Who doesn’t love cooking together? Especially when the little buns you are baking are just the cutest things in the world that beg to be put into the oven? In Bake ‘n Switch, the upcoming party game from Streamline Media, this is precisely what you’ll be doing. And like in similar games, such as Overcooked, it too will be the cause of many family feuds.
We first ran into Bake ‘n Switch at Gamescom 2019. During the encounter, we played together in local co-op with the objective of stuffing as many adorable buns into the oven before time runs out. Now, we got another glimpse at the game before its release, including its online multiplayer mode.
Gotta Bake Fast
In Bake ‘n Switch, as is appropriate for a competitive baking game, you have two modes available: either play with your friends, or against them. Whichever one you choose, your objective is pretty straightforward: get the buns into the oven.
While playing in co-op, you rake points as a group. In competitive mode, you will need to get the most points on your own while fighting everyone for a handful of those precious buns. You can smush small buns together into bigger buns before baking them (with a maximum of 30). The time big bun spends in the oven is longer, but you’ll yield way more points.
You can play with up to 4 players in a single game, with each one controlling a different character named after a spice, like Ginger or Basil. Initially, Bake ‘n Switch was supposed to feature only local multiplayer, but as part of a Kickstarter campaign, the developers added on online multiplayer at launch.
We’re delighted Bake ‘n Switch now supports online multiplayer. Not only because we can’t always get together in the same place to play, but also since now it’ll be harder for soon-to-be mortal enemies to throw things at us in real-life.
Take the Heat With the Kitchen
As part of the gameplay, you won’t just throw stuff at the friends sitting next to you but will also need to throw those sweet and sentient buns into the ovens scattered around each map. While holding a bun, you can’t move very fast, so you’ll need to coordinate a quick game of catch with other players. You can’t put the buns down once you picked one up, but we hope this won’t be the case in the full game.
Sounds easy so far, right? The first levels are pretty simple, so you can learn to work together as a team. The difficulty doesn’t spike until buns shaped like dodo birds start appearing. Dodo buns must be combined, but won’t mix with the regular buns. That is when the real chaos begins.
Getting a sweet score of three-stars at more advanced levels is not going to be an easy task. In more advanced levels, you will come across worm-like mold creatures who will spoil your buns if they touch them. The more they hurt your buns, the lower your score will be when you bake them, and all your hard work will be for nothing.
Those monsters can also climb into the ovens and render them useless for a short time. Fortunately, you can punch the mold creatures and destroy them, but that too costs precious time.
All for Buns and Buns for One
If you’re feeling like playing against your friends, you can pair up in versus mode, or even engage in a free-for-all. Each player or a team has their own oven they continuously need to stuff with delicious buns.
Competitive multiplayer adds a different flavor to Bake ‘n Switch. The option to interrupt your friends’ baking by making them drop their buns, throw the wrong type of dish into their oven, or just stand there and block their way is pure malicious fun. You’re in for plenty of laughs and yelling all across the living room and even the kitchen.
At this point, the online multiplayer only lets you play with friends, so you can’t invite complete strangers to a random cook-off. Maybe that’ll be an option once the full game is out. Or maybe we’ll have to stick to yelling at our closest friends.
Bake ‘n Switch is set to release sometime during the summer of 2020 on PC through Steam, and the Nintendo Switch.
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