Overview
Out to Lunch (known in Europe as Pierre le Chef is... Out to Lunch) is a platformer from Mindscape featuring the eponymous Pierre le Chef. Pierre chases his missing food items all across the world, recapturing them with his net. He moves from Switzerland, to Greece, to the West Indies, to Mexico, to China and, finally, back to Pierre's native France.
The game was originally released on the Super Nintendo in 1993. It was later ported to the Game Boy, the Amiga and the Amiga CD32.
Gameplay
At the beginning of each stage, sentient food items escape his fridge and Pierre chases after them. He recovers them by tracking the food items across each stage, recapturing them with a net and depositing them in a cage. The player ought to be wary of Le Chef Noir, Pierre's archrival, who will periodically open the cage doors and let the captured food items out.
Food items will run from Pierre if they spot him. If the player is quick enough, they can be captured while their back is turned. If they start running, Pierre can quickly catch up and capture them. They can also be stunned by jumping on their head and captured safely. A certain amount of points can be earned depending on how efficiently a food item is captured. If a food item collides with Pierre, Pierre is briefly stunned and lets two of the food items he's carrying loose. Depositing food item regularly gets around this problem, but they can still be released by Noir.
In order to catch anything, Pierre needs to find the net on each stage. There's also a smattering of other items lying around:
Power-Ups
- Net: Pierre's net. He needs this before he can catch anything.
- Wooden Spoon: A close range weapon, useful for beating Noir when there's no room to jump.
- Hot Sauce: A weapon that attacks enemies at medium range, with a plume of flame.
- Flour Bag: A weapon that works best at range.
- Cleats: Special shoes that prevent sliding on ice.
- Golden Apron: Temporary invincibility.
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