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Remember that game about some interstellar monarch going on a bender and knocking a bunch of stars out of the sky, then forcing his son to fix it? It was the one that involved lots of rolling-up items into a massive ball in order to gather up larger items to make the ball bigger? Na-naaaaa-na-na-Na-na-naaa-na-naaa-Na-na-na-na-naa-naaaaaa. I never would’ve expected it to be the inspiration for a side-scrolling casual platformer, but lo and behold it is!
Bring Me Sandwiches!! tosses players into the reluctant shoes of Jimmy Nugget, a fast food drone who’s been randomly chosen by an insatiable alien creature to bring it lots and lots of food, or else it will devour the Earth. No pressure. Each stage begins with acquiring a piece of bread from a floating alien… thing. After which players have to run all over the level gathering anything that sticks, creating one incredibly unappetizing (and tall) sandwich. Once the towering culinary monstrosity is large enough, it’s then a matter of tracking down another alien bread-carrier to top it off and send it on its merry way. In some levels, the creature will demand multiple treats. In others, it might want something specific like a number of soccer balls or a cat. These deviations to the core “mission” go a long way to preventing tedium from setting in.
Jimmy controls quite well despite lugging around an unwieldy ‘wich. Dragging in either direction on the left side of the screen will move him, and tapping on the right jumps. It’s simple, intuitive and responsive. It’s a good thing, too, because there are a lot of hazards that can both cause Jimmy bodily harm and knock a few layers off of his creations. However, every time a sandwich is completed and a new one begun (in the same level), the bread gets bigger. And when the bread gets bigger, it requires bigger components. I’m talking cars, small buildings and even some of those nasty humans that would do the plucky young hero harm.
Yet, while grabbing larger items might open up new areas in a stage it can also close some off. Certain objects that function as platforms will end up getting tossed into the sandwich if it’s large enough. I’ve gotten a little irritated when I’d realized I managed to prevent myself from grabbing a hidden alien ship piece or cut myself off from a cache of coins, but it’s nothing a quick replay can’t fix.
Aside from being just plain fun, there’s also plenty of reason to revisit Bring Me Sandwiches!! once it’s in the bag. Three golden pieces of bread can be earned on each level (one for score, another for time and then for number of hits taken), and gathering enough of these shinies will unlock bonus stages. Do I recommend it? Most definitely.