Get ready to cook and explore at the same time in wholesome metroidvania Magical Delicacy

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Platforming adventure Magical Delicacy will have you doing some witchy cooking and exploration in a sprawling town of hungry people this week, as the cute little pixel-art platformer releases on July 16. Notable for its combination of metroidvania-style platformer exploration with the cozy characters and crafting of a life-sim-esque cooking game, Magical Delicacy has a enough going on that something about it is going to appeal to a lot of people.

As young witch protagonist Flora arrives and sets up shop in a new town she'll meet new people in the community, from normal townfolk to the local magical practicioners. She'll also engage in the local economy by buying ingredients and ugprading her kitchen and garden. You can use all that stuff to make new recipes you've learned, or to riff on them for new ends—all to sell to the locals who need some new potion, pastry, meal, or tea.

As Flora grows in her magical power she can also get new ways to platform and move around the town, letting you engage with the further-flung bits of town, find delivery shortcuts, and generally get up to secret-finding and weird-people-meeting during both night and day.

We first got our eye on Magical Delicacy back in 2023, when Chris said "why not!" to the unexpected premise. Our interest was very much confirmed in February of this year, when Lauren enjoyed the demo enough to just go ahead and play through it again.

"I got so engrossed in exploring and experimenting that I didn't realize I was walking into a story beat. Late one night Flora separately stumbles upon two members of opposing witch covens eager to pull her into their own schemes and after that, I get a message that I've completed the demo. I was able to keep playing, and totally did, but after just a snack of a couple cooking quests I'm very hungry for more," she said.

Magical Delicacy will be available on Steam, and on Xbox Game Pass, starting July 16.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.