Hungry Giraffe

Hungry Giraffe – Review

Published By: Laughing Jackal, Developed By: Laughing Jackal, Genre: Puzzle, Release Date: Feb 7, 2012, Rating: E10+, Systems: PsP, Playstation 3 (minis).

Presentation: Hungry Giraffe is a lighthearted puzzle game featuring what else, a giraffe. When strictly dissecting this game’s presentation its a pretty good minis puzzle game. You have good atmosphere thanks to the visual and art design. The music also helps out. The gameplay at first seemed pedantic but would soon grow on me and became a challenging yet addictive puzzle game. During my playthrough of Hungry Giraffe i experienced no bugs, glitches or any significant framerate issues while playing on my Playstation 3.

The main title screen of Hungry Giraffe includes: Feed Me, Stats, Awards, Credits and Options. The Stats section keeps track of gameplay statistics like Fast Food Eaten, Times Vomited, Dumbbells Eaten and Calories Consumed. The Award section is basically an achivement/trophy section. Here you can unlock various in-game awards such as “Fast Food King” – Eat 3,000 Fast Food Items. Hungry Giraffe’s menus were easily navigable however the menu screen looks big and didn’t fit my TV like it should have.

Story: If there is a story to Hungry Giraffe i guess it would go something like the following. Its a story of survival. You must keep the giraffe fed or else he/she will die. There is no vegetation in jungle so you must steer the giraffe to eat fast-food, strawberries and stay clear of harmful substances and objects in the process. Gamers, there really isn’t a story here, its just a puzzle game.

Visuals: Hungry Giraffe has a light-hearted artstyle when it comes to visuals. Colors and texture work make there presence felt immediately upon playing. The design of the giraffe i thought really fit the game’s presentation. There isn’t alote to dissect visually in this game. You have a long winding giraffe neck and head eating food for the most part. The background designs do add some variety to Hungry Giraffe’s visual presentation. Although small on screen you can clearly see what your eating and what you’re suppose to avoid.

Sound: I enjoyed the orchestra music while playing Hungry Giraffe. I can’t help but feel i heard that music before. Maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me. As the giraffe eats yummy food he/she makes a soft “nom” sound. When the giraffe eats a bottle of green poison he/she pukes which sounds accordingly. Overall i like the sound design in Hungry Giraffe. It never overdoes it and every sound plays out accordingly.

Gameplay: Hungry Giraffe is a puzzle game. You have to steer a giraffe’s head with its long windy neck. Your main goal is to eat foods such as french fries, sandwiches, strawberries, apples and chili peppers. When you eat food you stay above the fold on the screen. Not only that you rise higher. If you drop below the fold of the screen you die. You gain points for gaining height. The higher you can make the giraffe’s head go the more points you get. The more points you get, the better chance you can unlock the next level. When you consume hardhats  they are stored in the bottom right of screen. You can collect three. What’s important about hardhats is that they can give you a massive surge of height, like a boost if you will.

You press X to activate hardhat and steer the giraffe with LS (Duel Shock 3). Hungry Giraffe has a challenging gameplay element to it. You didn’t think this puzzle game would be easy did ya? The challenge comes in the form of avoiding objects on screen to eat the food that gives you height. They are anvils, dumbells, green bottles of poison and psychotropic  pill bottles. Each hazard item has its own unique effect on the giraffe and must be avoided. Anvils immediately knocks the giraffe’s head downwards which makes it difficult to regain momentum upwards. Remember only good food gives your giraffe height and momentum. The dumbells are eatable and also knocks the giraffe’s momentum downwards.

Your probabaly asking why not just avoid all of the bad stuff and eat the good stuff. That is the addicting gameplay of Hungry Giraffe, its difficult avoiding the bad stuff. You also have green bottles of poison that are eatable and makes your giraffe puke a big glob of vomit that covers the screen. Not only is this semi gross but it hampers your vision greatly when trying to navigate for food. And last you have the psychotropic pill bottles that are eatable. These things literally make your giraffe trip and your controls are instantly switched to oppsoite. You go right you turn left and vice versa. The screen also has some weird trippy effect with wild colors and flashes disorienting you even more. The gameplay is challenging yet addicting. I didn’t expect to put so much time into this game but i did.

Replayability: Not much. You do have 10 different stages that offer alote of challenging gameplay. You also have the awards system that keeps tracks of in-game achievements. You also have a stats page to look at which doesn’t add any replay value.

Final Verdict: Hungry Giraffe acomplishes what it needed to do. It is a small yet addicting and challenging puzzle game. The presentation was solid regarding the game’s atmosphere, visuals and sound design. Its a solid little minis game. Thanks for reading.

7.5/10