Nom Nom Apocalypse is a game that truly enjoys its food puns. If there’s an opportunity to make a reference to an aspect of food preparation, the makers of this game take it without a moment of hesitation. But perhaps some of the time spent crafting culinary wordplay should have spent on other areas of development. Nom Nom Apocalypse aims to be a gourmet take on arcade, top-down shooting, but it ends up feeling like a greasy, fast-food version of better games.
Bland And Flavorless
The story of Nom Nom Apocalypse is suitably silly. Some oblivious diner patron leaves a plate of muffins in a microwave for far too long, leading to a catastrophic nuclear explosion. The resulting radiation creates living food monsters that mutate into whatever item they consume. Walking cheeseburgers that are ready to chew you up; spools of spaghetti that create small meatball hatchlings, etc. It’s up to the various, hardened workers of the service industry – known as Food Fighters – to weaponize their cooking tools of choice and save humanity from these nutritious nightmares. It’s a perfectly dumb premise and it works well as an excuse to fire bullets at sentient sushi.
Nom Nom Apocalypse doesn’t necessarily require an in-depth narrative considering the genre, but it feels like it needed a stronger hook than “look at all the food jokes!” Visually, it doesn’t pop off the screen and it actually looks rather cheap. The character and enemy designs all resemble toys that wouldn’t pass as Happy Meal prizes. They’re bland and expressionless, and after the novelty wears off, seeing a box of french fries with eyeballs isn’t all that exciting.
Throughout Nom Nom, there appeared to be a very slim selection of levels. They ranged from a destroyed city, a wrecked school covered in candy, a sewer filled with radioactive gas, and a shopping mall that was so dull I almost forgot it existed. There may be other areas, but the level design is so sparse and monotonous that it can be hard to tell the difference between the locales. The game cycles through the same stages during each run, so it can be very easy to get sick of Nom Nom's scenery.
Enter The Funyun
Nom Nom Apocalypse is a top-down, bullet-hell shooter with some rogue-lite elements. The player runs around slaying edible enemies with goofy weapons like the Caramelizer or the Garlic Puncher and collecting cash for perks that improve their chances of survival. Along the way, additional Food Fighters can be unlocked who each have special abilities that can be activated once their Power Grease level is full.
The shooting is solid and there's some enjoyment to be had from blasting flying donuts and exploding cupcakes. However, while playing Nom Nom, it's hard not to be reminded of the infinitely superior Enter The Gungeon. Everything from the dodge-rolling to the weapon pick-ups feels like it was lifted from Dodge Roll's rogue-lite masterpiece. This is unfortunate for Nom Nom Apocalypse, as it only highlights the ways that it isn't up to snuff in this genre.
This game lacks character and originality. It slaps eyeballs on desserts, calls a laser beam gun "The Microwaver," and thinks that's enough to constitute a personality. The guns all have amusing names, but they don’t do anything unique. Whereas Gungeon had all manner of funny, creative guns, the guns of Nom Nom are just machine guns, spread-shot guns, flamethrowers, and other categories of stereotypical video game firearms. A majority of the weapons seemed to handle the exact same way just with some slight tweaks to their fire rate or damage output. The developer went all-in on the food gimmick, but beyond that, Nom Nom is just a bog-standard shooter that offers nothing that other games haven't done better.
In 'N Out
Also, like Gungeon, this is supposed to be a run-based game where the player unlocks perks after dying and then goes back in to give it another shot. The problem with Nom Nom is that it’s far too easy. The enemies aren't all the bright and most of their attacks can be effortlessly avoided. The only threat was getting stuck in a corner or blowing yourself up with your own weapon. The player can also fall off the level, which for some infuriating reason is instant death and ends the run. Regardless, I was able to beat the game on my second try with some of the less expensive perks. Most of the time I didn’t even feel the need to use my Food Fighter’s special ability.
With its lack of level variety or desirable rewards, there’s not much to do after beating the game. There are a few different bosses that change things up, but each level plays the same way. Fight a bunch of enemies, find a key to unlock a gate, get a new gun, beat the boss and then move on to the next zone. That was how every run went. Considering it can be beaten in about half an hour, it’s possible that most players will be done with Nom Nom Apocalypse after they complete their first successful run.
To top it all off, the game seems to have an overall lack of polish in many areas. Slowdown and framerate hitches occur when there are too many enemies on screen. There's no elegant transition between levels. Everything just turns black for a moment and you're suddenly in the next area. One time, that transition even loaded me into a trap. The perk store is just a basic selection screen with no real flare. Some of the perks are actually so overpowered that they make an already easy game feel trivial. Even killing the bosses lacks any panache as they just slump over pathetically without any kind of cool death animation. Nom Nom feels generic and does nothing to entice its players to get lost in its world. After my time with it, I think I've had more than my fill and won't be going back for seconds.
Check, Please!
Nom Nom Apocalypse’s entire personality depends on its litany of food gags. Naming a boss “Pancakor” is cute, but it's frankly not enough to base an entire game around. The top-down shooting is mostly solid, but that's the bare minimum for a title like this. It's not very difficult or original, and after you beat it, there's nothing else to do unless you really want to unlock every additional character.
If you've played Enter The Gungeon then you're going to find this to be a very weak imitation. If you haven't played Gungeon, then you're way better off getting that instead. Nom Nom Apocalypse is an unfulfilling snack of a game that offers very little to sink your teeth into.
A PC of Nom Nom Apocalypse was provided to TheGamer for this review. Nom Nom Apocalypse is available on PC.
Nom Nom Apocalypse