Why does this Star Wars game make me so hungry?

Star Wars Bandits gives you a ton of stuff to do that will immerse you in that galaxy far, far away. Sabacc! Speeder racing! Smuggling illegal goods! Quests and loot are to be expected in a massive open-world game, but what I didn’t expect were the extravagant food sequences. It turns out that player character Kay is a foodie!

In four different worlds in Star Wars Banditsplayers can sit down at a droid-driven food stall and enjoy a unique dish of local cuisine. There are alien popcorn cobs, ice-covered eels, and a curry spicier than an angry Gamorrean. Each meal begins with a gleeful droid chef chopping up ingredients and cooking them as in Monster Hunter: Worldbefore he shows you your plate like a true maître.

What’s interesting is that these aren’t just cutscenes: you have to pick up your space spork and eat it! During your meal, you play simple quick-time events to take bites of a kebab or drink some water after too much condiment. You do the same for your adorable companion Nix, who enjoys the meal with you. It can be a genuinely heartwarming moment for you and your little buddy, and a nice break from all the tense mugging. You also rarely get such an in-depth look at food in Star Wars, which for a certain type of nerd (me) is a huge treat, especially when every meal seems to hide its own surprises.

Of course, this is a video game, so you might wonder if there’s any gameplay purpose to hunting down these food carts, and the answer is a resounding yes. Each meal gives you a bonus for Nix, some of which can be a huge boon to your missions: one allows Nix to distract multiple enemies at once, while another can cause enemies to go wild with their blasters (you can switch between the two later).

So the next time you’re strolling through Mos Eisley or Kijimi City, take a break and eat like the locals do!