Baking is an art form, an act of science which we all know tastes and smells fantastic. I know all this because I spent twelve years of my life as a skilled baker knocking out all sorts of outstanding oven-baked goods for the general public. Weirdly, even though I’ve moved on with my profession, whenever I see a game that even has a tinge of cakes, cookies or bread in it, I am there. I’m talking brilliant indies such as Donut County or Cake Bash which have sucked me in previously. Super Perils of Baking is the latest title to infuse some of the goodies we all enjoy into its adventure. Developed and published by Lillymo Games, this experience is a throwback to side-scrolling 2D platformers we all know and love. Is there a baker’s dozen of hours in this one?

Introduction

What I didn’t realise until I read more into the game was the fact that this is a remake from the ground up of a previous title Perils of Baking. So four years down the line after the first instalment, we see an improved version. Now I wasn’t lucky enough to play the original so can’t make any direct comparisons, but I’d imagine they have enhanced it in several ways. The story is a little bit of a wacky one, with two brothers in direct competition with each other. You play the super talented brother and your focus is to stop your sibling from creating carnage across the world who has an enchanted baker’s hat from their school basement. A refreshing take on the story and narrative as most games in this genre focus heavily on saving someone, a la Super Mario. Super Perils of Baking is surprisingly content-rich with approximately fifty levels to work through each with collectables and secret areas to uncover as you progress.

Gameplay

Super Perils of Baking handles exactly how you’d expect a platformer to control. You’ll be negotiating platforms, collecting cookies, attempting to dispatch enemies and ideally finding and discovering hidden collectables scattered amongst the plethora of levels on offer. Baddies that you encounter are well designed even if they do come across as a little more sluggish than you’d anticipate them to be. Early on you’ll have possessed waffles, cookies, doughnuts and even flying croissants doing anything to hamper your progress through the storybook land. The choice is yours when it comes to collecting all the extra gear that you can find. This adds replayability and longevity for completionists who can’t move on until they have seen and done everything. Between levels, you’ll have the opportunity to sacrifice all those delicious cookies you’ve collected to purchase extra lives and other enhancements.

One of these upgrades is a baker’s hat which can also be obtained within levels. This will give your character the ability to deal melee damage and chuck whisks at range to kill enemies. Without this power, you have to use the old-fashioned method of jumping on their head or avoiding them completely. The balance of difficulty is perfect, some sections of levels can be nice and easy whilst others provide a real challenge, such as surveying a large gap or how to overcome it. Both myself and my four-year-old son had great fun taking it in turns throughout our time with the game.

Graphics & Audio

Visually Super Perils of Baking is wonderfully illustrated and whilst it does bring that retro 16-bit vibe from the ’90s across, it does a phenomenal job in doing so. The pixel art style brings enough variance in the blend of colours across the screen. The contrast difference from other platformers makes it a quirky and eccentric adventure in a good way. Character and enemy design is marvellous in the fact it brings unique elements I’ve never seen in another platformer. Whilst the baddies were very predictable in their actions and movement almost all of the time, I would have liked to have seen a little more erratic and spontaneous fluidity in how they go about their day.

The audio design mimics the well-fashioned graphics with a soundtrack that brings high energy but doesn’t go overboard or become irritating. Often in some games of this nature, I tend to turn off the music as I find the repetitive tones tyrannical. Luckily they have it just right here with the sound effects fused together nicely.

In Conclusion

Super Perils of Baking caught me off guard in a great way. For the low price point, you have a detailed and content-rich 2D platformer which possesses enough nostalgic zest to keep us older gamers happy whilst giving casual newcomers a solid and varied entry to the platforming genre. The development team have done a sterling job at giving it a retro look and feel whilst retaining solid mechanics and physics that make all platformers a fun and laid-back experience. If you’re a fan of games such as Sonic and Mario and want to go off the beaten track looking for similar engagements, then I’d urge you to give this one a try. In baking, sometimes you need to take whisks, and the whisk of investing in this one is more than worth your time.