Monster Meals

TheAwakening
3 days ago
3 min read

Overview

In Monster Meals you are a monster who has come up with the idea of feeding bigger monsters with whatever animal you can catch, all in the same place in the wildness of the desert, without ever running out of ingredients. It is a diner dash that gets progressively harder as you unlock more complex but exotic recipes. It can be played alone, with two players in a level selector mode, or with up to four players in survival mode. Hunt, cook, serve, rinse and repeat.

Gameplay

Starting with a van, your only task is to fill the quota of every level in time, with up to three stars obtainable. The order goes as follows: You take the order from the customer, hunt the animal requested, prepare it for consumption, and serve it within the time allowed. You are armed with a simple yet effective kitchen tool that serves as a weapon. You can dash to cover distances faster, and if required to hunt flying critters, you can throw your weapon.

On each side of the area, the rodents like to hide in barrels and mounds, which you can simply tamper with to make them run away in either direction. Squashing them with your tool before they can get away, you’ll bring the desired meal inside the van. Customer requests may vary in larger steps: They may only want it cut and served raw or cooked. To serve a meal if cooked, you must grab a plate first. Bringing the meal in time will grant you money, which counts towards the score of the level. Failing to prepare in time will make the customer angry to the point they will eat you (don’t worry, they will find you disgusting). If not paying attention, your meals might even burn!

Further levels will increase difficulty as your clients will request big meals that take some time to prepare. Meals that involve vultures have their own microwave that won't take up space, but hunting them down is tricky, as you must throw your weapon and then retrieve it. Animals hunted down will despawn after some time, but you can place them on shelves and save those for later. New stations that get unlocked later will include a bun dispenser and a mustard or ketchup dispenser, this one requiring manual recharge by using the right animal’s blood. Multitasking will get you busy juggling between orders.

All the money you earned can be used to customize your weapons, chefs, or the van. You won't use it to unlock new mechanics however. As mentioned before, levels get progressively harder; that might be very difficult in solo. The game is designed for cooperative play, but only two players can play in the story mode. In survival mode, a total of four chefs can join, a faster dinner dash that will require you to fill a daily quota. The money between days can be used to purchase upgrades such as movement speed, cutting speed, or cooking speed, or to unlock more stations. How efficient you are in between orders will determine how much cash you earn.

Audio & Graphics

The music pairs well with the cooking experience, and also when preparing the meals, you can listen to how your chef cuts and cooks everything, which is just delightful. The graphics remind me of retro pixel cartoonish games, and the cinematics are also drawn like it. Performance was okay without frame drops.