Yakiniku Bugyou is a new release in the Japanese Import section on Playstation Network. Being the first in the series, you take on the role of a Japanese chef who has to grill food for customers on a barbecue. Yakiniku Bugyou is like being a barbecue pit master, but Japanese style.
The entire game revolves around you, the grill, and hungry customers. There is list of food on the right-side of the screen with a list of meats, fruits, and vegetables that are available for grilling. Not every customer will enjoy eating what you have to offer; this is where the puzzle aspect of Yakiniku Bugyou comes into play.
Since you don’t want to overcook your food, you must master the fire and figure out where the hot and warm parts of the grill are. If you happen to make certain foods too cool, your customers will refuse to eat, but uncooked food isn’t good either.
Yakiniku Bugyou is a strategic puzzle game that is unlike anything I have ever played before. You have to learn when to flip the meat so it cooks evenly without turning it into inedible chalk. What makes Yakiniku Bugyou hard is that everything is completely in Japanese. Figuring things out and understanding what to do will take some time.
Since the bulk of the game is based on trial and error, it doesn’t take very long to figure out how to cook the food, but there is definitely a learning curve to Yakiniku Bugyou. Despite being an older Playstation One title, Yakiniku Bugyou still has a certain appeal to it.
The graphics in Yakiniku Bugyou have held up well despite their age, but then again, they’re very simple in design. Your main vantage point is the grill; the customers are seated in the top-center of the screen, just above the grill in little windows waiting to be served. Everything is controlled by a pair of chopsticks; these act like a mouse curser that flips, cooks and places food on the grill.
There is very little music and/or sound in Yakiniku Bugyou. Aside from food sizzling on the grill, there isn’t much to listen to. An occasional music clip plays when you have either completed or failed your mission, but that’s about it.
Since I couldn’t understand the main menu system, it was difficult to understand ‘Story Mode’, but there is about 10 levels and a boss battle at the end.
The story mode takes about twenty to thirty minutes to complete. In arcade mode, you must serve hungry customers non-stop until you actually lose. Since there is no timer, there is very little pressure while cooking. The object is to serve your customers without making them upset or making them sick with badly cooked food.
Once you make one of the customers upset, the game ends and you are ranked on your performance. There is a leader board feature that tracks your performance during the course of gameplay. This is a nice feature for gamers who like to brag.
Seeing that Yakiniku Bugyou is a unique gaming experience, I would like to see more of this on the Playstation 3. It is actually a good change of pace from the other genres available today.
MonkeyPawGames should approach Sony about releasing Japanese Playstation 2 games on the Playstation Network. Gamers would certainly appreciate the option, and it would also make the Japanese Playstation 2 version of Yakiniku Bugyou: Bonfire available to us. This is a marketing idea just waiting to happen.
If you enjoy cooking and fancy puzzle games, then Yakiniku Bugyou is right up your alley. Once you figure things out, it feels like an early rendition of Cooking Mama.
James ‘Daripp3r’ Pittaro
Platform: Playstation 3
Developer: Media Entertainment
Publisher: MonkeyPawGames
ESRB: N/A
Price: $5.99
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Graphics |   |
| The graphics in Yakiniku Bugyou have held up well despite their age. | |
| Sound | |
| There is very little music and/or sound in Yakiniku Bugyou. | |
| Gameplay | |
| Yakiniku Bugyou is a strategic puzzle game that is unlike anything I have ever played before. | |
| Overall | |
|---|---|
| If you enjoy cooking and fancy puzzle games, then Yakiniku Bugyou is right up your alley. | |
