Very Very Valet Switch Review – Muppets Parking Cars!

Have you ever wondered what Overcooked! would look like if it was a valet service instead of a cooking game? No? Well, I got some great news for you, because Toyful has taken it upon themselves to give you just that! We have muppets that are frantically parking for and returning cars to customers at “very fancy” restaurants in the wonderfully fun and creative Very Very Valet.

But is this silly valet-themed party game for up to 4-players worth the parking fee? There is only one way to find out!

Very Very Valet is simply a funny game. Even its story is beyond comical, as we see a bunch of Muppet-looking characters wildly attempting to do a mundane task in such a speedy and chaotic way. Your boss, who is a panicky yet stern blue bird, serves as your coordinator or manager as you pursue your dream of being an efficient valet driver.

And efficient you must be, because these customers somehow sit down, order, eat their food, and pay in seconds and demand their car back shortly after passing it to you. This is exactly the kind of feel Overcooked! puts on its players, and Very Very Valet perfectly and successfully executes the time-sensitive demand to do a task that normally takes more patience and attention.

There are numerous types of levels to mix things up, too, and the game even provides some rule changing, which allows you to replay levels with different difficulty settings as well as a custom option that allows you to change the rules how you see fit. This allows for more gameplay value and bang for your buck, as these customization options add a whole lot more to the experience and lots more laughs when playing with family and friends.

Oh, yeah. Multiplayer! This is of course where the game shines most, as does Overcooked! Sadly, right off of the bat, Very Very Valet does not support online multiplayer, which is a letdown for people still cautious about meeting others in person at the moment. However, the local multiplayer is tons of fun and absolutely bananas.

The goal is to pick up cars as they pull up, drive them somewhere “safe”, and return them when the customers come back outside. Customers and cars will be connected by a matching number above them, so retrieving the appropriate car and bringing it back to the appropriate customer within a reasonable amount of time will reward you and your team more points. Customers and their cars will have a meter that starts green, indicating happiness, but will eventually get to red, indicating frustration, and ultimately a full bar will either cause the customer to leave or removes the car from your care via a UFO-like abduction.

When customers leave or cars are removed, this deducts one star from your potential 3-star rating. Attending to all customers and returning their cars to them timely will result in a high score and a high star rating, so in a cooperative game, you need to work together, communicate well, and get cars parked and returned in an orderly way. For some reason, the setting of a valet service is wonderful for a party game of this nature, and it provides endless amounts of fun.

I only have a couple issues outside of the lack of online multiplayer, and one is exactly the same problem as Overcooked!: single player. You see, games like this need to be played with family and friends, especially because as you progress and get to more challenging stages, getting high scores and 3-star ratings becomes impossible, as there is no way one valet driver that can handle so many cars by themselves.

The other issue is less of an actual issue and more of a feature that I am just not a fan of, and that is the wonky driving controls. Cars are completely driven with the left stick, but depending on your initial push, you can cause the car to drive or go in reverse. Once you are in one of those gears, you cannot change it until you come to a complete stop and tilt the left stick either towards the front of the car, initiating forward drive, or towards the back of the car, initiating reverse. It is one-stick controls that feel like they should be twin-stick controls, and it is rather difficult to wrap your mind around. However, it does result in some frantic valet parking and lots of accidental and hilarious crashing.

I feel like both of those issues are products of the game’s party direction, so I honestly do not find them that problematic. However, the lack of online multiplayer does feel like a huge missing piece to an otherwise excellent and unique party game. I mean, if Nintendo can add online to Super Mario Party out of the blue, Very Very Valet can, too.

At the end of the day, what you are getting with Very Very Valet is a solid local multiplayer experience with adorable characters and an excellently unique gimmick. There are over 20 levels that take place on city streets, cliff sides with launch pads, bowling alleys with pins everywhere, airports with all kinds of distractions, and trainyards to complicate things even more.

Sure, it lacks the online option and the single player is lacking, but driving around chaotically with family and friends is going to make you laugh uncontrollably and give you a gaming experience you never knew you needed.

Very Very Valet has officially parked itself as a permanent member of my Switch library, and it is the new go-to for me and my kids for a night of fun. I think it can be the same for you, too.

Very Very Valet Review provided by Nintendo Link
Developer: Toyful
Publisher: Toyful
Release Date: May 25, 2021
Price: $25.99, £19.99, €25,99
Game Size: 444MB