Once upon a time there was a lovely princess who waited for her prince charming. At least that’s how many fairy tale stories go. Sadly for this princess, her prince hasn’t arrived and she is thrust into a world with horrors and the only way out is to feed them. Just don’t forget to pet the cat for good luck before you make your way through the woods, the bog, or even the meadows.
Releasing into Early Access on January 19th, Hungry Horrors is a roguelite deckbuilder drawing on British and Irish folklore and cuisine. In this first release from Clumsy Bear Studio, the princess awakens unsure of where she is and hoping someday her prince will come. Instead she quickly finds a cat named Lady Catherine who will get her started on her culinary adventure. While the princess may be looking for someone to save her, this time, she’ll be in charge of saving herself.
Gameplay Loop
Hungry Horrors is all about your recipes and the combos you can build with them. Can you sate the horrors hunger before they approach you? As with any roguelite though, should the horror get to you, thankfully death is not the end.
At the start of a run, if you’ve collected any artifacts to help you on your journey you’ll take one for the road. After that you’ll grab ingredients and craft meals based on your current recipes and ingredients. This will build your starting deck before you launch into a location. As this is a roguelite, the more you play (and die) the more upgrades you’ll unlock. In time, you’ll find yourself upgrading your stamina, your cookware slots, and more with the use of Taliesin scrolls found on your journey. You can also buff your starting deck with the seasoning rack once unlocked which makes it easier to travel through the different areas.
Once you’ve prepped for travel, you’ll find yourself in a hall with a variety of doors. Choose your starting location and begin your journey. It’s worth a note that this game isn’t completely linear. Once you clear the first area, you’ll have choices of where to go. Do you explore the caves again to build out your deck and collect more items to buff your stats or do you brave the woods next? The choice is really up to you!
Each area consists of 10 stages and a boss battle. Within these stages you may find a vendor, a quest line, rest, and of course hungry horrors. Once you defeat the boss you’ll find yourself back at the castle ready to choose your next location. Your items continue to stack as long as your equipment limits allow until you die. Once you “die” you begin from the start again but any unlocked recipes and locations will remain unlocked to you. If you’ve unlocked the bog, you can always choose to start at the bog instead of the caves again. It’s all up to your style of game play.
Card Battles
So how do you actually feed these horrors? You’ll feed them based on the deck you had built before leaving the castle. Hopefully you have the right deck built out for these horrors or you may find yourself having an unlucky time.
Each horror, much like each of us, has their own favorite and hated meals. So you’ll have to hope that you have the correct meals to feed the variety of horrors you’ll encounter. At first glance, it feels like having a variety of meals might be the best way to balance this. However it isn’t just about the meals that you feed but also the specific cravings of these horrors. Are they hoping for a bitter, sweet, savory, or salty meal? If you can manage to meet their craving and meet it with a dish they like or love, you’ll continue to build your combo to fill them up that much sooner. Be careful not to feed them something they hate or they’ll purge their food and you’ll be at a disadvantage.
Each card also comes with icons that are helpful to understand but do take a bit of getting used to. On the left hand side of the cards it will tell you what craving it matches at the top, what craving it will inspire next, and finally the horrors reaction to the meal. This information will also appear in the recipe book the Princess carries as well. However from a player perspective, it’s great to have this helpful information on the card instead for easy review. This is a huge kudos to the developers for not having us having to refer back to multiple areas.
The fear is not just the enemies approaching you but they can also tick down the Princess’ stamina during battle. You also need to be sure they are fed before they reach you or it’s “death”. Of course, it’s a roguelike so the magic cauldron you’re making these meals at will save you and teleport you back before it’s too late.
You’ll usually always know what the boss will do next thanks to the right hand side of the screen that gives you their information. You can hover over icons to understand what they mean. Another wonderful aspect of this game as it doesn’t leave the player referring back to other areas too often. The screen also tells you how hungry they are and how many steps until they make it to you. Time is of the essence here!
Art & Music
The hand drawn pixel art is inviting and the coloring often offers a wonderful juxtaposition of the setting and our characters. Even in the darkness of the caves, our Princess stands out, as she should since she is our heroine after all. With pixel art having quite the renaissance in gaming, Hungry Horrors delivers on ensuring the art adds to the allure of the game. The horrors are still somewhat grotesque but almost cute and never verging on too scary to enjoy. The horrors feel more ugly doll status than traditional horror, but for the vibe of a game where death isn’t the end, it’s fitting.
The music brings in a bit of whimsy to the world in which you are becoming a culinary monster slayer. It doesn’t matter how long you find yourself in a run, the music never becomes dull or feels repetitive. It’s the type of soundtrack you can play on repeat while imagining yourself in a magical school or on a journey of your own. The music truly brings the princess on a journey of self discovery even if she isn’t thrilled by it. She still waits for her prince to come, yet somehow, the music tells us it isn’t happening without being disheartening. Despite her words and actions conflicting, the music reminds us this is her story, she will endure and overcome.
Glitches? Concerns? Negatives?
Thankfully, this early access release came with no glitches and if anything the concern is the wait for more. This is actually a huge accomplishment for a self-proclaimed team of two who are self-funding and self-publishing this release. In their Steam post, they are transparent about their process and credit the player feedback with demand for the amount available in Early Access. On the Steam page the duo behind Hungry Horrors have stated:
Much of the additional content and polish will be shaped directly by feedback during Early Access. We also have ideas for extra modes and systems once the main experience is finished, but we are deliberately keeping those flexible so we can respond to what players actually enjoy and ask for. … We are making this game to be played, and your opinions genuinely matter to us.
It’s always great to hear that a team of developers is moving forward with a game for the players. Most likely there are other players asking for the game to add more as soon as possible, but we’ll give them space and time. You can’t rush greatness.
Final Thoughts
Hungry Horrors adds a fun twist on the deckbuilding roguelite genre that many have come to adore. Tacking on the British and Irish folklore and cuisine is a nice addition for those familiar with it. Even for someone outside of the culture, I recognized some of the meals and could appreciate the care given to these areas. Clumsy Bear Studio has indicated that the game will probably be in Early Access for hopefully under a year and the price will increase upon the full release. So for those who know you enjoy this genre, be sure to get in their sooner rather than later. These horrors won’t feed themselves after all!
Hungry Horrors was reviewed on Steam. We’d like to thank Clumsy Bear Studio for providing a code for purpose of this review. Hungry Horrors will release to early access on January 19, 2026 on Steam.
