In this second game in the Hungry Hearts Diner series the producers at Gagex have created another heartwarming story about the hardworking grandma running her small diner. Players are helping Grandma and her new helper Sue in Hungry Hearts Diner Neo, greeting new and old faces.
In the beginning of the game, players find out that Grandma has recently taken over her small diner once again. The game starts out by telling players the basics of how to play the game before setting them free to run the diner.
Cozy Diner
When players open the app, they are greeted by a small, cozy restaurant and Grandma’s smiling face. The player is quickly introduced to Sue and Grandma before being taken through the tutorial. Then as customers slowly trickle in, the player is introduced to over a dozen characters and backstories that they learn more about as the game progresses.
Throughout the game, the player is cooking meals for hungry customers. The more meals that the player makes, the more recipes they unlock. This gives the player plenty of food to work and keep up with, as the menu doesn’t have a search bar. The developers did help by sorting all of the food into several categories, such as main dish, drinks and desserts.
Something that was confusing at first was how the characters decided what to eat. Rather than picking off a set menu like most idle food apps, the customers will have a bubble appear above their head of dishes that the player has already prepared. In the beginning, the player can only prepare two dishes at a time, making it hard to prepare extra dishes. After enough time, the players can level up the sideboard until there are six spots for prepared dishes.
Talking to Customers
In the game, there are several different customers that come into the diner and talk to employees. While Grandma talks to customers in game, players learn of their joys, their heartbreaks and their everyday woes. These characters have little sheets that players can access on the bottom of the screen. These character sheets let players read past conversations and decide which foods to make to encourage more stories to unfold.
One of my favorite characters is the monk who comes in to give Sue advice but he is also talking to the player to give them tips and tricks on how to play the game. It’s a tutorial that comes across as mystical advice. Unfortunately, it does seem that once he is done giving the players advice he stops coming around.
Keeping Track of a Lot
Hungry Hearts is relaxing for players who love idle and tap games, but even relaxing games can have several things happening at once. In Hungry Hearts players are keeping track of deliveries, customer orders, keeping food prepared and washing dishes. But other things players can watch out for are how to unlock specific foods, customer conversations and restaurant upgrades. But the good news for players who don’t want to micromanage? They don’t have to. The game will progress just a bit more slowly than those who keep track of every detail.
Constant announcements flashing across an entire section of the screen, such as when a food dish levels up, the player passes a goal, or when the phone rings, often gets in the way of gameplay. This can be a small line across the screen to a third of the screen being temporarily out of sight. While this doesn’t hobble gameplay, it is frustrating if the player gets several announcements in a row and the entire screen is blocked.
One of the best things about Hungry Hearts is that players do not have to worry about running around and getting to the guests on time. Players can tap on the bubbles over the guests and the prepped food is automatically served to them. This makes it easy to do several things at once, especially for players that want a relaxing game. And to make it better, the guests do not get mad and leave, helping keep the game relaxing.
Hungry Hearts Diner Neo is both a cute and fun game to play, with never ending activities and goals all wrapped up into a game with soothing graphics. For players that want to relax and run their own restaurant with a sweet Grandma, they should download Hungry Hearts.
