As far as sharp looking iOS games go, Hungry Oni must be one of the most dazzling I've seen all year. And yes, I know it's only February. (It is only February.)
The game is the work of Andrzej Zamoyski, a former Lionhead Studios developer who moved to Japan to make video games. This is one of those games!
Hungry Oni, as I previously said, looks great. This is the work of an obvious pro. The art style pops, and it has a catchy soundtrack. The object of the game is to feed your oni (demon) with food that falls from a large tree. The catch is that if the tree's leaves are, say, blue, then you can only catch blue food in your mouth. If the leaves are yellow, then you can only eat yellow food. And so on. You are penalized if you eat falling food that isn't the same color as the leaves.
Catching a multi-colored falling leaf causes the tree's leaves to change colors. And since food of various colors fall at the same time, part of the game is to not only catch appropriately colored food, but to dodge food you cannot eat.
You create chains as you catch fruit in succession, unlocking bonus rounds. During the bonus round, you catch gold coins, which you can use to unlock new levels.
The gameplay is fairly interesting; the one pickle is that it was pretty easy to unlock the first level, but the difficulty curve for the second one is very steep. It felt a little too much, a little too soon. What's more, it made the gameplay feel more like a chore so early on. Yes, this is a free app, and yes, this is the pay wall, but I wish we were eased in a little bit better.
That all being said, Hungry Oni looks great, has a neat gameplay mechanic, and a snappy soundtrack. It's worth checking out.
Hungry Oni
- Genre: Demon Feeding Sim
- Developer: Futuretro Studios
- Platform: iOS
- Price: Free