I’ll be honest, I saw the trailer for Hungry Baby: Party Treats and thought it was a Bomberman clone. So already, my expectations weren’t that high. I would have been content with a simple Bomberman clone. But nope, what I got was much, much worse.
Hungry Baby: Party Treats is intended to be played as a party game, but can be played solo with bots, which is how I played it. It boasts a “whopping” five game modes and a campaign mode too, which is fifteen levels long. I finished nine levels of it, tried the main modes out and stopped playing. I would have liked to try it with my housemates, but I like having a roof over my head so I decided against subjecting them to it. Even playing it in the same room as them required I mute the game to prevent their imminent suicides due to the infuriating music and sound effects. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, Hungry Baby: Party Treats is bad. Like, real bad. Like, they torture sinners in hell by making them play it repeatedly bad.
Here’s what you do. You pick a treat to play as and get thrust onto a grid of tiles. In the campaign, you must collect some alarm clocks and then dive into the baby’s mouth to complete the level, with a faster time getting you more stars. As you move you gain power-ups too, most of which are useless or accomplish exactly the same thing. All of that’s fine, but the game’s “innovative gameplay” as the eShop page puts it, revolves around dying to traps. Over, over, and over. Every time, being reset to the start of the level. Yes, it’s all trial and error. There is not a single element of skill at all. On the first playthrough that is. Once you’ve memorised the traps, you can play again for a faster time, being careful to avoid the traps this time. So essentially, you have to die dozens of times to clear a level optimally. Your first attempt will always come down to nothing more than sheer luck. And your second attempt can be rendered ridiculously easy by a mere screenshot. That’s all this game is. You have to endure copious amounts of dying to take a mental screenshot and win. THAT’S IT.
WHO CAME UP WITH THIS!?
OK, so the campaign is lackluster. That doesn’t mean the party modes are bad right? Nope, the party modes are bad too. They’re exactly the same as the campaign, except you play for points. I like that you can set an amount of rounds, that’s useful. However, I don’t like that all five modes are the same, just with different aesthetics. You have to reach either a baby, a pan, a fridge, a finish line, or a button. In each mode, you do the same thing. Pick a direction and pray. You need an element of skill in there, otherwise I have no way to influence the outcome, no way to compete, and no drive to try and beat my friends. The only thing you have direct control over is the power-ups, and they all do similar things. Save you from a death, kill another player, or swap everyone around. Who cares? No amount of power-ups will cover up the fact that your game revolves around luck and moving on the same set path over and over.
It’s not all bad. The game looks good. It plays smoothly. It’s very competently made. And it’s perfect if you just want an early night and can’t get your friends to leave. Slap this on and boom, you won’t have to worry about hearing from them again cause they’ll assume you’ve lost it and cut you out of their lives!
I just want to apologise to my Switch for forcing it to play this when it could have been used to play more Splatoon 2. I hope it can forgive me.
A digital copy of Hungry Baby: Party Treats for Switch was provided by the developer.
Find Hungry Baby: Party Treats on Switch here: https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/hungry-baby-party-treats-switch/
