UMAMI Review

UMAMI is… well, from my understanding, the natural savouriness of different types of foods (please correct me), but it’s also a 3D puzzle game developed by Mimmox and published with help from Nexting. Here, you’ll be fitting together wooden blocks to create delicious-looking dishes. So let’s check it out.

UMAMI doesn’t really have a story. Instead, each puzzle represents a chef who created the dish it is based on, with a description of what it’s supposed to be. Enjoy the sight of meticulously crafted burgers, cakes, and other mouth-watering items. These foods look like they were ripped straight out of flat artwork and given a 3D form, and while it isn’t the most realistic, it looks really nice and cute. I wouldn’t be too surprised to see some of these items recreated in a pop-up café or something.

However, if you want to see what the food looks like, you’ll need to assemble it yourself. These puzzles are made up of wooden blocks with magnets in them, so they’ll snap into place. All you have to do is figure out their right place and orientation. The pieces will shake and make a noise when they’re in the correct spot, so bruteforcing the puzzle is a solution.

There’s no timer or anything that forces you to stress out. You can even check the solution at any time with no penalty. You can solve the puzzle at your leisure, then play around with the food and table. It’s a nice, cosy game to play if you want a lighter snack rather than a heavy meal. It’ll satisfy you all the same once you’re done.

That being said, it isn’t all about the puzzles. The game rewards curious players who click on random objects with collectible cards with cute artwork. It’s a small thing, but I still went out of my way to find them all. It’s not like it was particularly hard to do anyway.

And… I admit, that’s pretty much it about the game. There aren't any surprises or anything. Even as the puzzles involved more and more pieces, the same basic strategy remained the same as I checked for obvious features and started from there. Eventually, everything just clicks into place. You can finish all the puzzles and collect all the achievements in one sitting. In any case, it’s not particularly glitchy, nor did it suffer from frame drops.

UMAMI is fine. It’s a nice little puzzle game to pick up when you’re just not feeling like playing the bigger games and just want something to fill your time. It’s a nice experience that will leave you satisfied, but for hungrier puzzle players, you’ll probably want seconds.