Oh my. All establishments have their special recipe or sauce, and Meat Grinder: Hotdog Simulator is no exception. Even a moment’s wonder as to what that secret could be indicates that you’re not the sharpest tool in the shed, and perhaps, if you continue the way you are in your naive little world, you might just end up in a bun. Apologies – I don’t think you’re thick, but his gristle is.
Right, so you’re on a bus towards pastures new, a bright new future. You’re going to be a hotdog vendor, and the way your character describes it makes me think we’re one of those New York cart-type things. Oh no, this is a proper classy establishment – brick and mortar. However, it does need a bit of a clean to begin with. Cue the standard first-person simulator.
Now you’ve got your brand spanking new abode, you have to quickly take out the trash and sweep the floors. Fear not, scruffies: this isn’t essential and only part of Meat Grinder: Hotdog Simulator’s tutorial. Cleaning in the game is optional, and irrespective of Johnny Public calling your gaff a shithole, they’re still keeping coming in, the lowlifes. Still, we’re an elite bunch of cleaners, as gamers, and I frequently tidied up as I didn’t want food hygiene inspectors on my case.
Once again, fear not, soap dodgers! The meat in question is sketchy to say the least. While your supplier offered you the best prices at the time, now they’ve gone up, and you have to source it for yourself. But where do you get the meat from? This isn’t Sweeney Todd; you so aren’t getting fresh produce yourself, but are raiding the local graveyard for corpses, hanging them in your freezer, then manually hacking them up to put into the grinder. Yes, Meat Grinder: Hotdog Simulator is gruesome.
After cutting the meat and grinding it, you can then store it in the freezer, or grind it into convenient hotdog shapes to serve to your punters. Once you open the doors, they’re lined up so you can serve them three at a time. Predominantly, you are a hotdog vendor, so that’s the key thing on the menu, then later drinks and fries, pending you repair the equipment. A phonebook out back lets you place orders immediately, so you can stack up on wrappers, cups, ingredients and real meat. Of course, this comes at a cost, so you might have to take shortcuts.
Sourcing the meat can be ordered, or manually sourced at night. At the end of each shift, you have to sleep, but you will wake up every night, giving you the option to head to the cemetery and dig up a body. These are limited, and also, there’s a police foot patrol where you could get caught. I never got caught, so I couldn’t say if it’s game over, but there’s an autosave nonetheless. Towards the end of the game, you can also explore a small region of the town and source ingredients for a special sauce, also. Again, that comes later.
Naturally, Meat Grinder: Hotdog Simulator is a repetitive experience in that you will order in goods, prepare for the customers, serve them and (optionally) clean up ready for the next shift. However, it’s relatively stress-free. There’s no timer, and while customers can get disgruntled and throw their order back at you and mumble something inaudible, there’s no fear of not seeing it through to the end. There is a short narrative thread here, which is quite predictable, but fun nevertheless. Plus, taking away all that Overcooked aspect means that you want to stick this out.
With a similar aesthetic and also theme to Happy’s Humble Burger Farm, this casual indie simulator from Panic Panda will have a bit of a niche audience. If you liked serving burgers with/from your friends, and like a bit of the old Soylent Green, why not give this a look? According to Steam, this took me about two hours to complete. Once the story is done, you can continue to serve the customers, though it depends on whether you’ve got anything fresh in the freezer. Otherwise, you might have to go out looking for something yourself…
