Though, I do wish the game wouldve marinated in its good ideas a while longer.

But the game uses food as a bridge between these topics.

That cookbook is a lovely little thing as it both challenges and helps you through the small headscratchers.

A family sit around a table eating food in Venba

Each and every recipe operates on the same real-world logic as that.

Well, dont chuck in the tomatoes first!

Those let out too much watery juice and your onions wont bronze properly afterwards.

A large pot sits atop a hon surrounded by different spices and ingredients in Venba

But Venbas brief, hour-long runtime had me feeling like its food had gone to waste somewhat.

The game teaches you so many rules but rarely reuses them.

A proper culinary challenge, in other words, was missing.

A packed lunch sits on a table. There are idli packed into the box with smiley faces careful drawn on them in a brown sauce in Venba

Once that oil heats up, boy oh boy, your ears are going to eat good.

That extends to the incredible soundtrack, too.

It also sometimes mirrors frying sounds.

A delicate recipe page shows how to steam buns but part of the instructions are missing in Venba

The closer the game zooms into this one specific family, the more universal it feels.

A scene in Venba, a 2D cooking game, showing mother and son in the kitchen together

Venba speaks to her family in the living room in Venba