A chef in a colorful NES action-platformer. Kitchen utensils as weapons, dishes as bosses. Fun and original concept, polished visuals. Overlooked but truly charming and recommendable.
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Category
Platformer1 player3+
Description
Action platformer featuring a chef battling creatures and monsters invading his restaurant. Published by Taito, released in the USA in 1992. Chef in side-scrolling view with kitchen utensils as weapons, food enemies and creative bosses. An original Taito platformer on NES.
Taito platformer from 1992 staging a chef against animated food, published at the very end of the American NES's life. Its late release schedule gave it a very short print run, which has made it one of the most expensive and most chased licensed NES titles on the market. Its desirability rests on this very real end-of-generation scarcity, doubled with a colorful art direction that forged a solid cult status.
An underrated gem
A cook who blasts living food with a frying pan in his own restaurant: this Taito platformer overflows with charm and visual inventiveness, level after level. Its late, low-key release quickly saw it forgotten. Colorful and full of ideas, it'll enchant fans of joyful, polished platformers.
Is Panic Restaurant still worth playing in 2026?
Panic Restaurant is a Taito action-platformer in which the cook Cookie crosses a restaurant overrun by living creatures made of food, using varied kitchen utensils. The colorful and inventive art direction, the zany culinary bestiary and a responsive playability make it a charming and polished platformer with a well-marked identity. The short length tempers the enthusiasm a little. For fans of inventive NES platformers and gems with cartoon charm, it is a genuine success, pleasant and original to rediscover.
