Venba

Venba may not necessarily be a good game, but it is an important one. It could dismissively be described as Tamil Cooking Mama, but that would gloss over just how unheard-of and vital that Tamil qualifier is. The plot follows an immigrant family as they struggle to maintain and pass on their culture in the face of internal and external pressure. Gaming simply doesn’t have any other stories like that at the moment, and that alone makes Venba worth celebrating. It’s a genuinely affecting story too, with or without the rare representation. Centering the experience on food was a brilliant choice – through the cozy artwork and sublime sound effects, you can practically taste the dishes through the screen, and it’s the best way to make a pro-assimilation player think, “Okay, I get why you’d want to preserve this.”

Mechanically, the game is usually about piecing together recipes from half-remembered events and a ruined cookbook, but it sometimes just forgets to include that idea and has you follow precise instructions instead. It’s a strange and unfortunate decision, especially when the instructions are just to click specific objects, depriving players of even the tactile sensation of the more organic chapters. The game’s short length generally does it a disservice. There are no opportunities to build upon previously gained knowledge, and the narrative has some gaps that could’ve easily supported additional scenes, as their absence doesn’t really add much dramatic effect. I’m certain there are more elements of the immigrant experience to be touched upon as well, but what’s present already has the potential to open some eyes a little wider.