A name like Burger Burger – Hamburger Simulation is sure to raise a lot of questions. “Am I going to play as a hamburger?” “Is a hamburger going to play as me?” Those are a few of the head scratchers I walked into this one with. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Burger Burger – Hamburger Simulation is actually a video game about managing a restaurant. That pill is a lot easier to swallow. I recently crossed paths with this Japan-only release, and I thought why not? Today we’re going to take a look at it.
The entire game is in Japanese so you’ll have to bear with me. I’m just able to go with what I could piece together; there’s no translation available for this one. If you want to play Burger Burger you’re going to need to power through it. Either way you start by opening a burger restaurant in Japan. You get to choose it’s name, design (from a few options), location, hire a manager, etc. It’s pretty neat actually. For it’s era Burger Burger – Hamburger Simulation has a good amount of options.
Once you get up and running the real game opens. First you’ll need to get your restaurant set up so that it will bring in a profit. You must start by, you guessed it, designing some hamburgers! This was my favorite part of the game. You can pick the type of bun, the type of meat (from pork, chicken, beef, etc.), condiments, “processed ingredients” (hilariously enough), and more. I was really blown away by the amount of variations you can choose from. Case in point; there’s around twenty different options for beef patties. Beef patties, if you can believe it.
Not all of these options are available to you from the start. No, Burger Burger – Hamburger Simulation isn’t that kind of easy. Instead they unlock as you progress. What triggers this? I would be able to tell you if I spoke Japanese, but because I don’t, I’m just going to guess that it happens when you reach certain levels of profitability. You can come up with some pretty inventive burger and side dish recipes. I found the interface was pretty amazing (much of it is in English, and it’s easy to figure out what everything is with detailed pictures). I really dug the creation mechanics.
Success in Burger Burger – Burger Simulation isn’t as simple as just designing hamburgers. You have a surprising amount of control over how the business is operated. After you’ve designed some entrees you can create some side dishes as well. From there you can create meal combinations that will be displayed on the big menu. You have to market your offerings in this way to get customers through the door. This is where I struggled to be successful in the game. This could be an issue caused by the language barrier, but I’ll never know. I tried experimenting but to little effect.
What’s interesting is that the game is played at a 3/4 angle overhead view. In screenshots Burger Burger looks like Simcity 2000. The clock in the upper right hand section of the screen counts down as you play, and there’s a day and night system that changes constantly. What’s cool is that you can view citizens of the city walking around on the streets, and even observe them entering your restaurant. Your money is displayed on the bottom of the screen and constantly drains as per the operating costs. You can turn it around with sales, but the alarming rate at which it drops (even in the beginning of the game) is pretty intimidating and frankly tough to counter.
That’s where Burger Burger – Hamburger Simulation’s biggest issues stem from. Designing the food, and even selecting a menu with different combinations is quite a bit of fun. The vast number of options allows for a lot of diversity. Unfortunately the business side just isn’t entertaining. Even with what I could understand I didn’t have fun choosing a manager, setting prices, or watching all of my yen drain away no matter what I did. Burger Burger was actually pretty stressful as competing restaurants constantly open all around you. I kind of expect simulation games to be relaxing. Burger Burger – Hamburger Simulation most certainly was not that.
Burger Burger is not a very pretty game. All graphics herein are two dimension and entirely sprite based. I was expecting to see polygonal hamburgers, and I left disappointed. The food items are all static images, and they’re drawn at pretty low resolutions. It can be a bit difficult to figure out what everything is; particularly the condiments. Fortunately The city scene fares quite a bit better. There’s a lot going on with all of the people moving individually. It’s not particularly impressive in still screens, but in action it fares quite a lot better. The opening sequence (rendered in full motion video) with the dancing burger, soda and fries looks awful however.
There’s no getting around it; the music in this game is awful. It’s all rendered in the primitive midi format (why they didn’t use redbook audio is a missed opportunity) and not a lot of effort was put into it. Honestly, the soundtrack sounds like something that could have been done on the PC-Engine or Mega Drive. On the plus side, each track is bouncy, and has a fun and distinct style. Some of it definitely could be mistaken for fast food jingles and that’s a positive in my opinion. There’s just nothing that’s particularly memorable here, and the music is rendered so poorly it’s pretty mediocre.
Perhaps something is lost in translation, but Burger Burger – Hamburger Simulation was a pretty cumbersome experience. Designing the food, and creating menus based around your offerings is super addictive. This should have been the entire game. The business side is a real slog. I was able to get a pretty good grasp on how to play despite not speaking the language. Unfortunately I wasted hours trying to save my businesses to no avail. There’s an overstated sense of urgency in Burger Burger, and it’s not one that’s welcome in this genre. Maybe a game where you eat hamburgers, or even play as one would have been a better idea than what Japan got here. It can be enjoyed even with the language barrier, but prepare yourself for an exercise in frustration.
