There aren't many remakes of classic arcade and console titles you can point to and say anything other than, "Why would you even make this?" I'm not talking about the versions that are literally the exact game you already remember, except slathered in HD visuals or with an online mode stitched to its ancient framework. I'm speaking instead of the games that bear the name of something you remember liking in your earlier years, but only tangentially resemble that thing in any way, shape, or form. I'm speaking of the Yar's Revenges of the world, the games that lean exclusively on the name of a thing you recognize, while being virtually unrecognizable as that thing.
BurgerTime: World Tour is essentially in the same boat. Yes, it features giant hamburgers that must be assembled via repeated, unsanitary stompings, and it has a multitude of enemies you must dodge that range from enraged hot dogs to particularly pissed-off pickles. But beyond the core conceit, World Tour is virtually unrecognizable compared with the arcade classic that spawned it. Unfortunate as that is, the truth is that BurgerTime: World Tour actually isn't a half bad game on its own merits, particularly in multiplayer situations. Just don't go in expecting the BurgerTime you fell in love with lo those many decades ago, and you might even have some fun.
In order to update BurgerTime for the modern era, developer Monkeypaw Games made some fairly significant changes to the formula. Where the game once existed in a single, flat, pixelated plane, each stage in World Tour has been blown out into a 2D/3D hybrid that extends the playing field significantly. In addition, the radical and controversial concept of "jumping" has been added. This on its own may sound like blasphemy to those who enjoyed the original BurgerTime. The arcade game and its subsequent ports offered no such option to its heroic, playable chef. Dodging enemies was, instead, a game of intense, stressful ladder climbing that resembled the sort of evasive antics of the Pac-Man ilk. Now you can hop over enemies in addition to climbing around them, a concept that will no doubt boil the bile of every BurgerTime superfan out there.
As for the rest of you, probably not so much. As I said, World Tour is a fairly different beast from its original namesake. The gameplay is generally less stressful, and a bit faster-paced. Yes, you are still assembling comically oversized hamburgers that have been separated into various pieces across many different platforms, and you are still required to run across those various burger ingredients to drop them down a platform and eventually put them all together, but playing World Tour feels a lot more like a modern platformer, shrunk down into bite-sized levels, than anything remotely similar to the arcade original.
And again, that's fine. BurgerTime: World Tour's gameplay might not resemble its predecessor too terribly much, but it's decent enough at what it does. The single-player is a bit lacking, in that there are only a few worlds to plow through and you'll likely do so in a mere couple of hours. The tacked-on boss fights don't do much to vary things up, nor do the added power-ups. Gadgets like rocket boosters and invincibility-giving energy drinks don't do much to break up the core flow of burger assemblage, and apart from a few weapons like pepper shakers and bludgeoning spatulas, there isn't much combat to speak of in the game, meaning you'll be jumping and avoiding enemies more often. That's generally fine, though the lack of enemy variety and meager amount of level variation does make things wear thin a bit quicker than you might like.
Fortunately, BurgerTime fares a good bit better in multiplayer. Up to four players can jump into a match, all competing to create an ever-regenerating series of burgers within a specific time limit. While the enemies and level traps remain, where BurgerTime: World Tour's multiplayer stands out is in your ability to screw with your opponents. All the attacks you can launch against in-game enemies you can also toss at your opponents, allowing for a constant stream of antagonistic tomfoolery through each match. It's a good bit of fun that's only handicapped by the relatively small number of multiplayer maps, and the aforementioned lack of gameplay variety. It's the sort of thing you can totally play for an hour or so with some friends (as it works both offline and on), but it's unlikely you'll find yourself too terribly addicted to it.
If you can accept that BurgerTime: World Tour is something fairly different from the arcade classic you may remember, there's a good chance you'll find some enjoyment in it. Like your average fast food hamburger, it's insubstantial, but so is its $10 price point. It's a solid multiplayer snack, if not a proper meal.
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