Tools Up! put us in the shoes of home renovators. Moving Out asked us to pack up and load a moving truck. Now we have Very Very Valet throwing us into the driver’s seat—of everyone else’s cars. How much fun could it be, being a valet attendant? Does it work as well as cooking, remodeling, and moving? Or is it just a frustrating mess of clunky mechanics? I gave it a whirl. Here’s what I found. My review unit was provided for free, but my opinions are my own and haven’t been influenced in any way.
The Premise
In Very Very Valet, you take on the role of a valet attendant for an on-demand valet company. As you complete jobs and get better, you’ll be responsible for valeting busier establishments with more complex layouts and other obstacles that get in the way. It’s a dead simple premise—there isn’t much more to it than that—so it really all comes down to execution. And Very Very Valet executes pretty well with its intuitive controls and wacky physics. The actual driving of cars is both easy and hard. It’s easy in the sense that you just use the L-stick and point it where you want to go. There are no complicated driving mechanics. But it’s hard in the sense that inertia and momentum make the cars not-so-easy to control.
The Good
Whereas Overcooked aims for controlled chaos, Very Very Valet throws that out the window and encourages you to be as messy as you want. There are no recipes or blueprints to follow. Put cars wherever you want! It’s up to you to use the space however you see fit. In other words, Very Very Valet mainly tests your ability to be speedy rather than your ability to follow steps in order. You just need to handle cars efficiently as customers pour in on both ends—those who are arriving and those who are ready to leave. Which isn’t to say that it doesn’t get more complex with later jobs. You’ll run into No Parking zones, vehicle launchers, and traffic bottlenecks that all make things more interesting. Your skill in serving customers as efficiently as possible is reflected in your score. The more time customers spend waiting around for you to take their car or bring their car back, the fewer points you’ll score. And if you take too long, they’ll be… abducted by an alien UFO…? Anyway, this provides a bit of incentive to try certain jobs multiple times. You can challenge yourself as you strive for max stars (no UFO abductions), more points, or a faster overall clear time. Very Very Valet mixes things up further with two small features: First, there’s a short voting session after each mission where funny replay highlights from the mission (automatically selected by the game) are shown, and each player can vote on their favorite. The selected highlights are hit-or-miss, but maybe that’s part of the charm. Second, there are bonus mini-game missions that aren’t your usual valet attendant fare. These time-limited bonus challenges have multiple phases and task you with, for example, knocking down all the traffic cones before time runs out.
The Bad
Very Very Valet aims for a simple and quirky aesthetic with bold colors that’s quite reminiscent of an attempt to feel Overcooked-like. Unfortunately, it lacks the necessary restraint that makes Overcooked so charming and easy on the eyes. On the contrary, Very Very Valet is so visually busy that parsing the action in real-time play can be tough. Distractingly saturated colors aside, there’s just too much clutter on screen. It’s hard to pick apart the important bits from the non-important ones. And when the gameplay is as hectic as this, that can be frustrating more often than not—especially with 4 players! I don’t fault Very Very Valet for focusing mainly on the “be quick, quick, quick” aspect of gameplay. After all, valet attending is all about minimizing the wait times of customers. But if you ask me, the game leans a little too hard in that direction. There’s so much emphasis on the time crunch that you don’t have enough time to do anything well. Chaos is fun at first, but quickly loses its novelty. It gets you in the door, but won’t keep you there. The gameplay would be much deeper if it also shared emphasis on driving well, parking well, making sure cars remain unscathed, returning them in a professional manner, etc. All of those are important aspects of being a good valet attendant, too!
The Verdict
Overall, Very Very Valet is a solid filler game to play between longer and more involved games, whether you’re on your own or playing as a local party (up to four players). Very Very Valet looks like a lot of fun at first glance—and it is!—but doesn’t have enough gameplay variety to sustain that fun for long periods of time. It’s the kind of game that you’ll itch to play at random times, but that itch is satisfied after a 15-to-30-minute session. Which is fine. Not every game needs to be an epic all-nighter. But if you want short bursts of action-packed, wacky antics? Very Very Valet is a solid purchase, for sure. If you liked this review, consider checking out the complete whatNerd Reviews Index!
