’re lucky, you might end up finding a way off the island after all!The game is really easy to get into, mainly because the game is driven by its story-based quests so by completing these quests, you be able to unlock new areas and even new tools that will allow you access to different parts of the archipelago. However, you’re given complete freedom to explore any of the islands as you wish, though there are certain parts of the island that would be “roped off” until you’ve progressed far enough into the story and have unlocked the necessary tools.
Everything you do in this game requires energy - and yes, this includes walking – and it’s the main “currency” you’ll need to keep an eye on whenever you head out for a bout of exploring or just a resource-gathering run. Due to this energy system, the gameplay here can be quite strategic, forcing you to decide when you’d want to focus on exploring and when you’d want to spend some of the energy you have to gather some resources like fishing and chopping some trees.
Being a farm simulation game, Stranded Sails also has an allocated area within your base camp for you to grow some crops and feed your crew. You can even try your luck by fishing at the ocean, and then use those raw ingredients to whip up some delicious food to fuel your adventures.
So, overall, Stranded Sails is an oddly strategic farm sim/adventure game mainly because of its energy system, and as a result, the game isn’t as casual as some players would have liked. That said, the game has an interesting storyline going for it, and the gameplay, aside from the energy aspect, isn’t too shabby either. It’s definitely a game that fans of Harvest Moon or other similar games would love to play.