Reviews: Cookie Cutter - Overkill Edition
My first Switch game review and it's for this unapologetic, violent metroidvania
Now I incidentally only just posted about my time with Cookie Cutter on the steam deck, despite having played it in Sept 2024, but turns out the team are releasing the game on the Switch on March 27th, with a tonne of new features and improvements which will also be part of a major free update on PC, called The Overkill Edition.
I reached out to their press department and received a key for the switch, to compare how the game plays differently but also to explore all the new bits a little bit earlier. I was impatient and excited. I thought the game was really fun anyways but something was lacking and maybe I would find it in the update, of which there is a lot.
This is not a simple port of the game but a whole v2.0 I would say. The game now seems like a polished experienced with full voice acting included.
More info on the details of the update here, but the things I want to call out that I was excited to see more about are these:
Full voice acting for every character in the game
New NPCs added
New cutscenes before every boss fight
New combat ability: “Combat Frogs”
Animated portraits added for Headless Denzel, Jacko, Stonic, and Foby Tox
Map updates and more hidden Easter eggs
About the game
Fueled by love but driven by rage, Cherry embarks on a blood-soaked quest for revenge, explores the massive Megastructure, and eviscerates the armies of Infonet in a best-in-class action-adventure that breaks tropes and bones. Cookie Cutter, which IGN calls a “GORY, GORGEOUS, AND BLOODY GOOD METROIDVANIA,” features lovingly crafted hand-drawn 2D visuals, challenging and satisfying combat, a wild dystopian world full of irreverent characters, buckets of violence, and underneath it all a sweet, beautiful story.
Margot’s stats
Device: Nintendo Switch Oled
Difficulty: NA
Completed: No not on switch yet
Time: ~8 hours
Summary: Vibrant and violent metroidvania. That sums this game up. The hand drawn art style is refreshing, in your face and colourful, well red with a lot of blood. This is a fun and awesome metroidvania, elevated by the update, with full voice acting, addition of more easter eggs from pop and gaming culture. The combat is slick and fast paced with a variety of moves and finisher moves a la Mortal Kombat.
Score: 8.5/10 - EDIT I previously gave the game a 7.5 but I think this update elevates the game to an 8.5/10 - bear in mind though it is violent and unapologetically so. It just speaks its mind and that can be a bit in your face. So not for the faint hearted, but I had a lot of fun with it.
Impressions
You can read my original thoughts here. This update is huge and the voice acting is the first major difference I came across and all the voices I have come across are really good. Here and there I had of course different voices in my own head from my first play-through, but I loved the actual voice acting. It really draws you in and helps with the initial engagement and getting stuck in to the story.
I can struggle to re-play a game from the beginning but the addition of actual voices throughout the game made it a lot more engaging, and initially like a fresh gaming experience on the switch.
I didn’t talk about this in my previous review but the art is heavily inspired by manga and anime and weirdly transports me back into my teenage years, when I was a bit of a punk rocker/rebel. Having recently watched the interview with Stefano, one of the artists of the game, I completely understand now why I felt the way I did when playing it the first time round and also the second time. For the switch edition it feels like rebelling against the Nintendo switch’s cozy gaming feel by playing this violent, rebellious metroidvania on it. And I like that.
The combat still feels really slick and possibly tweaked as I am a lot better at parrying on the Overkill edition on the switch. Am I a better gamer on the switch?! No I will credit the devs with improving the combat and fine tuning parrying. :)
The cut scenes before every boss battle are a nice touch too. They add to the polished feel of the game and give another excuse to enjoy the artwork.
Below is an example of one of the first you will come across. So not too much of a spoiler and also not one of the most artistically interesting in my opinion. There are a lot more interesting bosses, but I found discovering them myself satisfying so don’t want to take away from that.
Switch performance
I have had no way to test the frames per second or anything specific, so I am going by feel. The game is beautiful on the switch OLED screen and generally very smooth and responsive to play. The main times I did see it stutter was when the big enemy battle rooms would load up suddenly. But this did not take away from the overall experience of the game. To me the movement and combat has been improved a little as it felt even better to do the platforming challenges and fight moves, and like I mentioned above, I could actually parry. So the fact the game was tweaked for performance as well as look and feel is evident to me.
As a side scrolling metroidvania it really fits in well on the switch and I am grateful to have this game across two ecosystems now. It means it will always be with me if I need to kick some butt and channel some of Cherry’s attitude.
Verdict 8.5/10
This is of course still an awesome metroidvania, with a refreshing and unique art style, and it is very violent and in your face, which understandably may put some players off. The Overkill Edition polishes the game in many ways by adding more art, incredible voice acting and even more secrets and fun to discover.
There was just something that spoke to me about this game, and it puts a huge smile on my face. A mix of the fast paced combat, over the top finisher moves a la Mortal Kombat and character building enhanced by the voice acting performances made me want to see more and more, again!
For completionists, there is a lot to go back to and do beyond the story, and even more so in the overkill edition. Get it for your switch and make it into a little battle anime movie that you can play yourself rather than watch. :)
Cookie Cutter Overkill on Steam.
Cookie Cutter Overkill on Switch.
Now this is my jam, might go see if there's a sale on it!
"I am going by feel" - I vastly prefer this approach over tech jargon reviews. That stuff is important to some gamers and that's fair enough, but I'm way more interested in how a game feels and plays and less bothered by refresh rates or frames per second or whatever.