Screaming Loaf is a wacky action puzzle platformer developed and produced by AshumArcade. As the first title produced by the solo developer, Screaming Loaf is a game with a lot of potential. While the style may not be for everyone, it’s quirky humor and innovative mechanics are sure to make Screaming Loaf stand as a future cult classic.

When is a Sandwich, Not a Sandwich?

In Screaming Loaf, everything wants to have a slice of you. Whether it’s the cheese, the jam, or the flying butter, every ingredient wants to become one with you in a delicious sandwich. But what is a loaf of bread when it loses its identity to a collective? Well, a collective of things other than bread, of course. Why, can it call itself a loaf at all anymore? And so you run from the kitchen, screaming down the street into the night. Vive l’indépendance! 

Deceptively Complex

As a puzzle platformer, the core mechanic that sticks out to me – and certainly everyone who sees the game – is the splitting mechanic. As a loaf of bread, each of your slices belong to the loaf hive mind. You can separate slices from your main body, stationed in a spot and direction of your choosing, and scream in synchrony with them to defeat enemies. Indeed, your screams are your only mode of attack and defense, and your slices all share a common lung capacity. Don’t ask me where the lungs are stored. There are some secrets this world was never meant to know. But when you run out of breath, you have to wait for your loaf to catch it again before you can do anything more than run away.

The levels are all deceptively simple. Each is developed with the core mechanics and an ideal method of beating the level in mind. You are judged based on how fast you are able to defeat all of the enemies, as well as how many slices of your loaf survived. Each time you touch an obstacle or an enemy, a slice flies off with a bit of jam slathered onto it, or a hole punched into it from the spikes. Technically, the levels are quite short, but unless you’re intimately familiar and skilled with how to wield your loaf it’s very difficult to get more than a single star of completion on most of them, let alone the coveted three stars.

Wacky Aesthetics

While the graphics style isn’t my favorite, it certainly conveys what it needs to. It reminds me of children’s comics like Captain Underpants, and the whole game carries the same kind of humor. It’s very flat and two-dimensional, with bright, solid colors and little in the way of shading. Unlike some games in the platforming genre, I can’t imagine you getting lost playing Screaming Loaf. That is, unless you accidentally leave a slice on a higher level to get attacked by hovering cheese. Whoops.

Honestly, what I like the least about Screaming Loaf is the music. It’s just as quirky as the graphics, with the melody tapped out in percussive beats and tinkling piano notes. I wouldn’t say that the music is fully unpleasant to listen to, it’s just repetitive. Screaming Loaf is a rather long game with many chapters and levels of increasing complexity and difficulty, and I just found listening to this track made me increasingly irritated. The absolute worst track is in the menu where you have to select your levels, so you’re constantly coming back to it. The annoying screams of your loaf are fine when you’re in control of them, but put randomly into a discordant track full of off-key notes? No, please and thank you.

Overall Rating

Overall, while there are some things I don’t like aesthetically about Screaming Loaf, it’s a solid game. The gameplay itself is smooth and well thought out, and I couldn’t find any bugs or glitches in my playthrough. That’s more than you can ask of any AAA title. The mechanics and level design are solid, and the game is filled with cheeky humor. Given the chance, I fully believe that Screaming Loaf will find its audience.

Screaming Loaf is out now on PC through Steam and retails for $2.99. AshumArcade generously provided NeverMore Niche with a review key.