Consume Me Review

Developer: Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder

Platform: PC (Reviewed)

Genre: RPG, Strategy

Publisher: Hexecutable

Consume Me is a coming-of-age, semi-autobiographical game about social challenges, whether they are internal or external. Focusing on issues like teenage life and the problems associated with it. You play as Jenny, a girl who is in her final year in high school, trying to balance her everyday tasks, from her social life to chores and studying, while managing her relationship with food. It’s based on Jenny, who suffered from an eating disorder during her teenage years and decided to create a game based on it. It has won many awards, such as the stuntman McNally grand prize and the Nuevo award at the 2025 Independent Games Festival and was nominated in categories of excellence in narrative, visual art, and design. Consumer Me was directed by Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, Ken “coda” Snyder and published by Hexecutable.

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Consume Me is a narrative-driven sim game with many mini-games. The controls vary depending on what part you’re on, but are explained when playing each game. Each day is broken up into a schedule, with tasks that you must complete. Balancing time, energy and your mood. Bites are quite similar to calories. You have a limit of 500 calories that must not be exceeded. If you don’t cover enough hunger spots, it leads to you still being hungry and having to eat snacks throughout the day, which ruins your number of bites! I thought the food puzzle aspect was extremely fun. The ideas of all the mini games are extremely fun and different, and definitely unique. All these tasks lead to the final day and goal of your weight check-in.

Another aspect of the game that I found interesting is the idea of perks or upgrades. As you progress through the mini games, you’re able to upgrade, which makes the influence on your mood much easier. This definitely helps you in the long run, even when your mood is affected.

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The controls for the mini games are mainly point and click or dragging while matching, or even in the inclusion of finishing certain puzzles. The only thing I found a bit difficult was the bathroom mini game and the brush, which moves on its own, making it hard to control. Though overall the controls were simple and fun, and it’s nice how you don’t have to worry about mastering tricky mechanics.

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The music is light and playful, not overbearing and can be relaxing. In certain mini games, it can become more fast-paced, which intensifies the aspect of the theme at hand. The art or cartoon style of the game is one of the most striking aspects of Consume Me that encouraged me to play. As a player, I really felt like I was watching a movie while playing this game. The morning aspect is displayed once at the start, then it turns into an automatic sequence that honestly feels like a movie at the start of each day. The colours and the art style are so unique and different, just absolutely striking, as it feels like a mix between a comic and a scrapbook. The visuals are cute and approachable, which makes the issue of the game seem less harsh. The colour palette is warm and soft to soften the emotional impact of the game. It also incorporates some 3D aspects of Jenny’s game, where you are able to pan around and pick what you want to do in your free time. Jenny herself is a very expressive character, and the exaggerations are impressive. The game has striking and splashing visuals that make the world feel like a real-world graphic novel.

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The game is bright, which helps mask the deeper anxieties this game talks about. It softens an overwhelming topic and lets players feel at ease about what could be a difficult topic. Consume Me is a very charming and expressive game that has me hypnotised. I just would have loved it if some of the tasks were a bit longer, as at times they felt quite rushed. The free time can be a bit too short, which makes it challenging to earn money and level up the skills, but it does make the game more interesting and fun to play. Being able to level up each time after completing a task well is sooooo nice and makes the game more interesting to play, the level is more like increasing energy or gaining money And it might seem like a repetitive game but its not it has different events to plan for, and I like how the free time allows you to do multiple things at a time.

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Honestly, I love this game, Consume Me. It is extremely powerful, and it’s rare that the mechanics coincide with the narrative so well. The design for this game is outstanding! It’s a unique game that has been able to expose the messy reality of growing up with a diet culture while also living in an asian household. It’s been a while since I played a really fun and cute game that deserves a full score. Jenny was able to make a game that many people can relate to, and it’s very innovative compared to the games out there.

Overall: 10/10