If it feels like only yesterday that we were talking about how many digital card games have recently emerged, that’s because it was! In our early look at the Chinese mythology-infused Zodiac Mountain, we noted that digital card games are very popular and numerous right now, and what’s impressive is that they keep surprising us with new, unique elements we would never have thought to add. Then we went and got our hands on the demo for Abra-Cooking-Dabra, which really takes the genre to some kooky, or perhaps cook-y, places! Let’s take a look at what we discovered when we checked out Abra-Cooking-Dabra!
What is Abra-Cooking-Dabra?
In Abra-Cooking-Dabra, you’re the new chef in Wonderland; yes, that’s the Wonderland of “Alice in…” fame. On each stage, you’ll need to open booster packs, which contain cards representing ingredients, cooking utensils, sauces and more, then combine them in clever ways to complete the recipes that your customers are requesting.
What’s really cool about Abra-Cooking-Dabra is how each recipe feels like its own mini-puzzle to be solved. Want to make a fresh tomato and onion salad? Well, you have a tomato and you have an onion, but the customer wants them chopped, combined and then served on a plate, so you have to figure out how to achieve that. Of course, in this example, you combine the tomato with a knife to get your chopped tomatoes, then peel the onion by combining it with a knife card before combining it with a knife card again to get them into an acceptable form for the salad. Finally, add those ingredients to the plate and pass it to the customer!
Fulfil the customer’s request and they’ll give you a booster pack of cards; this will include coins and the plate, or other serving receptacle that you gave them, too. Many customers will lick their plate clean, so you don’t need to “clean” the plate card by combining it with the sink card; though it’s kind of gross, you can then just carry on and serve the next customer using the “cleaned” plate card for their order. You earn stars for successfully serving a certain number of customers, with the aim of getting three stars on each stage.
The coins can be used to buy extra ingredient booster packs, or even for you to visit the shop and buy more equipment between stages. You’ll soon need an extra knife (at the very least) for your ever more demanding customers and their increasingly complex food requests, as chopping or otherwise preparing multiple ingredients at once becomes necessary very quickly. Just take a look at the screenshot above for an example of just how frantic things can get in Abra-Cooking-Dabra!
When Will Abra-Cooking-Dabra Be Released?
With its darkly whimsical art style and compelling, solitaire-esque gameplay, Abra-Cooking-Dabra is already shaping up to be an excellent, not to mention unique, experience. Though we don’t know the exact release date (though it’s expected to launch in 2025), you can take the game for a spin immediately, as the Abra-Cooking-Dabra demo is available on Steam right now! Check out and wishlist Abra-Cooking-Dabra on Steam below, and try the demo while you’re there too:
Take a look at our reviews of other digital card games, such as the phenomenal Balatro, and the word-based Birdigo.
