Vegetarian Is Fun

Post date: 12-Jun-2016 19:16:25

Game by: David Hughes

Reviewed by: Simon Ferré

Eating my Mixed Grill one lovely day, an email appeared in my inbox with a resounding thud. Upon closer inspection while trying to wipe sausage grease from my keyboard, I see this interestingly titled game.

With wild anticipation, and steak juices still on my face, I loaded Vegetarian Is Fun, hereafter shortened to VIF. A rather nice loading screen with shaded vegetables and fruit adorned my emulator window. I can make out an apple and maybe a courgette, but any ideas on the third item? 75p and a pack of polos to the person who most adequately provides a suitable suggestion:

After a lot of sitting waiting for the game to load, the obligatory PAUSE 0 which you are not aware is in the program causes you to sit and wait for some time, uncertain if the game has crashed or is busy doing something important like softening lentils or picking mushrooms. Once you get a bit braver and press any key, you are presented with this lovely fun instruction screen. What's that, I hear you say, a custom font. It's not bad. It's pretty readable, and what's more, is reminiscent of handwriting. Not that easy to achieve in only 8x8 pixels. I ought to dock you a few points for that. The common lack of word wrapping is there, making it harder to follow the instructions which gains this a few extra points, as does the error "enginer" which I'm sure has been misspelled.

At this point, I had high hopes, and had munched my way through a pork chop and a small gammon steak. Boy was I disappointed when the next screen appeared. A more monochrome affair coupled with a handful of what I assume to be chefs down the right hand side, this screen simply waits for you to press a key before the next wondrous recipe appears. And there my love of all things vegetarian fell apart.

I did wonder what the author's association was with human excrement as I soon discovered this addition to the menu, coupled with a rather nifty rasterized border effect.

My final thought, as I lick my platter clean, is that I am mildly surprised that VIF is not a game, and I'm uncertain it's even a helpful tool for a vegetarian. Still, the program is well polished, without much in the way of bugs, so not so great for the competition. We'll have to wait and see how well received it is by the Vegetarians amongst us.

Score: 2 star anise out of 5 a day.