Nom Nom Apocalypse

Strip away the food based aesthetic and all that’s left is a very simplistic 2D shooter.

For a game made by a solo developer at Deadleaf Games, Nom Nom Apocalypse is creatively impressive but held back by several bugs and a rather repetitive gameplay loop.

It certainly does show how much a one-man independent can achieve, it’s just not going to go down as a classic or even a rival to its twin-stick peers.

Nom Nom Apocalypse resurrects the fear of mutating food; however, the game lacks substance. A single run can be completed in an hour or two, and I fail to see anything to keep me wanting to play through a second time. The different areas are overly large and empty, and yet, the destructible parts of the environment don't appear to do any splash damage to enemies. I do feel the game mechanics are really tight and responsive.

Top-down, two-player food fights sure sound like a recipe for success, but Nom Nom Apocalypse lacks the mechanical garnish to distinguish itself in the competitive rogue-lite space. There's challenging battles, there's tactics, but nary enough depth to sustain long-term play.

Overall, since the stages are procedurally generated there is a lot of replayability, and the different abilities from the different characters are really nice for keeping you coming back for another serving. The graphics are rather reminiscent of overcooked and the soundtrack is pretty decent. With monster filled levels, the meat of Nom Nom Apocalypse is definitely fighting through the hordes of mutant food monsters and throwing yourself out of the frying pan and into the fire. Facing off against the big bosses are fun, and every run feels a little bit different from the last. Nom Nom Apocalypse is a quirky top-down shooter that, while maybe not going too far outside the box in terms of gameplay, certainly has a delicious draw to it.