Since as far back as I can remember, couch co-op games and their knack for ending deep, everlasting friendships, have always been a fun and chaotic part of my life. From the NES heydays of Battletoads, Contra, and the much beloved TMNT II: Arcade Game (I was more of a Manhattan Project boy myself, but to each his own), to the 16-Bit era of Super Smash TV, Streets of Rage and beyond, the idea of plopping yourself onto a sofa with a best friend was always a cornerstone of the gaming experience. Even today where online gaming is most rampant, standout titles like A Way Out, Rayman Legends, Overcooked, Cuphead, and all things Behemoth, haven’t ignored this most essential part of gaming – its ability to bring people together and to create memories in a real, tangible way. Bake n’ Switch, a game developed by Streamline Games, looks to be the next couch co-op sensation. While the chances of ending a friendship or two are baked into its wild gameplay, the way Bake n’ Switch serves up fun is guaranteed to satisfy any gamer’s palette.
The absurd backstory goes a bit something like this: some time ago the First Bakers of the land came together to defeat the Scourge, a foul entity that threatened their most precious – and insanely cute – food source. Now you and a team of up to 4 bakers must take that food source (that just so happens to be adorable dough creatures) and sacrifice them to the Guardians of Dough. And how do you sacrifice them you ask? By throwing them into a sentient, bossy stone oven – obviously. So you know that feeling you get when you see a puppy for the first time and your heart swells up with so much joy that you think you might die? That’s the way you’ll feel about these dough creatures. And you’ll love them just long enough before you have to throw them into the fire. But hey, at least you’ll enjoy fun and frantic gameplay that moves at such a fast pace, you’ll forget all about roasting those innocent blobs of would-be bread.
That sentient oven thing has got certain needs and it demands to be fed in a very specific way. Like any food service game with its salt, the game is built around two core mechanics: satisfying your customer’s order, and reaching a threshold score before time runs out. At the onset of the demo I was able to choose from 4 main characters. Naturally, I gravitated towards the granny. If I learned from my Greek heritage it’s that no one can handle dough like yiayia did – she had the forearms of Hercules, I tell you! The lower right-hand of the screen indicates which order the stupid oven wants. Get the order wrong and that oven will have a meltdown of a bitch-fit and take way some of your points for being a reckless dummy. As for the orders you’ll be filling, the demo at PAX East featured round, dumpling-like creatures, dough-dough birds (the puns are strong with this one), and monkeys. Now you could, like an absolute pleb, take a single dumpling, launch it into the burning maw of the oven – if that’s what its dumb face wants – and move onto the next order. But if you want to be more than someone who wakes up at noon every day and takes a good look in the mirror and says “as little as possible”, then I suggest you pay attention. For to truly rise in Bake n’ Switch (see, I can pun too), you’re going to take those glutinous lumps of living bread and combine them to make bigger dough. The bigger the dough, the higher the score. That oven is rather knead-y (this is life now), and the only way to please it – and yourself, really – is to feed it a massive ball of dough. By flinging your docile doughies into each others squishy faces, you can merge them to form a bigger, fatter ball of dough. A number counter hangs atop of each blob which lets you know the total you’ve tossed into the mix, maxing out at 30. To speed things up, you can hold down the Throw Button and heave your pulpous pals across great distances. The longer you hold down the button, the further the throw. This is great for passing your culinary creations across a wide gap to your teammates, or ricocheting it off a wall to bounce into that pesky oven.
Along with forming your massive walking dough balls and being mindful of each order while the clock continues to tick, the demo showed off a few other elements that added a bit more flavor to the gameplay – literally. Pools of pineapple juice, watermelon jam, and trees filled with coconuts are but a few of the flavor options you can enhance your dough balls with. You can do this by them into the colorful flavor pools or by launching them headfirst into a coconut tree – whatever works. Since there is an incredible amount of shit happening on-screen at once however, it can be easy to mistakenly imbue your dough with the wrong flavor. Like any master chef would do, you can toss that little accident into a lake to wash it clean and restore it back to its default, Plain Jane status; I’m sure Gordon Ramsey would approve. I’m sure this all sort of sounds simple enough: make great big balls of dough, add flavor when needed, work as a team, blah blah blah. But there is still one more part of the Bake n’ Switch recipe we need to toss in the pot, and that’s enemies and combat.
As a baker, you can use your oven-mitt covered hands for more than picking up dough. By pressing the Attack Button you can punch enemies in the face and prevent them from souring your dough. Grotesque, sludge like creatures litter this world of living dough and are drawn to your balls like a monkey on a cupcake. If they come into contact with your dough sacks, they will stop them dead in their tracks and worse yet, decrease their body mass thus undoing all your hard work. So punch those suckers and punch them good. This is where assigning roles to the team came in handy as I was able to focus on preparing a max dough while two teammates dealt with the enemies slugs. Later on in the demo, the game spiced things up by adding spores into the mix, an infectious affliction which prevents you from interacting with your dough and spreads faster than a zombie outbreak. You can punch your problems away though so as Mr. Biden says, just keep punching at it, and punching at it, and punching at it! And if things get too intense you can always use a special ability. Icons will occasionally appear on the map and nabbing it will grant you with a one-time use special ability. The one ability on display was a lighting move which summoned a tiny bolt of zappy energy from the sky that would fry nearby enemies.
Before I wrap up things up, I do want to mention the game’s graphics and design – which is so darn cute it’s borderline illegal. Every model is brightly colored and well-animated. It may seem like things can easily go a-rye amidst the on-screen madness, but Streamline Games has done a well-done job in making everything ultra clear to the player. Each asset, from the bubbly bakers and dough creatures to the enemies, is so distinct that I only really lost myself in all the fun I was having.
Bake n’ Switch is a game that is absolutely dripping with sweetness. The demo was just enough to fill my belly, and it gave me a hearty glimpse into the satisfying meal that awaits me when it is cooked to perfection later this year. With a PVP Mode mixed into its wackiness, Bake n’ Switch looks to be the next must-play title for any game night. It’s got just the right ingredients to serve up plenty of hilarity, good times, and a dollop of anxiety for good measure. It’s simple, it’s fun, and not crumby at all.
Bake n’ Switch is currently scheduled to release for the Nintendo Switch and PC later this year. You can wish-list it on Steam here.
