| But Why Tho? |
Katherine Kong |
8 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba speaks on social issues people can face when placed in a society that feels adverse to acceptance and understanding. |
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| Checkpoint Gaming |
Lisa Pollifroni |
8.5 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a love letter to many things, not just food. It beautifully depicts the story of two immigrants and their struggle to keep their culture alive in a Western society that does not seem to understand or appreciate it. Venba brings together incredible art, sound, narrative, and gameplay that is magnificently entrenched in Tamil customs, leaving the player with not only a deeper understanding but also a deeper respect for this underrepresented culture. |
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| COGconnected |
Jaz Sagoo |
73 / 100 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a lovely, quaint tale that successfully captures the notion of an immigrant family struggling in Canada. The story is heartfelt and manages to tackle subjects in a sensitive and realistic manner. While the cooking aspects are a little awkward on the controller and its short run time means that certain story beats are not fully explored, the game maintains a level of charm that will keep you eager for the next dish. |
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| Destructoid |
CJ Andriessen |
7 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Alas, Venba is an exercise in brevity. I greatly enjoyed my peek into the lives of strangers who exposed me to a culture different than mine. I just wish I could have got a longer look at it. |
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| Digital Trends |
Giovanni Colantonio |
4.5 / 5 stars |
07-31-2023 |
Venba delivers an elegantly nuanced story about cultural identity through sharply written dialogue and meaningful cooking interludes. |
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| Echo Boomer |
João Canelo |
Recommended |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a poem whose verses we interpret and feel in different ways. It is a sincere story about the life of a family, with its ups and downs, but there is harmony in its tragedy, humanized by the bond between Venba and Paavalan |
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| Eurogamer |
Emad Ahmed |
Recommended |
07-31-2023 |
Food and family converge in this beautiful slice-of-life tale. |
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| Explosion Network |
Dylan Blight |
9 / 10 |
08-01-2023 |
As the credits rolled for Venba, I began thinking about how this would be someone’s favourite game of 2023 and maybe one of their favourites of all time. |
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| GameSpot |
Veerender Jubbal |
8 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba does not just make me feel seen, Venba makes me feel acknowledged and reassured in ways video games have never explored so profoundly. |
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| GamesRadar+ |
Hirun Cryer |
4.5 / 5 stars |
07-31-2023 |
“Venba perfectly melds together a story of generational anxieties and dreams” |
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| GamingTrend |
David Flynn |
90 / 100 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a heartfelt tale of an immigrant mother doing her best to raise a son in Canada while passing on her Tamil culture. It’s a story not often told, and it will stick with you long after the credits roll. Learning about this culture is a ton of fun and done through inventive puzzles having you cook traditional dishes. It’s a gorgeous, passionate game that gives you a glimpse into another culture. |
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| God is a Geek |
Lyle Carr |
9 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a lovely little narrative game about the struggle of raising a child as immigrants told via food, but it’ll be over too quickly for some. |
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| Hardcore Gamer |
Kyle LeClair |
4.5 / 5 stars |
08-03-2023 |
Through a exploration of Southern Indian cuisine and the preparation of it that’s been given a slight puzzler twist, Venba manages to serve up a captivating story about culture, motherhood, immigrant life and more, spiced up with likeable characters and great dialogue, and topped off with eye-catching visuals and an ear-pleasing soundtrack. It’s a short feast, but a filling one, so it would be wise to give it a shot. Would it help if we said that it might remind you of a rocket somehow? |
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| Hey Poor Player |
Andrew Thornton |
4 / 5 stars |
08-14-2023 |
Venba is ultimately over quite soon, but I’d rather have a beautiful but small experience that will stay with me than one that lingers too long and wears out its welcome. There are a few parts of its story that could perhaps have been explored with more depth, but its story comes together to span a generation in the blink of an eye and leave players feeling satisfied with the experience. This is a game well worth experiencing, which even the busiest players should be able to fit into a free evening. |
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| Kotaku |
Isaiah Colbert |
Recommended |
08-01-2023 |
Although Venba’s gameplay boils down to practice making perfect, its cooking puzzles and narrative also work together to perfectly illustrate the trials Venba’s family is facing. By pulling you into this process, it builds a bridge of empathy for players like myself, helping us relate to the loss that comes with growing apart from one’s family and the love that keeps you tethered to them while you forge your own path. Pairing that all too relatable human experience with the making of a bounty of delicious meals I’d like to try my hand at IRL is just the icing on the puttu. |
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| Luis Alamilla |
Luis Alamilla |
8.5 / 10 |
08-09-2023 |
Video Review |
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| Nintendo Life |
Michelle See-Tho |
8 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
In Venba’s short play time, the narrative-led cooking game conveys so much of this family’s experience. The stirring story is presented in snackable chapters, each with an emotional tale tied to a dish. The puzzles aren’t too challenging, making for a comforting, cosy playthrough as you prepare each meal. Be warned though: this game will make you hungry. And it may also make you cry. |
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| NintendoWorldReport |
Jordan Rudek |
6.5 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
There’s more to this narrative and this family that deserves to be included in the experience, and while the cooking segments definitely sing, I’m ultimately left feeling like I’ve been served an appetizer rather than a main course. It’s beautiful in its colorful but minimalistic presentation and has a fitting musical score. I’m just longing to spend more time in Venba’s charming kitchen and to be invited to share in more of the moments in her life. |
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| PlayStation LifeStyle |
Michael Leri |
7 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
All of the delicacies in Venba look filling, so it’s a bit of a shame that the experience as a whole isn’t quite as hearty. But while its puzzles can lack stakes and its story often hastily skips over subtlety, Venba is still a transportive experience that shows players a perspective they are likely unfamiliar with. Using cooking as a central mechanic also makes that experience more poignant since, while the ingredients change, food is a ubiquitous part of life that makes other cultures that much more relatable. It’s less of a meal and more of a snack, but it’s still one made with heart. |
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| PlayStation Universe |
Christian Harrison |
8.5 / 10 |
08-03-2023 |
While slightly too short for its own good, Venba is an exciting cooking narrative game exploring Tamil food. It tells an important, yet heart-wrenching story of a family as they struggle to fit in a new country. |
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| Polygon |
Nicole Carpenter |
Recommended |
07-31-2023 |
I would have loved more Venba, with its vibrant sound, touching story, and mouthwatering food, and yet, I still feel like Visai Games has told a complete, focused story. |
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| Press Start |
Brodie Gibbons |
8 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a sweet, short-lived episode that presents the place held by food and cooking within our lives and cultures as near-on divine. It explores familiar relationships, as well as the ones we keep, for better or worse, with food itself, and left me with plenty to ponder as the credits rolled. |
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| Push Square |
John Cal McCormick |
9 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
As the end credits appeared on our screen it felt like we’d been on a generational journey — one that was both happy and sad, disappointing and hopeful, and above all, sincerely moving. We had a tear in our eye and everything. Four days later, writing this review and thinking about our experience playing Venba, we’re smiling, and considering going back for a second helping. |
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| Rock, Paper, Shotgun |
Kaan Serin |
Recommended |
07-31-2023 |
A short, cooking puzzle game that doubles as a touching visual novel about a mother, her family, and the immigrant experience. |
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| RPGamer |
Sam Wachter |
Recommended |
08-05-2023 |
It’s abundantly clear that the developers of Venba poured their heart and soul into crafting this love letter of a game to share the hardship and adjustment period that comes with being a new immigrant. |
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| Shacknews |
Donovan Erskine |
9 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba beautifully depicts the struggle of the first-generation immigrant experience — fighting to give your family better opportunities while holding true to your roots. It’s a golden example of how games can give players an authentic peek into underrepresented cultures when the right people are in charge. With the game being beatable in a sleek two hours, it’s impossible not to give Venba an incredibly high recommendation. |
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| Siliconera |
Jenni Lada |
8 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is an incredibly heartfelt, yet short, experience that offers glimpses into a family’s life, culture, and delicious-looking meals. |
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| Slant Magazine |
Steven Scaife |
3 / 5 stars |
07-31-2023 |
Only toward the end does Venba hit upon a cohesive solution for both its story and its puzzles. The perspective shifts from Venba to Kavin, whose complicated relationship with his parents’ culture reframes the friction inherent to the game’s cooking segments: He has difficulty because he hasn’t prepared these dishes before and hasn’t cared to pay attention. Furthermore, his grasp on the Tamil language is rusty, so while he can refer to instructions at the top of the screen, they’ll be inaccurately translated and require the player to experiment while surmising their true meaning. This late change allows the game to finish strong, though the irritation of its earliest puzzles never quite dissipates, like a lingering taste from a dish whose flavors don’t fully cohere. |
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| SpazioGames |
Stefania Sperandio |
7.2 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is an interesting and thoughtful experience that lasts as it should and that, in about a couple of hours, is able to make you feel attached to its characters and themes. |
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| TechRaptor |
Tanushri Shah |
9 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a tale about an Indian immigrant family in Canada that does most of its storytelling through cooking and leaves you wanting seconds. |
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| The Games Machine |
Pietro Iacullo |
9 / 10 |
08-07-2023 |
Venba could have been my story. Or your story, if you know what means to be the son (or the daughter) of a couple who moved to give you a better future at the cost of giving up to pass on their roots. And it’s awesome a video game could tell this very thing in about two hours of gameplay and stay in your memories forever. |
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| TheSixthAxis |
Aran Suddi |
9 / 10 |
08-09-2023 |
Venba is a small game with big heart that really captures a lot of the experiences that immigrants and their children go through. It tells a simple story, but layers it in complex and engaging themes. The cooking sections could have been a bit more involved, but, but Venba is a game with a great look, great soundtrack, and provides an experience that people should play to understand a world and perspective that is unfamiliar to them. |
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| VGChartz |
Lee Mehr |
5.5 / 10 |
09-09-2023 |
Visai Games’ narrative-cooking debut is a special case of over-relying on flavorful spices – music, art design, etc. – to compensate for paltry servings. |
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| Video Chums |
A.J. Maciejewski |
8 / 10 |
08-03-2023 |
Venba is a short, impactful, and beautifully presented look into the lives of an immigrant family that’ll likely stay with you for a long time. |
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| WayTooManyGames |
Heidi Hawes |
7.5 / 10 |
08-08-2023 |
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Venba, even more than I was anticipating. I expected a laid-back cooking sim, but what I got was a deeply moving narrative about generational struggles with immigration and creating a home for yourself in an unfamiliar land. Solving the puzzles of the missing steps in each recipe is surprisingly fun as well. Even though it’s a short experience, taking only about two hours to complete, it still a journey worth taking. |
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| Wccftech |
Nathan Birch |
8 / 10 |
07-31-2023 |
Venba is a delectable slice of a game that offers a subtly moving story that ought to appeal to Tamil people, first-generation immigrants and their children, and wider audiences alike. It’s also a fantastic cooking game, capturing the sights, sounds, joys, and challenges of preparing food like few games before it. A short runtime may leave you hungry for more, but that’s largely a testament to the quality of the meal. |
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| Xbox Achievements |
Richard Walker |
80 / 100 |
08-01-2023 |
A spicy blend of story and delicious South Indian cooking, Venba is a unique indie tale that deserves to be savoured. As developer Visai’s debut game, this is stellar stuff. |
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