NES Tribute: Panic Restaurant by LukeTheRipper on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Kokkun from Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World and Cookie from Panic Restaurant.

Part 9/24 of my NES Hidden Gems project.

About time I got back to this project.
You might think that me doing both Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World and Panic Restaurant at the same time is two similarly themed games by the price of one, but not really, both of these guys basically come from the same exact game, just with a different character.
You see, back in the NES days it wasn't uncommon for a game to have the protagonist switched, it was usually because of either censorship (like Contra and Probotector) or a case of "American Kirby is Hardcore" (where a cute character is switched for a "badass" one), and this one is surprisingly the former.
As ridiculous as it may sound, this game was actually censored because of... child labor You see, the main plot is that Kokkun is a chef and owns a restaurant, which is taken over by an evil chef called Ohdove... and for some unspecified reason, censors actually saw it as glorifying child labor... and you thought we had needlessly whining snowflakes nowdays...
As for the game itself, it may not be the longest of adventures, as Kokkun and Cookie's quest is only 6 stages long, but damn, is it a fun one. You'd think the novelty of the food theme will run out and get stale by the second or third stage, but it's actually very fun from start to finish. And theme aside, the platforming is top notch, so is the cutesy graphics and music, and of course, like any good NES game, the challenge is there as well. Definitely a game any retro enthusiast should try.

Kokkun & Cookie (c) Taito