There are dozens of bizarro beat ’em ups outside of the mainstays, from Ninja Baseball Bat Man to Night Slashers. And then there’s Gourmet Warriors. Released on Super Famicom in 1995 as Gourmet Sentai Barayaro, the brawler finally arrived in English in 2018 thanks to Piko Interactive. Now it’s sharing the love with more platforms as part of publisher QUByte Interactive’s Classics lineup.
Following a release on Steam and a physical SNES cartridge, the next stop is PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Gourmet Warriors brings the beatdown to those platforms on August 31.
Heat ’em up
What puts the Gourmet in Gourmet Warriors, anyway? The characters might not be bipedal Food Fighters, but there is a rudimentary “cooking system” in place. While there are no traditional healing items, enemies drop ingredients that can be used to whip up meals between levels. I never thought I’d compare it to Zelda, but here we go. Like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, the right concoction can replenish more health. The three playable characters — Bonjour, Mademoiselle, and Trés Bien — have their own favorites, so you’ll want to keep that in mind when cooking.
The story hits all the mid-90s notes. The year 20XX, World War III, a setting called Zeus Heaven Magic City? The overexcited Vince McMahon meme intensifies with each sprinkle of narrative spice. In an alternate timeline, we would absolutely be talking about “that awesome Gourmet Warriors anime that ran for 87 episodes and two films.”
Gourmet Warriors comes to us from developer Winds and director Satoshi Fujishima, who worked on games like 1994’s X-Kaliber 2097. It has its roots in the campy buff action of the side-scrolling shoot ’em up series Cho Aniki. Some of the character models here may have already tipped you off on that one. The forgettable soundtrack is your first reminder of where this one rests in the halls of beat ’em up history, but genre completionists and oddball aficionados need to experience it at least once.
