Dead Hungry Diner

About

Dead Hungry Diner is a single player casual puzzle game with a business theme. It was developed by Black Market Games and was released on May 15, 2012. It received mostly positive reviews from players.

In Dead Hungry Diner, serve food to a variety of monster customers, such as mummies and werewolves, to keep them happy and earn high scores. The game features updates with new customers, an "affection" mechanic, trading cards, achievements, and leaderboards. Improvements include fullscreen mode optimization, better support for low-spec machines, and various bug fixes.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

78%

Audience ScoreBased on 94 reviews

story5 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

Dead Hungry Diner features charming graphics and a fun, addictive gameplay that appeals to fans of time management games.
The game introduces unique mechanics, such as managing different monster types that have specific seating preferences, adding a strategic layer to the gameplay.
It offers a humorous storyline and a variety of spells and upgrades that enhance the gaming experience, making it enjoyable for casual players.

The achievement requirements are excessively grindy, requiring multiple playthroughs to unlock, which can be frustrating for completionists.
The controls can feel awkward, especially on PC, as the game seems better suited for touch devices, leading to potential gameplay issues.
Some players find the game repetitive and lacking in depth, with a gameplay loop that may not hold their interest beyond the initial stages.

gameplay
23 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
74%
13%
The gameplay is characterized by its cute graphics and catchy music, offering a fun and addictive experience, though it can become monotonous over time. Players appreciate the gradual introduction of new mechanics and the minimal learning curve, but some find the gameplay repetitive and prone to crashes. Overall, it provides a casual gaming experience reminiscent of classic restaurant management games, with a mix of charm and challenge.
- “It has cute graphics, a catchy tune (only one though), and most importantly fun and addictive gameplay!”
- “The learning curve is minimal; however, the game does a good job of getting progressively more and more difficult, adding new layers of mechanics to deal with.”
- “Overall, there is a good variety of game mechanics if you are interested in this type of game.”
- “It gets quite hard to pull yourself together once you jump into it and understand the mechanics.”
- “The gameplay is simple enough, but to get all the achievements requires a lot of grinding.”
- “Prettty boring game, I didn't like it much and the only reason that I bought it is that it has trading cards... after 2-3 hours you get bored of its gameplay that it's basically the same (with some changes).”
story
17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
53%
18%
The game's story, while charming and humorous, leaves players with a sense of incompleteness due to its "to be continued..." ending and lack of a sequel. Although the narrative features engaging elements, such as feeding supernatural entities to prevent them from harming humans, many players find the overall experience repetitive and the story mode somewhat dull. Despite its simplicity, the characters' perspectives add depth, making the storyline enjoyable for some, though it ultimately feels underdeveloped.
- “There is a lot of charm and story that adds to the gameplay, while weighing down the speed of the game.”
- “Edit: the game really is essentially Diner Dash, though I did find the story quite funny as the pair here discover that they can prevent the zombies and other monsters from coming into the town and eating the innocent villagers by serving them like in a restaurant!”
- “Cool cartoony graphics, variety of monster diners (vampires, werewolves, and zombies) and responsive controls with an interesting little story make this a blast to play.”
- “The story ends with a 'to be continued...' vibe, but no sequel has been launched.”
- “This leaves a bitter taste of an incomplete story and is totally unnecessary.”
- “I completed the story mode and I have to say: rather boring.”
graphics
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
25%
25%
The graphics of the game are widely praised for their colorful and cute art style, featuring interesting characters and a variety of visually appealing elements. While some users noted limitations in resolution and occasional blurriness on higher monitors, the overall aesthetic is considered charming and engaging, contributing to a fun and immersive gameplay experience. Additionally, the graphics are complemented by a well-executed soundtrack, enhancing the game's appeal.
- “It's challenging (at least on the 'hard' mode), has cute graphics, a great variety of 'customers' and phases, and a lot of humor.”
- “Colorful graphics, interesting characters, and a good soundtrack make this game stand out.”
- “The art style is excellent and what initially drew me to the game.”
- “While the game has only a full-screen and (I think) 1024x768 resolution, the graphics do look decent - albeit a bit blurry on a 1920x1024 monitor.”
- “It can be a little buggy on integrated graphics cards, but the developer has been a lot more responsive to the issues than some other games I've played recently.”
- “Graphics aren't too gory, but realistic.”
humor
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Overall, the humor in the game is well-received, with players appreciating its funny moments and clever storylines, particularly the unique premise of serving monsters to protect villagers. While some found certain achievements to be silly, the game's charm and comedic elements contribute positively to the overall experience.
- “It's challenging (at least on the 'hard' mode), has cute graphics, a great variety of 'customers' and phases, and a lot of humor.”
- “The game really is essentially Diner Dash, though I did find the story quite funny as the pair here discover that they can prevent the zombies and other monsters from coming into the town and eating the innocent villagers by serving them like in a restaurant!”
- “If you look aside from those two stupid achievements, it's a great, funny game; I can only recommend it.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
20%
20%
The music in the game is generally well-received, complementing the visuals and enhancing the overall experience, though some players find it repetitive and suggest muting it after a short period. While the soundtrack fits the game's theme and contributes to its colorful presentation, it may not hold up for extended play sessions. Overall, the music adds to the game's charm but could benefit from more variety.
- “Featuring the same kind of thrilling freedom of choice that the Hungry Diner series is known for, along with beautiful visuals and a stirring soundtrack, playing Dead Hungry Diner is a rare kind of intensely personal, deeply rewarding experience, and one of the best role-playing games yet produced.”
- “Colorful graphics, interesting characters, and a good soundtrack make this game stand out.”
- “The music is fitting with the theme.”
- “On the other hand, the game's repetitive music is probably worth muting after 15 minutes and throwing on a Halloween album for a better experience.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessive, noting that while the achievements are easy to obtain, they require a significant amount of repetitive gameplay to complete. This has led to a generally negative perception of the grinding experience.
- “I do not like these grinding achievements.”
- “The achievements are pretty easy to get, but it is very grindy.”
- “The gameplay is simple enough, but to get all the achievements requires a lot of grinding.”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
100%
The optimization aspect of the game focuses on efficiently managing customer service within a limited time frame, emphasizing quick actions, strategic placement of customers, and chaining similar tasks to maximize performance. Players are encouraged to develop effective strategies to enhance their gameplay experience.
- “At the end of a 90-120 second stage, your performance is evaluated based on your ability to serve customers quickly, chain together like-kind actions (i.e., cleaning multiple tables one after another), and place customers at tables that monsters of the same class previously ate at.”
- “The optimization mechanics feel overly complicated and detract from the overall enjoyment of the game.”
- “It's frustrating that the game doesn't provide clear guidance on how to effectively optimize your performance during stages.”
- “The lack of balance in the optimization system makes it difficult to achieve high scores without repetitive actions.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is criticized for low quality and bugs, particularly on integrated graphics cards. However, players appreciate the developer's responsiveness in addressing these issues compared to other titles.
- “Everything about the game is low quality, right down to the buggy screen resolution.”
- “It can be a little buggy on integrated graphics cards, but the developer has been a lot more responsive to the issues than some other games I've played recently.”