If you don't have the idle game brainworm, it might be difficult to understand just how frightening the idea of Cookie Clicker coming to console truly is. But after spending 734 hours in the game's Steam version – which is nothing compared to the game's most hardcore players – I'm here to tell you that this could be ruinous for me.
Cookie Clicker is coming to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Switch on May 22. The game is also coming to Switch 2, and the eShop page suggests that a single purchase on Switch 1 will also get you a free upgrade to the next-gen Nintendo console version.
Originally launched as a free browser game in 2013, Cookie Clicker is still running in that format to this day. It got a $5 paid release on Steam in 2021, which is effectively identical to the free version aside from a few minor tweaks, and these console versions appear to be priced the same.
Cookie Clicker wasn't the first idle game, but it helped propel the genre to a new level of popularity. There's a big cookie on-screen, and you click it to get more cookies, which you can then spend on new cursors to automatically click the cookie for you.
Eventually, you'll start hiring grandmas to bake cookies, building farms to grow cookies, and opening dark portals to unknown universes in order to import cookies from other dimensions.
The real charm of Cookie Clicker is in uncovering its vast array of increasingly absurd secrets, including a horrifying apocalypse where the eldritch cookie gods descend to wrap their dark fingers around your cookie-harvesting operation.
I've had a Cookie Clicker save going since the Steam version first launched, and these days my bakery is generating 12.233 sexdecillion cookies per second. I like to check every few months, buy a few more upgrades, and then dip out again, but this approach to the game has only come after an ungodly amount of time obsessing over my upgrade path. I fear being able to take it on the go on Switch 2 might restart that obsession all over again.
How are the rest of the Switch 2 launch games going to compete with this?
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