Dungeon Munchies Review

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Fast Facts

Munching Madness

After seeing the trailer for Dungeon Munchies on the Latest Nintendo Direct Indie Showcase I thought it looked like a fun game that may be right up my street. Unfortunately, even though Dungeon Munchies does have a few things going for it, I found it hard to get through and found myself, in the end, forcing myself to play. I am, however, glad for games like this. The indie space is where the developers can push the boat out and try new things, even if sometimes they don’t quite come off.

What I did find weird is that the game is still listed as early-access, even though it has had its full Nintendo Switch release. If that is the case hopefully some of the issues I had with the game can be ironed out, or improved upon. There is something there with Dungeon Munchies, it does have things going for it, they are just buried underneath a few things I found slightly irksome.

Simmer, Boil and Fry

In Dungeon Munchies you are resurrected by undead Necro-Chef Simmer and must fight your way out of what can only be described as an uncanny facility full of beasts and anthropomorphic foodstuffs. You must fight, cook and grill your way through numerous wacky environments and biomes. Luckily, you have your cooking skills to aid you. Let’s turn some of these monsters into hors d’oeuvres.

The writing, at times, was funny but also at times quite strange. I found it quite difficult to garner any sort of feeling as to why I was doing what I was doing. Normally this does not bother me the slightest when playing games, story is low on my list of gaming wants but that is because the mechanics and gameplay usually make up for it. Here, I found a lot of the mechanics and gameplay to be too loose, floaty and lacking that ‘hook’ to keep me playing on.

Slay then Sauté

What I consider to be the best part of Dungeon Munchies is that the parts of slain beasts and, well, munchies, can be cooked to provide a permanent boost or new ability for your character. They can also be fashioned into weapons for you to use in either of your upper appendages. You can only have two weapons at once and seven active meals providing bonuses though. This encourages a lot of build variety and ways to change your character’s combat style and abilities.

Want to go long range? Poison? Dual melee? Want a double jump or improved movement speed? Health regen? With such a massive array of abilities and weapon combinations, there is a massive space for creating your own build and attack style. Unfortunately, this is where the issues, for me anyway, start.

Sluggish and Heavy on My Heart

I found the combat and general traversal to be very sluggish and heavy. It felt like Dungeon Munchies was designed for a keyboard and mouse setup without any controller tuning. You have a cursor that can move 360 degrees around your character and, especially early on, combat felt very imprecise and was not much fun. There are sections of the game that require precise platforming and with the current control scheme, it felt far too imprecise, making these sections, at times, very frustrating.

Graphically, I enjoyed Dungeon Munchies. While it does look like an older PC game, it does have an aesthetic of its own and I can give it credit for that. The characters are well designed, the enemies and environments are vibrant and clean and some of the bosses were engaging. The music and sound are perfectly serviceable, while not being very memorable in any way. There were times the sound was very slight and parts of the game sounded barren, but all in all, the presentation of Dungeon Munchies is pleasing and I did enjoy some of its weird personalities.

Interestingly Unique but Slightly Flawed

Overall, while Dungeon Munchies may not have been for me, it’s not a bad game. It looks good and runs well most of the time, barring a few framerate hiccups. The cooking character upgrade system is interesting and probably its finest feature. Unfortunately, for me, the gameplay was too inaccurate, sluggish, and I found little to drive me to play the game any more than I already have. This could perhaps be improved by making the controls tighter on controllers and adding a few features. In its current state, I would recommend playing one of the thousand other games of this ilk. For me, it fizzled out too quickly rather than being a lovely slow roast.

3 out of 5

3

If you want to buy Dungeon Munchies from the Nintendo EShop, you can here.