Foodie The Bug Review — Travel across continents to satisfy a cute little bug’s culinary tastes

Our rating:

By: MegaCubic Entertainment, Inc.

Version #: 1.1

Date Released: 2011-12-18

Developer: MegaCubic Entertainment, Inc.

Price: 0.99

User Rating:

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Meet Foodie the Bug, the anthropod hero of the new and exciting iPhone arcade game, Foodie The Bug. Foodie is a globe-trotting insect with an insatiable hunger for the culinary arts. He intends to conquer the world in his quest to unlock delicious recipes native to the countries he is set to visit, including Egypt, Mexico, Italy, and Japan. Your job is to help Foodie fly through different local backdrops as he tries to collect the ingredients needed in his mouth-watering endeavor.

At the beginning of each level, you need to slide your finger on a slingshot to catapult Foodie into the air. Thereafter your primary task is to keep Foodie afloat, by tilting your iPhone or iPod touch. (Although playable on the iPad, the game is optimized for the shared screen size and dimensions of the smaller iOS devices.) Easy enough, right? Yes, but where’s the fun in that if it were really that easy?

As your main challenge, the energy bar at the bottom of the screen is reduced every time you tilt your device in accordance with the tilt recalibration you perform at the beginning of each level. So, tilt wisely! That is to say, tilt towards the multi-colored jelly beans that are scattered along the way, since they recharge Foodie’s energy as well as go into his bean collection, which you can use in the Shop section of the game to buy boosters and other special items you can activate in a particularly difficult level. (For me, it was the last level of the Egyptian stage. I did a triumphant fist pump when I finally finished that level, thanks to a strategically purchased booster.)

It’s also wise to fly towards boosters and power-ups, including lollipops (which enable Foodie to suck nearby jelly beans and ingredients like a vacuum) and boripos (which speed up Foodie’s flight), while avoiding any objects or creatures you may encounter that could harm you and temporarily retard your forward progress, such as containers marked as poison, walking Egyptian mummies, and flying Mexican tikis. The game ends as soon as Foodie exhausts all his energy or as soon as the timer, which is set initially at 99 seconds, reaches zero before you reach the end of the level.

Foodie The Bug is really a joy to play, with an overall degree of difficulty that is challenging enough to tease you and make you come back for more stretches of gameplay but not too challenging to make you pull your hair out in disproportionate frustration. What’s more, the game’s graphics and aesthetics are always appealing. For one, the main character is a likable little bug, exhibiting various expressions with his googly eyes and crying adorably every time he drops to the ground in defeat. For another, the background scenarios, inspired by the landmarks and customs of the countries they are set, are depicted with such polish as to make controlling Foodie on the foreground a visual delight—as well as a source of aural pleasure, owing to the different background themes inspired by music specific to each featured country. The same is also true for the newly added single-level Christmas-themed special stage, where you guide Foodie through a city covered in snow and ornamented with lights, collecting candy canes and holiday confectioneries, in the spirit of the festive season and still in keeping with Foodie the Bug’s palate-friendly inclination.