Panic Restaurant stars a chef named Cookie who must navigate through his own restaurant, which has been cursed by a rival chef named Ohdove. Cookie has to battle evil food monsters with kitchen utensil weapons in six levels before taking on Ohdove in a final battle.
Development
Kenji Eno was the game's designer. The names of the game's main character and villain were changed when the game was localized for Western audiences. In the Japanese version, the hero is a chef named Kokkun. The main villain was named "Hors d'Oeuvre"; the name "Ohdove" was the result of an incorrect transliteration of a French word to Japanese and then to English. In the overseas versions the "Clobber Pan" replaced the chef's head as the default weapon. Also, the best weapon was the "Wacky Pan", which did not exist in the Japanese version.
Panic Restaurant received generally positive reviews from video game critics. Power Unlimited gave a score of 80% commenting: "Panic Restaurant is one of the tastiest platform games of all time. You work your way through the six levels in this game, because there is good food everywhere. The juicy graphics and crunchy humor only add to this."
Notes
↑GamePro gave scores of 4.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 for graphics, sound, control, and fun factor
↑Average of component scores of 3.4, 3.5, 3.4, and 3.8.