Gourmet Action Game: Manpuku!! Nabe Kazoku

About

Manpuku!! Nabe Kazoku turns cooking into a frantic eating contest. You wield chopsticks over a bubbling nabe pot, tapping X to check doneness and O to shovel food into your character’s mouth. The goal is to fill your "full" bar faster than opponents by landing cooked bites while avoiding raw ones that stall your progress. Rounds tick down as you chase combo bonuses for repeated dishes or chef-recommended meals. Play solo or challenge friends in head-to-head matches where timing and reflexes decide who gets stuffed first. This oddball simulator leans into its goofy charm with wacky opponents like blushing blondes, grumpy grandpas, and a baffling bear. Its stripped-down mechanics make it accessible but tricky, with surprise penalties and score boosts hiding in each pot. Though simplistic compared to deeper cooking games, its frantic pace and quirky characters earned a cult following. The PlayStation 3 and Portable ports keep this 2002 oddity from getting lost in the microwave.

Storyline

Face off against various opponents ranging from busty blondes and old men to bizarre things like a bear. You're faced with the task of filling your "full" bar up faster than your opponent by out-eating him/her/it using chopsticks and one big Nabe pot filled with food. You control the chopsticks over a never ending Nabe pot in which food is constantly cooked. Pressing X makes you poke at the food to see if it's cooked properly, and O makes you eat it. If you get three of the same kind of food you get bonus points. Same goes if you eat the combination of food suggested by the chef of the current game. However, if you eat raw or undercooked food you get stunned for a short while and lose a little bit of your "full" bar, and you have to hit the buttons fast to recover. The rounds are timed, and whoever gets the biggest meter at the end of the round wins the game. There are bonuses such as ones that empty your current food combo, stuns the opponent and score multipliers. The occasionally pop up from under food you've eaten from the Nabe. You can play the game by yourself or face off against a friend/foe in a vs. game.