A game with an innocent name and an attractive retro-neon style. Is this a new family game to enjoy with the whole family? Well no. But it is fun.
What is it about?
Cookie Cutter sounds like a friendly game. About a baking school where you have to make the most beautiful cookies. Or where you have to match cookies with their increasingly complicated baking patterns. Or perhaps it is a cynical indictment of dime-a-dozen products that slowly drive a worker on the assembly line crazy.
With the latter you are closest. The game takes place in a crumbling world where human souls are put into robot bodies to avoid death. With the small print stating that you are then under the control of a megalomaniac leader.
You take on the role of Cherry, one of those robots. She is brutally destroyed when her great love is kidnapped. She is being repaired and has only one goal: to find her loved one. And in the meantime, take revenge on the perpetrators and anyone else who stands in her path.
The developer itself describes the game quite nicely: a hyper-violent 2D hand-drawn techno-pop-punk post-Kawaii Metroidvania. Let’s break that description down for a moment.
Hyperviolent
It is indeed. Cherry will have to defeat many enemies in her quest and does so with a great sense of style. She tears enemies apart, hits them with a huge fist, cuts them in half, blows them up. Not as cozy as the title suggests.
2D
Just like the old one Mario ‘s. You can jump, dodge, attack, all from the side view. A perspective that clearly refers to earlier times, when these types of games were much more common. In that sense, the nostalgia factor is high. And like others in the genre, the game is also tough. You have to react quickly, dodge a lot, pay close attention. Losing your edge for a moment will cost you dearly.
Hand-Drawn Techno-Pop-Punk-Post-Kawaii
Quite a mouthful that mainly refers to the appearance of the game. Because although the design is quite old-fashioned, the look of the game is completely up to date again. A smooth hand-drawn style with lots of pink neon, characters with punk hairstyles and a matching techno beat. And that Post-Kawaii? That stands for Japanese cuteness. But then beyond that. And in the bloodiest form.
Metroidvania
A merger of two classic game series, Metroid and Castlevania. Together they are more or less seen as the founders of their own genre. In these types of games you have several linked environments that need to be discovered. You often get new objects and skills along the way, with which you can master (new) enemies.
But is it also fun?
Certainly, as long as you know that this is not a game to play leisurely. It’s meant to challenge you and it does. And seasoned connoisseurs of the genre do not need major innovations, as Cookie Cutter colors too much within the expected lines. The style comes out well and the story is colored by characteristic characters that you encounter here and there.
Cookie Cutter is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. The game was created by Subcult Joint LTD and published by Rogue Games, Inc. Age: 16+