When comparing Kirby Star Allies vs Overcooked 2, the Slant community recommends Overcooked 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best couch/local co-op games for the Nintendo Switch?” Overcooked 2 is ranked 30th while Kirby Star Allies is ranked 42nd. The most important reason people chose Overcooked 2 is:
Whether you played the first Overcooked or not, Overcooked 2 is easy to figure out right from the get-go. The recipes for each dish are familiar even if you're not much of a chef, so you can remember which raw ingredients you need as you make your way around the kitchen and work with your co-op partner(s). Once you play a few rounds, you should have a good handle on things, helping you focus on getting everything done as quickly as possible from there on out.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Cool platforming gameplay that keeps you engaged
The platforming gameplay in Kirby Star Allies is great with some neat puzzle-like strategy in each level. You progress through each colorful map from left to right while battling enemies and figuring out the little environmental puzzles in your way, like chunks of ice cubes that you have to melt through, or dodging projectiles that shoot at you as you jump from place to place. You can also team up with your AI allies or co-op friends to pull off friend abilities where you merge your powers together to take out a bunch of enemies and obstacles in your way all at once. The strategy and teamwork aspects help you stay engaged as you figure out the mini-puzzles in each level.
Pro Kirby can eat enemies to use their special abilities
You can make Kirby eat enemies and then use their skills as his own, constantly changing up how you play. Whenever you see a monster whose skills you want to use for yourself, you have to jump along the level and avoid any obstacles in your way to get close enough and eat it. Eating a monster with a sword and hat gives Kirby the sword to use and the hat to wear, while eating a fire monster lets Kirby hold a fireball in his hand to shoot out like magic. It's a neat way to change your playstyle on-the-fly, keeping things fresh and new.
Pro Four player couch co-op makes the game a lot more fun
Playing Kirby Star Allies through the co-op mode with up to four players helps to give the game more life. Working together to solve platforming challenges and take out enemies makes everything unpredictable in a good way, since your friends might suddenly figure out a helpful trick or find a path forward that you hadn't spotted before. Coordinating to make sure no one eats the enemy you have your eye on can be funny if one of your friends eats the monster anyway and you have to improvise. Playing with friends makes things more dynamic and fun than playing alone.
Pro Great for kids and family to play
Kirby Star Allies is simple but entertaining enough for anyone to enjoy, especially kids. The family-friendly gameplay, kid-friendly art style, and Kirby's cute design are pretty enticing for younger ages. With the couch co-op mode, parents can also play this game with their kids for game nights. The controls are easy and straight-forward, so if you're looking to get your kids or even older family members into gaming for the first time, this is a solid stepping stone. It's an accessible game that people of all ages can pick up and enjoy.
Pro Cute and colorful 3D visuals
The art style looks amazing with pleasing colors and 3D models that make the platforming levels vibrant and cheerful. All the pinks, blues, and yellows brighten up the environments. The round shapes of the cutesy characters and the world are and interesting with a lot of pop, like 3D illustrations in a book. Everything is great to look at, keeping the game plenty of fun to play with the amazing visuals.
Pro Simple to pick up and learn
Whether you played the first Overcooked or not, Overcooked 2 is easy to figure out right from the get-go. The recipes for each dish are familiar even if you're not much of a chef, so you can remember which raw ingredients you need as you make your way around the kitchen and work with your co-op partner(s). Once you play a few rounds, you should have a good handle on things, helping you focus on getting everything done as quickly as possible from there on out.
Pro Hilariously fun couch and online co-op for up to four players
Playing Overcooked 2 with friends is the best. There's so much going on at once in the kitchen, with barriers moving in your way, hazards popping up like cars in the middle of the road separating the two halves of your area, and ingredients, dishes, and half-prepared dishes to move from one place to another. Working together and communicating with your friends through couch co-op or online play is a constant stream of laughter and excited shouting as you mess up, learn, and hopefully get things done. If you don't have anyone to play with, then you can hop online for matchmaking instead.
Pro Fast and frantic cooking action
Overcooked 2 is really fast-paced and keeps you on your toes. You play as a chef in a crazy kitchen with a ton of things going on all at once, with you mixing, preparing, and cooking in between the chaos of moving platforms and environmental obstacles. There's a time limit constantly ticking down at the bottom of the screen; finishing your tasks on time or ahead of schedule earns you a better score in the end. Tossing ingredients to your teammates across the kitchen, or across the moving platforms or obstacles like bodies of water, is a fresh new addition in this game that wasn't in the first Overcooked, making things even faster this time around. It's such a manic yet well-done mix of many different genres and ideas that all come together in the best ways.
Cons
Con No online multiplayer
It's a shame that you can't connect online to play co-op. This would have been a nice feature for anyone who isn't able to get together with friends or family but still wants to play the game with other people. The devs so far have made no announcements about wanting to implement online multiplayer.
Con The levels are repetitive for most of the game
For the most part, once you figure out how to get past the obstacles in certain levels, you'll know how to clear several more worlds. The same types of challenges pop up again and again, like knowing when to eat a fire enemy to melt past chunks of ice, or eating a flying enemy to close a gap that you can't normally jump across. Thankfully things start to change up once you get to the final levels that are more varied and challenging. Still, you might find yourself bored by the samey levels, especially if you're used to more complex games.
Con Co-op with the AI characters can make things too easy
The computer-controlled co-op allies always know exactly what to do, taking a lot of the challenge and possibly fun out of the game. When you're playing with actual friends, you're all figuring things out together and learning along the way. Unfortunately it's not the same experience with the computer, since they're programmed to execute the right solutions to each of the platforming puzzles and boss fights. This sadly makes everything way too easy when you can rely on the AI allies to basically play the game for you.
Con Can be incredibly frustrating
Trying to work at such a fast pace with so many obstacles and general mayhem going on at once can wear on you after a while. There's a lot to keep track of at once, and it's easy for things to spiral out of control as your mistakes pile up. If your group isn't doing well and you're running out of time, you might find yourself losing your patience with your team and yelling at them. This might not be the game for you if you don't have a team that's willing to be patient and cooperative with each other, even when you're not doing so well during a particular round.
Con Single-player isn't as fun as co-op
If you only want to play alone, then Overcooked 2 might not be the best game to pick. All the fast-paced fun from co-op mostly comes from communicating with your team and trying to pull off your task together before the time runs out. You control two characters at once while playing alone, but this still lacks the team-based chaos that makes the game so addicting. You could instead go online for matchmaking, though you might get paired with people who don't want to talk or work as an actual team.
Con The controls are a bit sluggish
There's something about the controls that feels heavy and deliberate, and not necessarily in a good way. The feeling goes against the fast-paced nature of the gameplay that demands you in one place and then the next. If you played the first Overcooked, you may notice the difference right away. This change shouldn't be too much of a hassle, though it's still noticeable.