SAT-BOX create local multiplayer party games that revolve around very simple mechanics, and I have a lot of love for what they do. On the other hand, they love a reskin. Their Make It! series is fun, but if there is a Japanese food item you could grill, they’ve probably reskinned their score-chaser party game for it. Super Takoyaki Battle is the next progression on from that series, bringing all the things from a Make It! game and adding a fresh new Battle mode to the mix.
Let’s cover off the gameplay loop first. Players are given a takoyaki grill, full of semi-circle indents to cook takoyaki balls in. Each grill is separated into slow, medium, and fast cooking speeds, so as you spoon the batter and ingredients into each slot, they’ll cook at different speeds. After filling the slot with batter and ingredients, each takoyaki ball needs to be flipped halfway through cooking, and then served when fully cooked. Each ball is highlighted with a green panel when it is ready to be flipped or served, but if you take too long, it’ll turn yellow and then red as you cremate the poor thing. Perfect cooking scores 50 points, good (yellow) scores 30, but burnt cooking loses you points. There are three grills to choose from in time trial and 4-player time trial mode, where it’s a race to score as much as possible. It is a very simple game, but that’s what makes mistakes so costly. Playing against other people, or the hard AI, will set panic in when you over-commit and under-deliver.
The all new battle mode is where the best gaming for Super Takoyaki Battle is found. Here, 4 players (AI always fills the gaps) share the same large grill. Players score points for pouring batter and laying ingredients, as well as serving the end result, but now we have power-ups to change the game. Each power-up does something global, like turn up the heat or send a wave of water across the grill, or something local that protects an area of the grill for your points only. Each player can keep two power-ups at the same time, and things get rowdy quickly. My favourite game changer snaps the grill into two or four pieces, and if you are lucky, you’ll be left on your own to grab as many points as possible. Battle mode is aggressive, fast, and fun. It knocks the score-chasing modes out of the water and works well as a local multiplayer quickfire game in between other meatier titles.
My main worry, aside from only having two grills to try in battle mode, is that I suspect SAT-BOX may reskin this game with tons of other Japanese food like the Make It! series. Whilst I’ll likely end up buying them if they do, it’ll be on deep sale if there are no tangible gameplay changes between them. As a standalone title, Super Takoyaki Battle is the best food-game of SAT-BOX’s extensive catalogue to date. Serving up a treat on Switch and PC, this is a tidy morsel worth enjoying.
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