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Head Cook


A deranged, decapitated, culinary master. He is a randomly encountered monster in the Game Boy RPG (role-playing game) Great Greed.

Trivia
1. Head Cook is listed as #90 in the game's "Monster Book" (you have to beat the game at least once to access this virtual tome).

2. Head Cook's statistics are:

HP (hit points): 560
MP (magic points): 208
POW (attack power): 381
DEF (defense power): 99
SPD (speed): 204

3. Great Greed was developed by Namco and published in North America in 1992.

4. Amusingly, almost everyone and everything in the Great Greed game is named after food, or something associated with it.

5. The enemies Head Cook and Pie Guy share the same game sprites in Great Greed, with the former being more powerful/dangerous than the latter. Monster recycling is a practice commonly seen in video games (aside from being a lazy way to expand a bestiary, it conserves memory). On other game systems, the color of the creatures is usually changed, in addition to the names and stats/abilities, in order to differentiate them further, however, on the original Game Boy, which has gray-scale graphics, this wasn't possible.


BACKGROUND:

One fine day, while investigating the acid rain levels of a forest, with his father, a young man is suddenly confronted by a strange sight: An old woman, appearing out of thin air, engaged in a life-or-death battle with a horrible, gremlin-like creature. The desperate crone, seeking to throw off her monstrous pursuer, winks out of existence again, and, unfortunately for the young man, who is too close, the magic spell pulls him along with her. He awakens to find himself in another world, namely the Kingdom of Greene. He then learns that the strange woman's name is Microwave and that she is a sorceress--sadly, the previous battle has left Microwave unable to perform the magic necessary to send the young man home. Carrying the injured woman on his back, the young man makes his way to the royal refuge, using her directions, where the Greene family is in hiding. There, he learns about the terrible plight they face: An evil force called Bio-Haz is polluting and corrupting their world and has an army of foul creatures to do his bidding. It seems Bio-Haz derives all of his terrible power from Earth, which is why Microwave was there, gathering intelligence on him. The young man soon finds himself making their cause his own, as he struggles to save these people, and find a way home . . .

Head Cook is one of the many malignant creatures under the control of Bio-Haz that the hero will encounter on his journeys. It's likely that Head Cook was once a normal man, but the circumstances which transformed him into his current, horrific state are unknown.

ABILITIES:

  • Flame Breath
    •
    The decapitated head can exhale plumes of flame from its open mouth. While only effective as a close-to-medium range weapon, the blaze readily ignites anything flammable and can easily inflict second and third degree burns on exposed skin. The tongue of fire can reach temperatures as high as 800oF/427oC.

  • Cooking
    •
    This fiend is a master chef, capable of preparing almost any culinary dish imaginable. He's especially handy with a carving knife, which is his weapon of choice for melee combat.

WEAKNESSES:

  • Hand-Eye Coordination

    • Because the Head cook's eye level is below, and to the right, of the spot where a human's head normally sits, his perceptions are somewhat skewed when it comes to manipulating his body. This awkward arrangement often results in misjudgements in fine motor control, causing him to occasionally miss with his attacks (not to mention all kinds of accidents in the kitchen).

  • Head-Body Link

    • The Head Cook's body requires constant direction from the head, via psychic communication, in order to be effective. If the head is knocked off of the plate, or otherwise compromised, the body becomes blind and disorientated, and may lash out at friend as well as foe in the confusion.




Materials:
Newsprint, cardboard, white paper, tissue paper, a paper plate, wire twist ties, a paper clip, white glue, hot glue, marker, gloss nail polish, ink, and acrylic/watercolor paint.

Dimensions:
3.5 cm/1.4 in. x 5.3 cm/2.1 in.(widest point x highest point)

Articulation:
Fourteen points total: Waist, shoulders (2), elbows (2), wrists (2), thighs (2), knees (2), ankles (2), and plate.

Time:
Two days; September 2 and 3, 2007.



Head Cook photo collage.



For comparison purposes, below are three images of Head Cook, taken from the Great Greed Game Boy video game. The first, on the left, is his "neutral" pose, the second, in the middle, is his "attack" pose, and the third, on the right, is his "death" pose. Great Greed is an older Game Boy game, which is why the graphics are gray scale.

Head Cook game sprites.


REFERENCES:


  •   Various GameFAQs Great Greed guides.

  •   Great Greed Nintendo Game Boy cartridge and instruction manual.



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This is a nonprofit web site.
All trademarked/copyrighted characters, names, etc. depicted on this web page belong to their respective holders/owners, namely Namco.
The background images are portraits of the main female characters in the Great Greed game that I colored, while the foreground pattern is a closeup of the surface texture of my original 'Sargasso: The Queen of Kelp' sculpture.