Clumsy Bear Studio has cooked up something special by mixing a bit of British and Irish folklore into its new game, Hungry Horrors. This title offers a unique adventure centered around cards, but with a culinary twist that sets it apart from other games in the genre.
It is always interesting to see a turn-based fighting system get a fresh makeover, and Hungry Horrors does exactly that with a simple yet clever change. Instead of attacking your enemies to defeat them, you must feed them. In this pixel art world, your attacks are actually meals, and the cards you play represent the ingredients needed to cook them.
The story begins inside a dungeon where a Princess has just woken up. Looking for a way to escape, she discovers a purple-eyed cat trapped inside a cage. This cat can talk and introduces herself as Lady Catherine. Our new feline companion offers the Princess a way out of her predicament.
Very quickly, the duo encounters their first monster, a redcap with a very thick mustache. Lady Catherine warns the Princess that the creature is hungry and instructs her to cook a meal for it. Armed with some basic ingredients and a cauldron to mix them in, the Princess must select from the ingredients drawn as cards to create a tasty treat for the knife-wielding creature blocking her path.
How the Cooking Combat Works
The encounters in this game follow a specific rule. There is a hunger bar that functions somewhat like reverse hitpoints. You need to fill this bar up to nourish your enemy and avoid becoming its meal as it gets closer with every turn. Each card you play has a hunger value that helps fill the enemy’s stomach. For example, a simple pottage is worth one point, while pickled onions are worth four points.
Different enemies will have different preferences, which are marked on the cards as you play them. While some cards might fill them up more, they might actually prefer something with a lesser value. However, by feeding specific foods to an enemy, you can trigger a craving. In the case of this first fight, if you feed the redcap pickled onions, it will begin craving salty foods.
That craving bonus boosts the value of foods that fit that category. In this specific situation, a batch of salted roast potatoes will fill double the hunger bar value it normally would. I enjoy cooking in real life because I can experiment with different ingredients to create tailored versions of classic dishes. This is part of what makes Hungry Horrors work so well. A deep knowledge of cooking isn’t necessary to play, but it certainly adds an extra layer of enjoyment to the card-based combat.
A British and Irish Backdrop
Another refreshing quality that makes Hungry Horrors stand out is its British and Irish setting. The environments and the monsters take heavy inspiration from the locations and legends of those regions. The current version of the game already features a variety of biomes, and each one brings fresh monster challenges to test your culinary card-dealing skills.
The humor in the game could use a little tweaking. The often dark comedy has its moments, but some of it lacks the sharp edge it needs to stand up to the rest of the experience. The cute pixel art style is great for pulling the rug of expectations out from under you, but there are times the game seems unsure of which tone should dominate.
In its current Early Access form, Hungry Horrors includes the first act of the story, five playable biomes, core progression systems, and a selection of folklore Horrors and dishes. As the Early Access period continues, the small, self-funded team aims to add more mechanics, features, creatures, and dishes to the mix.
What is on offer in this Early Access version is just enough to satisfy cravings for a roguelike experience, featuring tasty monster designs and a novel twist on the card-based adventure genre. Hungry Horrors is available now on Steam in Early Access.
