If we try to have a cold look to some pop culture dictates for a moment, The Super Mario Bros. (1985) jumping on an enemy for killing it is somehow plausible but surely it isn't intuitive. And things gets more strange considering the role of food in games: eating rations or - like in the Resident Evil series - using (eating? rubbing?) herbs for healing war wounds is even more unrealistic. I love eating a lot, it surely can make you feel better but I don't know if it can save your life from zombie bites.

We already have tons of funny comics, nerdy debates and rags of philosopy about this topic and I usually enjoy all of them still in 2017. It's a joke that, starting from Pac-Man (1980), never got old. But I wonder why nowadays, where firing anonymous rounded pellets, aiming in just four directions and climbing one direction at time has been replaced by complex ballistics, iron sights and parkour, games can't get rid of this just eating food for healing wounds.

It's funny how earning food got more realistic, with the complex cooking recipes of The Legend Of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) and the camp cooking minigame of Dragon's Crown (2013). Even when you have to eat food improved, with starvation mechanics and whole games built around that, like Don't Starve (2013). In some games you can also get fat or slim eating food, like in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004).

But... You can still eat a lot of food for healing mortal wounds in most of the mainstram games.

My guess is that this lack of interest on evolving is connected to modern videogame design guidelines: due to the shortening of playing sessions, videogames now prefers to punish players for playing bad in the short term instead of the long term. That started the progressive abandonment of lives systems and the role of health bars: in many games the player can replenish it just avoiding damage for a while and without the use of particular items. So there isn't a true need of making realistic healing: in the extreme case a game designer have to use something else for increasing player health, well... why not choosing a generic item for that? And why not using a commonly accepted chicken leg?

Plot!

Starcat loves eating giant burgers... but mutant foods are not happy! Help Starcat on preparing the burgers, making the giant ingredients falling from floor to floor but beware of the enemies! Use the salt for stopping your foes and then try squashing them with the burger ingredients!

Use LEFT/RIGHT for walking and UP/DOWN for climbing the ladders. Use the A BUTTON for spraying salt to stun the enemies nearby. That's all!

PS: One year later I've added just few sounds and a new cheat mode. I've played the original BurgerTime (1982) for a very long time on my Commodore 64 and playing this tiny version again has been fun!

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