Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition (Nintendo Switch) Review

Back in December 2023, developer Subcult Joint added their voice to the Metroidvania genre with the hyper-violent Cookie Cutter: a foul-mouthed, high octane, kick-ass experience that combined a healthy dose of platforming shenanigans with significantly challenging combat. With our Xbox review of the game (which you can check out here), we bestowed upon it a glorious 8, calling it an essential Metroidvania in a genre full of gems.

Now the developers have brought Cookie Cutter to the Switch with the spanky Overkill Edition, promising a rock-solid port with new content to wash your portable screens with copious gore. After more than a year, does Cookie Cutter still hold up to our initial, glowing review and, more importantly, can the Switch handle this port?

If you need a refresher, Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition places you into the shoes of Cherry, a “Denzel” that was horribly brutalised by the corporation that kidnapped her creator, Shinji. After getting put back together again, Cherry sets out on a blood-soaked revenge spree to save Shinji and give the corporation, Infonet, what it’s got coming to it. To do this, you’ll have to guide her through the Megastructure, a dystopian world of murderous tech, corporations gone mad, and eternal life sold through mechanised slavery.

Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition places significant emphasis on its story and world-building, with a heavy dose of that spent on characterisation that fleshes out Cherry as a fully rounded, albeit foul-mouthed protagonist. To be fair, the bulk of Cookie Cutters denizens are as foul-mouthed as our heroine, placing this game definitely into the older age bracket of players. The story is told through some great animated cut-scenes and plenty of fully voiced dialogue for all characters – a new addition to the Overkill Edition. Full voice acting that is, which does a great deal to make you cheer for Cherry’s success and the violent downfall of Infonet and its various goons.

The usual Metroidvania design is here in full force, from double jumps to dodge rolls and air dashes to get you through the Megastructures nasty insides. And like the best Metroidvanias, new weapons or abilities are needed to open up your pathways between the various biomes and hidden or hard-to-reach areas. Veteran Metroidvania spelunkers won’t have a hard time navigating the Megastructures various platforms and environmental hazards.

Where Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition really brings the challenge is in its highly combat-focused gameplay. Beating the snot out of various mutations and robotic slaves is at Cookie Cutters dark, beating little heart, with a combo-based combat system that prioritizes dodge rolls, parries, and air juggles. Mastering at least two of these disciplines is essential to survival. Thankfully the developers have made sure that if, like me, you can’t parry for spit, then you have other moves at your disposal to make combat survivable.

Cherry has a small, but great armory at her disposal. Along with her basic attacks, you can equip a second weapon such as a chainsaw or electric guitar to help soften up the opposition. There are a variety of side powers as well, such as a plasma shot to deal with distant projectile enemies. All moves and weapons can be upgraded, though you’re going to have to explore the Megastructure thoroughly to find the components you need either to level up your chainsaw or find more batteries to increase the amount of passive skills you can have equipped at one time. In classic Metroidvania fashion, unlocking the best of these requires some fancy footwork and skill usage.

So what does the Overkill Edition bring to the table? For starters there’s the aforementioned fully voiced dialogue, a 60fps frame rate on the Switch, quality of life improvements to the map system (such as area completion percentage), and new specials, weapons, and moves for Cherry to play around with. There’s also more cut-scenes and improvements to the games already stellar visuals and style and, finally, a raft of gameplay and balance tweaks to the overall experience.

It may not sound like much when listed out like that but, in practice, it does a helluva lot to make an already incredible game that much more enjoyable.

So, let’s talk about the visuals and performance. Cookie Cutter was already a gorgeous, fast paced game on release and those aspects have made the transition to the Nintendo Switch intact. It’s just as beautiful and smooth to play here as it was on my original Xbox Series foray. Controls are tight and responsive, and the frame rate is silky smooth. The animation quality and gorgeous backgrounds are here in all their glory, along with the Megastructures sense of scale. One aspect that the developers have managed to get right, that so many other games don’t, is in displaying the larger areas on the Switch’s screen without turning the characters and action into tiny specks that you have to squint at.

The one enhancement that matters to me most is the new combat balancing. Cookie Cutter was a pretty challenging game, with some of the combat arenas and boss fights really testing both my skills and patience. The game doesn’t feel like it’s been nerfed in this regard, rather better balanced when it comes to how much damage you deal and receive as you progress. Make no mistake, Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition still brings the challenge and the enemies still do tons of damage in quick succession, but outside of one or two boss fights, the game just feels better balanced in all regards to minimise frustration.

Wrapping up, Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition faithfully brings an enhanced and definitive edition to the Nintendo Switch featuring gorgeous visuals and animation, fast paced gameplay and a thrilling combat system – all at a rock solid frame-rate. If you haven’t cottoned onto this Metroidvania before, then now is the time to visit the Megastructure with a more sublime and enthralling experience that had me hooked again from the moment I started playing. Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter where you play Cookie Cutter, just that you do play it.

Cookie Cutter: Overkill Edition was reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a code provided to gameblur by the publisher. It is also available on PC, Xbox One/Series S|X, and PS4/5.