Technical Information

Developer: Winds
Publisher: Piko Interactive LLC, Bleem!
Release Date: July 3, 2019

Gourmet Warriors (originally released in Japan as Gourmet Sentai Bara Yarou) is an obscure beat’em up that was only released in Japan and did not receive an official English localization at the time. Originally launched for the Super Famicom, it received an English port in 2019.

After the Third World War, the planet Terr was devastated.
A city called Zeus Heaven Magic City shelters some of the survivors, and a secret organization is growing and taking control of food production.
Your mission is to combat that organization.

Final Considerations – Analyzing the Game as a Whole

Graphics and UI

I really liked the game’s art, with the highlight being the detailed environments that give off a highly technological vibe.
The enemies are well differentiated, some of them being quite bizarre. I enjoy that unique touch often found in Japanese games.

However, I found some of Mademoiselle’s poses to be strange. She stands in positions that seem anatomically uncomfortable.

Visually, it’s an easy game to comprehend, especially considering it’s a 90s-style beat’em up. It’s intuitive, and even someone who hasn’t played this type of game before should be able to grasp how it works. You have an HP bar, and when you hit enemies, their life bar appears on screen.
When collecting food, its name is displayed. However, in the case of items that restore HP, the game does not show how many points are added to your health.

Soundtrack and Sound Effects

The music is energetic and not annoying.

Gameplay

The story is simple, almost silly, if we look at it objectively. But considering it’s a 90s game focused primarily on gameplay, that makes sense. The focus is literally just punching enemies and picking up food.

It’s creative in some aspects: when you defeat an enemy, they drop an ingredient (which can restore a small percentage of your HP). After defeating a boss, you choose two ingredients collected during the stage to create a dish. That dish restores a percentage of your HP for the next stage.

There are three playable characters, each with their own speed and move set.

Using the L and R buttons isn’t very intuitive. My tip is to press them while punching, you’ll discover new moves that help a lot when progressing through the game.

Personally, I found the defense button useless. I beat the game without using it! Hahaha
On the other hand, the game can be confusing: you technically only have one life to finish it. However, if you get a game over, you can continue from where you left off. So the sense of difficulty feels somewhat artificial.

If there were some kind of score system that reset after a game over, I think there would be more incentive for players to try finishing the game without using continues.

This port added the option to use save states. I found it very useful, if you want to stop playing and come back later, you can resume from the exact same point.

I liked it overall, I just thought it was too short.

Replayability and Game Retention

I would definitely play it again.

Despite its small flaws, it’s a fun game. You can easily kill time and have a good time with it.