Steam Quickplays: January 2026

Posted on January 7, 2026 by Aywren

Welcome to the first edition of a series that I’m calling Steam Quickplays. As I’ve noted in previous posts, there are a number of Steam games that I picked up either through free giveaways or as part of bundles that sit in my backlog but aren’t priority to play.

These games may or may not be of true interest to me, but I give them a shot to test them out. Usually, this is about 30 mins to an hour of playtime. If the game doesn’t capture me within that period, then I move along. If I do like them, I might spend more time with them, or move them to a “Try It Again Later” folder I use as a catch-all for those kinds of games I’d like to explore more.

This is one of the clearing methods I’ve used to help slice into my massive backlog on Steam, and it’s been fairly successful. I have a large number of these types of games that I ended up with during 2024 because of the Jingle Jam bundle I bought. There were a few in that bundle that I really wanted, a handful that I actually gave away, but the rest of them are a large question mark on whether I want to invest time into them.

I’ve decided that instead of writing a post per game that I determine falls into this category, I’m going to start grouping them together into a single Quickplay post. I’ll talk a little about the game and why it just didn’t vibe with me, mostly to acknowledge that I tried it out and formed an impression.

So, let’s jump into it!

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3

I know there’s a lot of folks who enjoy the Cook, Serve, Delicious series, but I’ve just never been one of them. I played the original Cook, Serve, Delicious! Game back in 2020, and it looks like I put about 27 minutes into it before I set it aside.

That’s pretty much the same experience I had with Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3.  

I was impressed that there does seem to be a storyline built around the reason why you’re a cook doing what you’re doing in this world. This time, you’re on a food truck that is traveling from stop to stop working to feed folks with pretzels and ice cream. Well, I’m sure there’s other stuff to make, but that’s all I made in the time I spent.

I’m just not into time-pressured repetitive gameplay, I suppose. I read in one of the comments that you can change the settings so this isn’t a thing, which is nice to know. Still, while I can see why it might be appealing to some, especially if you are playing with friends, I don’t like stress games that require speed and absolute precision.

Maybe to folks who play this kind of game more often, the controls aren’t so much an issue. But I found the combination of using numbers and letters and needing to do everything as fast as possible more stressful than fun. So, that was the end of my experimentation with that!

100% Orange Juice

100% Orange Juice was a game that I got for free over the holidays. This is a digital board game that features anime characters apparently created by the developer Orange Juice. I know none of these characters, so this is an overview of someone totally outside of the target audience.

I’m an old-skool anime fan, so my tastes run a bit more subtle in my older age. Everything about this game was of the type of anime that’s bright, loud, super kawaii, and massively overwhelming to me.

I started out by playing one round of the board game on an easy setting. There seems to be some sliver of storyline behind why the characters are duking it out on the board, but there was no true introduction to any of them beyond “you stole my wallet”.

I really enjoyed the gameplay elements! I like the idea of mixing cards and dice on the board. The actual game and systems were very fun to me. That’s why it was a bit of a downer that I couldn’t stomach the rest of it.

About five minutes in, I was searching for a way to turn off all the grating high-pitched voices. This is because every little action all the characters took was voiced, and there was apparently an announcer also talking on top of it. None of it made any sense, due to being in Japanese, and was a constant rush of high-speed and overly-caffeinated noise to me.

I was able to find a way to turn off all but the announcer’s voice (which was also high-pitched an annoying) in the end. This, along with enjoying the actual gameplay, was the only reason I stuck it out for an entire round.

But after that, I was completely bombarded by characters I didn’t know as the game started throwing them all at me (I guess there was some holiday event going on), in long cutscenes that I couldn’t find a way to skip. I knew none of them, and there was no gentle introduction into them, and it was just more flashing lights, colors, high-energy, and noise.

In the end, I uninstalled. Fun game, but annoying vibes. If they could have just been a bit more chill, I might have stuck around longer to learn about the characters, but it seemed pretty vapid to me.

Dokapon Kingdom: Connect

Dokapon Kingdom: Connect is yet another digital board game, but this one is a hybrid RPG with a storyline to play through. This was a gift, and I did enjoy what I played, so I do intend to come back to it.

Two observations on this one, however. Playing with keyboard and mouse is quite wonky. This really was made with a controller in mind. I wonder how it fares playing on Steam Deck – it is verified there, and might be much more fun on that platform.

Second, I feel like this is one of those games that’s more fun to play with friends. I was playing solo as I was learning, and I do see the fun in it. But it feels much more like a party game that’s meant for at least two players if possible.

I’m keeping this somewhat quick because while I did play it for a short round, I know I’m going to come back and try it again for a longer time. Again, maybe I’ll focus on seeing what it feels like on Steam Deck. That might change everything!

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