It’s a well-known fact that you can reach a man through his stomach, but what about monsters? The same thing. Well, that’s what Hungry Horrors has taught me. That, and how to cook up countless dishes with a few eggs, flour and wit. Coming soon to Early Access, here’s a look at this deck-building rogue-like.
After a relatively friendly cat informs you that you aren’t being rescued by a prince and, in fact, need to thwart invaders by cooking up meals, then launching at their faces, you soon head through a bright red door to the caves to be shown the ropes.
A dragon resides in the lands of Hungry Horrors, a game by Clumsy Bear Studio, which you won’t yet see in this iteration, but there’s a fair amount of challenges nevertheless. Each door within the castle takes the princess through around 10 stages of enemies, intent on hitting her with a blunt object. To counter this, she’ll retaliate by matching their tastes with a.. ahem, tasty dish.
The monsters typically will have a craving, or one induced by the first dish you throw, that ranges from savoury, sweet, salty and whatnot. If the princess throws an item that matches their crazing, such as a sour one, damage will stack, and if you use ingredients they’ve already got a liking for. No doubt, reducing a monster’s health gauge is the object in every title, but in Hungry Horrors, you have to fill their appetite before they reach you.
This is a turn-based game, so instead of listing turn one, and so on, there is a limited number of steps the monster will make until they reach you. If they do? Insta-death and the end of the run. It’s a simple mechanic that’s immediately understandable, and though manageable, quite risky as the princess can take damage between turns. Fortunately, you can use cards on the princess which fill her health bar, or stamina, at the risk of using a turn up.
To really thrive in Hungry Horrors, you’ll need to make use of the many dishes. While you aren’t going in blind, as in Zelda: BOTW, you use ingredients based on the recipes you know and add modifiers to them through seasoning, and also collect buffs that add hunger points (damage) to recipes that feature specific ingredients, such as stacking the damage for anything that contains eggs.
After beating each stage, there’s typically an option to choose some gold (to buy items from a vendor that also includes equipment that adds health or boosts savoury dishes), a dish or recipe can be purchased, plus you’re awarded further ingredients to concoct more dishes. The actual mechanics for decks and burning sets are as universal as Blackjacket and Slots & Daggers, so let’s not go over that. The princess will take damage from projectiles thrown by monsters or additional curses you’ve been… blessed with.
Any deck-building rogue-like is worth its weight if you want to keep playing, and I did. Initially, the concept threw me off and seemed mildly gimmicky – feeding enemies so everyone is well fed and besties for life. However, mixed in with the excellent humour throughout, this works in its favour and is a standout from smashing folk with axes. Pickled eggs, anyone?
The music is alarmingly catchy to the point that making a cup of tea in real life is preceded by hops, skips and the humming of the theme tune. It’s genuinely uplifting and feel-good. But the cherry on the cake is the Amiga 500-like presentation. Ok, it’s better than that, but Hungry Horrors feels more nostalgic than it should, and terribly comforting and wholesome.
The Early Access date is imminent, but if you’re an early bird reading these before that date, go give the demo a couple of runs beforehand.
