Hell's Kitchen: The Game

Hell's Kitchen: The Game
Developer	Ludia
Publisher	Ubisoft
Platforms	Wii, Nintendo DS, Windows, IOS, Mac OS
Release	September 9, 2008
Genre	Simulation
ESRB Rating	Teen

Hell's Kitchen: The Game was a video game based on the reality show Hell's Kitchen. It was released on September 9, 2008

Description

Hell’s Kitchen is a TV phenomenon featuring world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay putting aspiring chefs through rigorous culinary tests. The game recreates the show's pressure-cooker atmosphere as players complete a series of kitchen and dining room challenges to find out if they have what it takes to be a "Five-Star" chef. Fulfilling an order requires three important phases - preparation, cooking, and service, all of which players must master to progress. Prepare ingredients, cook them to the correct quality, and get food out of the kitchen on time. Each complete meal is scored by Chef Gordon Ramsay to make the kitchen boot camp experience come alive.

Gameplay

The game features two distinct game modes: Career and Arcade.

Career mode

Career mode has the player build their restaurant into a five-star rated establishment. The game features six ranks that go from Dishwasher, Apprentice, Junior Cook, Cook, Senior Chef, and Legendary Chef (awarded if a player completes all levels with 5 stars). Each rank has a set of seven levels (or days), and if the player completes the week and collects a certain number of stars in the previous levels, the next rank will be unlocked, and the player will receive a star for their restaurant. As the player progresses through the days, the difficulty increases with more recipes, ingredients, cookware, tables, and different types of customers.

In each level, the player is responsible for performing several restaurant duties such as cooking, serving, waiting, and showing people to their tables. Similar to the show, Ramsay will insult the player if they struggle to complete a task. Next to Ramsay is his patience meter. The meter goes up when customers are becoming impatient or the player messes up in the kitchen and lowers as the player successfully performs a task. If the meter reaches the top, the player fails the level and is awarded no stars. Otherwise, if the player manages to serve all the customers for the day, they are awarded 1-5 stars based on their performance. After completing each level, Ramsay will award the player with a copy of one of his 35 recipes.

Every Monday, Ramsay puts the player into a Kitchen Test where they must complete a challenge that he issues. The player can use both the red and blue kitchens to cook their dishes, and it is possible to cook multiple dishes simultaneously.

Arcade mode

Arcade mode has the player complete multiple recipes in time. If the player fails, Ramsay will become infuriated and close the restaurant down.

Development

Ludia began development on the game on October 25, 2007, after acquiring the rights from Grandia America. Tony Key, the senior vice president of sales and marketing at Ubisoft, praised the development of the game and Ramsay's involvement in the game, stating that "Hell's Kitchen has everything a great video game needs: pressure, excitement and intense competition. We are very excited to be bringing the intensity of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and the Hell's Kitchen experience to the virtual world this fall."

Reception

The game received mixed reviews. While some praised the game for being fun, others criticized the game for poor controls and the short length of the game.

Gamesradar.com gave the game 2.5 stars out of 5 stating, “It’s simple fun, but fun that’s worthy of a decent score as a cheapo Wiiware game, not on a full-price disc. At that price, it can go **** **** and **** itself – as Gordon would say.

Serioiseats.com gave the game a C- rating.

IGN gave both the DS and PC ports a 5 out of 10 rating stating, “Though devoid of fun, I'd like to say that the gameplay was challenging in the sense that it does offer a sense of accomplishment; quickly analyzing the dishes and prioritizing the cooking order feels like some kind of nerdy challenge. However, the sheer, mind-boggling repetitiveness of the game nullifies that; the only thing Hell's Kitchen teaches you to do is tap on the screen quickly [click on a mouse quickly. In fact, the mouse clicking is so repetitive and rapid it actually started to hurt; jolts of pain raced up my fingers and arm. So you've been warned: the only real recipe in Hell's Kitchen is the one for carpal tunnel syndrome.]”

Trivia

• The game was released to coincide with the airing of Season 4.
• Unlike the show, Ramsay does not use profanity when berating the player for any mistakes. This was done due to the Teen rating. After the game’s release, fans wanted a less tame version, so Ludia released a limited edition “Uncensored” version for download. It was available up until the Season 4 finale.