In KuloNiku: Bowl Up!, players have just inherited a once-famous meatball restaurant named Bakuso in the cozy town of KuloNiku from their grandmother, who recently passed away. Players will take on eccentric orders from townsfolk, serve delicious meals, and bring the restaurant back to glory as the top eatery. However, players must beware—there’s fierce competition from the town’s flashiest rival: Souper Starz, run by the menacing rockstar chef, Stella. Getting to the top of the culinary town is a priority, but the stakes are never too serious.
I thoroughly enjoyed the art style and direction of KuloNiku: Bowl Up! went with the vibrant colour palette that was easily pleasing on the eyes. The small reactions that NPC’s make when talking to them are a cute addition, along with some of the onomatopoeia the voice actors provided. The overall character design resembled an anime-adjacent art style, mirroring a show like Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt.
Blending in with all the visual goodness, certain dialogue choices showcased even more hand-drawn, detailed scenes. Yes, this is a true simulator game with some dialogue choices that help progress the game by raising relationship levels with KuloNiku’s citizens. It was a thoughtful choice to show how the social aspects of the game can impact progress in this game, not solely the competitive cooking portion, adding more flavour to the story.
“Ultimately, KuloNiku: Bowl Up! was a really fun cooking sim.”
The recipes were not that complicated, even at the later stages. This showed that the devs did not deliberately create super difficult orders to stress the player, as if this were a chaotic cooking sim like Overcooked. To reinforce the slower-paced challenges in KuloNiku: Bowl Up!, the game has “Meatball Brawls” baked into it. This was a thrilling game show that featured 1v1 cooking battles between the player and someone from KuloNiku. It was not about speed, but strategy, creativity, and mastering the turn-based cooking mechanics. These battles also show how many ingredients the player can use in their own restaurant, once they buy the new ingredients needed from Ume’s Shop.
In terms of creative customizations, you can move workstations around to suit your preferences and playstyle when preparing customers’ orders. Then, there are ways to change the restaurant’s flooring and ceiling styles, cashier counter styles, and wall paint—along with many upgrades available from Ume’s Shop to optimize the player’s kitchen. Discovering new recipes with new ingredients added variety to customers’ orders throughout the game.
Another element in KuloNiku: Bowl Up! that kept things fresh was festivals. This was a great opportunity to earn extra money and vouchers on Saturdays. Essentially, it was a nice catch-up mechanic, since it allowed the player to serve four customers instead of the usual three customers per day. Also, there were special themes with rewards for fitting the theme or special food requests.
“To reinforce the slower-paced challenges in KuloNiku: Bowl Up!, the game has ‘Meatball Brawls’ baked into it.”
The game would not be cozy and cute without building out its cast of characters. Each one was as quirky and stereotypical as one can get. From a half-rockstar idol, half-chef and restaurateur named Stella to an old colleague from a previous life before becoming a chef named Dan, every person has some flavourful personality. I did not expect some of the backstories to be fully fleshed out, and what they were.
Ultimately, KuloNiku: Bowl Up! was a really fun cooking sim. I laughed and felt a little tug at my heartstrings with some of the dialogue and backstory. The game never felt overly difficult, and I like that it stuck to be a cozy, casual vibe by not overpenalizing orders with mistakes on them. Those who have played Good Pizza, Great Pizza or Lemon Cake will have a good time with this one.
The art style was vibrant and truly whetted my visual appetite. For those looking for a little bit of a cooking challenge game with a solid storyline, this could be the next game you pick up. The single-player aspect means it can be less chaotic than the co-op Overcooked games. It is only $11.99, with a sale at launch too, so quite a low cost for a great return.
