Cookie is a cooking-themed shoot 'em up developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game that was released exclusively for the ZX Spectrum in 1983. In the game, Charlie the Chef has to bake a cake, however his five ingredients are sentient and attempt to escape his pantry, enabling his quest to re-capture them. The game was written by Chris Stamper with graphics by Tim Stamper. It received mixed reviews upon release, with critics praising the graphics, but criticising the hard difficulty and its similarities to Pssst.
Gameplay
thumb|left|The player must put all of the ingredients into the cooking bowl without them falling into the dustbins.
The game is presented from a 2D perspective, and the main objective involves Charlie the Chef baking a cake from evil, sentient ingredients. The five ingredients vary from Mixed Peel, Chunky Chocolate, Crafty Cheese, Sneaky Sugar and Colonel Custard, who will all jump out of the pantry and try to avoid the player whenever possible.
Cookie was one of the few Spectrum games also available in ROM format for use with the Interface 2, allowing "instantaneous" loading of the game (the normal method of cassette loading could take several minutes).
Reception
Matthew Uffindell of Crash praised the game overall, despite thinking it was overshadowed by Ultimate's Tranz Am. Uffindell stated the gameplay was addictive and challenging, despite thinking it was similar to its predecessor, Pssst. Lloyd Mangram of Crash considered the game to be overlooked and underrated, despite him suggesting that it was the most difficult of all games developed by Ultimate. Mangram praised the graphics as detailed, fast and "amusing", owing to the game's sentient ingredients. Mangham, however, praised its playability, heralding that it was "great fun" to play and easy to adapt to.