Messy Recipe: A Hidden Object Game
Messy Recipe is a short, sweet hidden object game about finding ingredients and cooking recipes with them. Remember all those hidden object scenes where you have to find a random assortment of items for no apparent reason, just because the scene is designed that way? Well, forget all that. Messy Recipe finally gives you a real reason to search through a cluttered scene, namely, to cook a recipe using what you find! And on top of that, this little game is packed with charm and more heart than titles ten times its length!
The gameplay consists of rummaging through a delightfully chaotic kitchen to find ingredients and tools for your recipes. Some items are sitting right there on the counter, but others are hiding in the fridge, tucked inside cabinets, or lurking behind curtains. The cooking system is fairly flexible too. Certain ingredients and tools are mandatory, but plenty of others are optional, letting you mix and match to your heart’s content—within sensible limits, of course. Want to make a cake filled with vegetable ingredients? Go for it! You can follow real-life logic if you prefer or go full chaos mode if that’s more your style.
The right side of the screen always shows you what the current recipe needs, with silhouette images and labels for the mandatory ingredients and tools to help you identify things at a glance, while leaving the optional slots deliberately blank for you to fill as you please. This way, the game offers both helpful guidance for the player without feeling too handholdy and leaves plenty of room for creativity.
There are 10 unique recipe types to discover, and finishing one for the first time unlocks 3–4 variations of it. If you’re going for 100% completion, you’ll want to cook them all. Thanks to the variety of requirements (use only ingredients of the same color, swap a pot for a steamer or a pan, and so on), it never feels like a chore. The hint system is also well designed: it points you straight to the next mandatory item you’re missing, with no cooldown whatsoever. It keeps the game accessible without ever making you feel stuck or like you’re banging your head against a wall.
The real star of the show is the story. You’re looking after your friend Kiko’s apartment while she travels, and it turns out her kitchen is haunted by the most adorable food spirit you’ve ever met: a shy ghost with the name of Bullion (as in “Boo” + bouillon). Bullion is the sweetest companion: witty, funny, and full of enthusiasm every time you cook something new. The dialogues at the start and end of each level are delightful, and Bullion’s little comments when you complete a recipe are the kind of thing that’ll make you grin every single time.
Messy Recipe is a cozy, wholesome experience from start to finish. If you’ve got an hour and a love for hidden object games, this one is totally worth checking out.