I love eating and this giraffe is hungry. When I realised this I knew this giraffe and I would get along just fine.
Hungry Giraffe is a charming game from Laughing Jackal where you aim is simply to feed your hungry giraffe by guiding his head as he climbs endlessly upwards. Eating food helps you to keep climbing by giving you a short speed boost. Go too long without food and your giraffe will fall down the screen and it’s game over. No food fest is without it’s dangers, and as you climb ever higher you will run into anvils that can halt your progress if you bump into them. Poison will cause your giraffe to spew up on the screen blocking your view and pills will give you a rather hallucinogenic effect and cause your controls to go a bit wonky. Even if you do lose momentum there is likely to be plenty of fruit to help you climb back up if you’re skilful enough.
Thankfully there are a couple of little boosts you can get along the way too. Hard cats can be collected (a maximum of 3 can be held at one time) which will make those anvils a peace of cake to glide through. Chilli peppers provide you with a speed boost but just be careful you don’t go too fast and lose control. Speaking of controls, they can take a bit of getting used to, but that’s just down to the nature of the giraffe’s long neck. You learn to look ahead to see where you should manoeuvre. I often found that I was just missing the fruit I needed but practice is all that is requried and sure enough after a while you’re snaking your way through the levels with utter style.
A total of 10 levels await you, you unlock the next by climbing high enough on the previous. The game glides seamlessly as it increases in difficulty.
Despite this it would nice to have this game expanded a little to perhaps add other game modes. I can imagine a multiplayer option with multiple giraffes on the screen would be an immense amount of fun.
Throughout the game the music was like something from the cheery bit of a Disney Movie, and the graphics are colourful, bright and fun. Overall its an adorable game that makes you feel happier just for setting your eyes on it. On a personal note I loved the nomming sound the giraffe made when he ate too. In fact, I found myself making om nom nom noises whenever I caught the fruit (thankfully I was alone in the room at the time).
Hungry Giraffe is a fantastic mini game that will brighten up the dullest of dull days all for a tiny price.
8 long necked dudes out of 10