Nostalgia Game Review: Panic Restaurant

Today in another edition of Nostalgia Game Review, I review an NES game made by Taito called Panic Restaurant. It takes you on a journey as a chef who tries to get his restaurant back from Waluigi clone, Chef Oh'Dove (C'MON!). Known in Japan as Wanpaku Kokkun no Gourmet World, the game was released in 1992 and has you fighting burgers, chickens, and pizzas on the way to retaining your restaurant.

The game is... bizarre. The premise of being chased by an uncooked chicken and being in peril at the hands of rolling pizzas and exploding apples is something else. There's also ice-skating ice cream cones, possessed chairs, and voluptuous carrots that you have to worry about. This game is a trip.

The only gripe that I have about Panic Restaurant is that it's short. There's only six stages in the game (all named after courses of a meal) and it feels like there should be more to the game. Still, Panic Restaurant does have fun gameplay and has numerous sub-weapons, a la Castlevania, to help you on your conquest. Everything feels right aside from a few jumps when you play the game.

Overall, this game is fun to play and pick up. Yes, the game feels short and there are certain jumps that are aggravating to make. Still, Panic Restaurant is a nice game to pick up on the fly.