Hunger Calls HD Review

Hunger Calls and little gluttonous patrons of a fast-food diner answer by demanding so much junk food and soda they are prone to popping. That’s the premise – the goal is for a player to serve each customer what they ordered as quickly a possible. This game should be subtitled “Michelle Obama’s Worst Nightmare.”

There's a bit of story. Max, a young robot inventor, wants to create a fully automated diner that can serve the kids better and faster than humans. But these robots and mechanical devices still need some help from a human player to make them work.

The game has 39 levels, each of which has customers sitting at the ends of an increasingly convoluted labyrinth of a counter. Players must steer the right food to the right customer by determining the track the food will take. At each junction there’s a little direction arrow that must be turned in appropriate direction to get the food to the correct impatient patrons.

I called the customers gluttons for a reason – these children are so insatiable that every so often one needs a glass of Alka Seltzer. If the de-bloating medicine arrives too late the customer explodes. Each food has a dollar value and if the player takes too long to earn the required amount for the level they fail the level.

Hunger Calls is remarkably fun even if one’s not a time management type of gamer. The game falls into the time management genre only in so far as timing is of the essence. This is really more of an action-strategy title with players needing to spin arrows, feed customers and save the crowd from indigestion at an often breakneck pace.

The graphics are cute, but nothing extraordinary – the ability to customize the look of the diner, however, is clever and adds visual appeal. The mini games and boss battles are a tad simplistic and the early levels are easy to beat. But, gameplay in the last dozen levels really heats up.

Hunger Calls requires quick thinking, lots of dexterity and is compulsively replayable. There’s also something oddly satisfying about watching the greedy kids explode. The game is well worth the price of admission.