The drama surrounding Cooking Mama: Cookstar is reaching reality TV levels of entertainment. The original rights holders at Office Create were angered about Planet Entertainment’s willingness to go ahead and publish the game for the Nintendo Switch, even after they told them that the quality of the game was not up to par. Office Create then pulled the game’s release on the Nintendo eShop and cancelled all physical shipments following reports that the game overheated the Switch’s battery. Office Create then publicly proclaimed that they were evaluating litigation against Planet Entertainment for violating their contract, but Planet Entertainment fired back saying that they were well within their rights.
The rebuttal from Planet Entertainment came via a tweet response on April 15th, 2020.
— Cooking Mama: Cookstar (@CookstarMama) April 15, 2020
It may be difficult to read the text in the image, but if you’re unable to read the statement from Planet Entertainment, it says…
“Planet Entertainment wants to explain the mystery surrounding the Nintendo Switch game all Cooking Mama Cookstar fans.
“Office Create, the rights holder to Cooking Mama, approved a detailed game design in 2019. 1st Playable the game developer and Planet followed the exact approved design. That design is the exact game on Nintendo Switch which also includes many additional Office Create suggestions which add gameplay value.
“Unfortunately, creative differences arose as Cooking Mama Cookstar was near completion that were outside the scope of our agreement and the game design approved by Office Create.
“By contract, Planet is fully within its rights to publish Cooking Mama Cookstar. There is no active litigation or ruling that prevents Planet from publishing the game.
“Cooking Mama fans have been very enthusiastic about Cooking Mama Cookstar, including the many new features including Vegetarian and, Unicorn food, Potluck Party plus more.
“We appreciate the overwhelming positive response and support from Cooking Mama Cookstar fans.
“Office Create has our total respect. We thank them for their wisdom and wish them well.” [sic]
Grammar blunders aside, the game currently has a 43 out of 100 score on Metacritic, with only one positive review, one mixed review, and four negative reviews.
So the response hasn’t quite been as positive or as overwhelming as Planet Entertainment attempted to portray.
It’s unclear what Office Create will do at this point or how they will respond to Planet Entertainment’s statements, but it’s likely that they could end up pursuing the legal action that they originally threatened in their previous announcement.
If you’ve been out of the loop and need to catch up on all the zaniness involving Cooking Mama: Cookstar, YouTuber Video Game Story Time has a short six minute recap of the drama.
(Thanks for the news tip MaverickHL)
