Hungry Horrors 1.0 Is Out: 34 Monsters, 62 Dishes and One Edible Princess
Hungry Horrors officially launched version 1.0 on October 13, 2026, leaving Early Access with eight biomes, 34 monsters from British and Irish folklore, 62 traditional dishes, 13 legendary characters and two game modes. The objective is to survive encounters with increasingly hungry creatures, except there's no sword to swing or shotgun to introduce them to. You have to cook for them.
Apparently, the best way to defeat a supernatural monster is to discover what it likes for dinner, prepare something appropriate and hope it doesn't decide the chef looks more appetising. It's a roguelite deckbuilder where recipes replace weapons, flavour combinations replace conventional attacks and serving a disappointing meal has considerably worse consequences than a bad Tripadvisor review.
Prefer your monsters slightly less interested in dinner and considerably more interested in murder? House of Necrosis serves turn-based horror where the main course is usually you.
Forget monster hunting. You're running a restaurant with a mortality problem.
Combat revolves around feeding monsters before they reach the Princess. Every dish is represented by a card, and each creature has its own flavour preferences. You construct a deck using traditional British and Irish recipes, then combine dishes, seasonings, cookware and other effects to satisfy whatever horrifying customer is currently approaching.
In most games, learning an enemy's weakness means finding the correct weapon. Fire for the ice monster, silver for the werewolf, an enormous amount of ammunition for anything that refuses to die. Hungry Horrors replaces that arrangement with dietary requirements. You need to understand which dishes a monster prefers, how flavours interact and whether your available cards can satisfy its appetite before it reaches you.
Get the combinations right and you can create powerful flavour chains. Get them wrong and you've wasted precious time preparing a meal for something that considers you an acceptable alternative.
Which raises an interesting question. At what point did saving a kingdom become the responsibility of its catering department?
The Princess is confronting creatures from ancient folklore, some of which have spent centuries terrifying entire communities, and your response is to rummage through recipes, wondering whether the Dullahan would appreciate more seasoning.
Personally, I'd rather have a sword than a recipe involving boiled cabbage. Yet that's precisely what makes the system interesting. The approaching monster creates combat pressure, but your decisions revolve around food combinations and exploiting its tastes. Instead of managing damage, you're managing appetite.
Gordon Ramsay would be magnificent here. He'd spend three minutes screaming at a centuries-old abomination for overcooking the potatoes, call it a fucking donkey, and get eaten before the starters arrived.
What's new in Hungry Horrors 1.0?
The full release completes the Princess's storyline and brings the game to its finished content lineup:
8 biomes, including the Megaliths biome.
34 folklore monsters with different food preferences.
62 traditional dishes for your deck.
13 legendary characters inspired by folklore.
Campaign Mode, with persistent progression and the completed story.
Banquet Mode, featuring shorter roguelike runs with permanent death.
The developers have also expanded artefacts, familiars, dishes and progression systems throughout Early Access, alongside balancing and bug fixes.
Banquet Mode changes how you approach encounters. Monster tastes are revealed beforehand, dishes are acquired during the run and death is permanent. You have to work with what you're given rather than depending on the longer-term progression available in Campaign.
Essentially, Campaign lets you develop your culinary survival skills. Banquet hands you some ingredients, points towards a ravenous nightmare and informs you that the restaurant closes permanently if you cock this up.
Tired of being the poor bastard on the menu? Ghost Keeper lets you command the supernatural horrors instead. Finally, management worth getting into.
British folklore has apparently opened a restaurant
The monsters and recipes both draw from British and Irish traditions. Creatures such as Jenny Greenteeth, the Dullahan and Queen Mab bring recognisable folklore identities, while the dishes come from actual regional cuisine.
I rather like that connection. Instead of receiving seventeen pages explaining why a monster is terrifying before inevitably hitting it with an axe, you learn about its preferences because that knowledge affects which cards you play.
Admittedly, it also means some ancient creature responsible for generations of terror can potentially be defeated by somebody who knows their way around a kitchen. Imagine being whispered about in frightened villages for centuries, only to have your reign of terror ended because a young woman discovered you particularly enjoy stew.
Your ancestors would be furious. Assuming they weren't distracted by the dessert menu.
Is Hungry Horrors actually any good?
The Early Access reception has been exceptionally positive. At the October 13 launch, SteamDB recorded 265 positive and five negative reviews, giving Hungry Horrors approximately 98.1% raw positive feedback from 270 reviews. Its separate Bayesian-adjusted rating stood at approximately 89.23%.
Those figures include the Early Access period. Version 1.0 has only just arrived, so it's too early to judge the completed campaign, final balancing or technical condition.
Earlier coverage praised the food-based combat, folklore presentation and deckbuilding possibilities, although some criticism concerned initial complexity and balancing. Whether the finished version resolves those concerns remains to be seen.
What interests me most is whether cooking remains entertaining after the novelty wears off. Different monster preferences, flavour combinations and progression systems give the game more to work with than simply selecting whichever dish has the biggest number attached.
That's promising, although the completed version still has something to prove.
Hungry Horrors 1.0 is available now on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux. Its premise remains wonderfully ridiculous. We've spent decades playing games where every problem can be resolved by repeatedly hitting something with a weapon. Hungry Horrors has concluded that a proper Sunday dinner might be more effective.
And given British cooking's international reputation, defeating 34 monsters with it might be the most ambitious fantasy of all.
Still hungry for terrible decisions? Enter CRIMENET's Horror section for more monsters, nightmares and people whose survival instincts apparently came free with a box of cereal.
Hungry Horrors 1.0 FAQ
When did Hungry Horrors 1.0 release?
Hungry Horrors left Early Access on October 13, 2026, with its completed campaign, additional content and two game modes.
How do you defeat monsters in Hungry Horrors?
You feed them instead of fighting them. Use recipe cards, flavour combinations and monster food preferences to satisfy their appetites before they reach and eat the Princess.
How many monsters are in Hungry Horrors?
The full release features 34 monsters inspired by British and Irish folklore, spread across eight biomes.
What's the difference between Campaign and Banquet Mode?
Campaign features persistent progression and a storyline. Banquet offers shorter roguelike runs with permanent death, advance knowledge of monster preferences and dishes acquired during each run.
Is Hungry Horrors worth playing?
Early Access reception was overwhelmingly positive, with approximately 98.1% positive Steam reviews at launch. However, version 1.0 is too new for a definitive verdict on its completed content.
Is Hungry Horrors available on Steam Deck?
Yes. Hungry Horrors is listed as Steam Deck Verified and is available on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux.
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