I love a good roguelike, and there’s no shortage of creativity in the genre. We’ve got roguelikes in every flavour, from turn-based or action RPGs, to deck builders, pinball, soulslikes, whatever Blue Prince falls under, and even more wacky combinations. And yet, somehow, some creative developers are still finding new ways to spin the true and tried genre.
Searching through the depths of Steam’s roguelike category, I stumbled upon one of my favourites yet: Omelet You Cook. Yes, it’s a cooking roguelike. Launching in early access back in June 2025, Omelet You Cook somehow went under my radar despite having held onto a 100% review score for months. It’s just launched its 1.0 update, and I regret not having checked it out sooner—though now it’s perfectly cooked, so I suppose I’m jumping in at the best time. Plus, it’s also 34% off until February 22.
Shrimp gain points based on how many veggies you’ve placed, but lose points if they’re touching a vegetable—easier said than done, given they’re curved. Bell peppers gain points for each meat ingredient touching it, and hash browns earn bonus points and money for each crunchy ingredient they’re touching, acting as a catalyst for optimal ingredient distribution. And by optimal, I mean optimised for multiplying your points, not for making a scrumptious omelette. Quite the opposite, actually, as you often end up with horrific combinations clustered together.
New ingredients are like gear upgrades, so as you progress, you’re looking for new foods that either combo with what you already have or open new avenues for multiplying your points. A hash brown build would love as many crunchy ingredients as possible, for example.
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There are also helpers, which are similar to Balatro’s Joker cards. These often focus on specific food types or placement. I’m a big fan of Edge Piece Lover, which gives you bonus points for each ingredient on the edge of the omelette.
But everyone has different tastes, and so each customer has unique requests. One’s a puffin who gets a tummy ache if he eats too much, so he orders a child-size omelette, giving you much less space to work with. That’s not ideal if you need lots of space to daisy-chain ingredients.
Another is a picky eater and doesn’t want filling in a certain area of the omelette, so you’re forced to change how you place ingredients, also encouraging you to use the surrounding plate more.
With all these overlapping systems and the satisfying collision physics on the ingredients themselves, assembling the perfect omelette is a puzzling test of strategy. All of this is underpinned by lovely pixel art and a great sense of humour that’s been a nice palette cleanser from the equally stellar but disgusting cat roguelike Mewgenics.