Fork N Sausage [5/5]
Imagine I Am Bread, the game where you move a piece of bread around a room to make a toast — now change toast to sausage, your goal is to stab yourself on a fork, and it's a mobile game.
0. TL;DR
Developer: SayGames Ltd & Kadka
Release date: 5 Nov 2024
Genre: Puzzle; Physics; Single-player; Offline
Price: Free-to-play
Pros: Cute and pleasant graphics; hundreds of maps with increasing difficulty; ZERO microtransactions
Cons: Most obstacles can be bypassed by “double-jumping”; some ads displayed on the bottom can cause stuttering
Download: Google Play
1. Gameplay
This is a puzzle game with no story, only a premise, which is to get the sausage on the fork. Fork N Sausage offers an unspecified number of levels (I managed to get to around 200 while writing this review), and there is a some kind of a chapter system, each including 4 to 6 levels. Sometimes a level will introduce a new interactive element or an obstacle — bombs, buttons, apple cannons, and progressing far enough will unlock new “location”, which essentially changes the level background and some other elements.
Some levels will be designated as challenges, in which the gameplay might change totally and from a puzzle labyrinth you suddenly switch to a snooker game. There are multiple of those, so I will not spoil more.
The sausage moves with player’s swipes, the stronger you swipe, the further your meat will fly in a chosen direction. Some obstacles like fans, water or sticky surfaces will hinder your movement, so a dose of precision is usually required. I believe there is a single major flaw in the game, and that is multi-jumping — you can “throw” the sausage as many times as you want, no matter if it’s changing its direction mid-air or just doing micro-jumps to avoid collision with a saw. This makes the game significantly easier, some levels can be simply bruteforced.
2. Visuals, Audio & Performance
Fork N Sausage has a simple, indie-esque graphics and model design. Everything is pretty much coloured, rather than textured, the colors are vibrant and it’s easy to tell what object is what and where to go.
Music is also very basic, can change with levels, not much to talk about. There are jumping sounds, the sausage will scream if it dies or managed to get to the fork.
As for performance, the game is very smooth and stable, with my 120Hz screen I was able to maintain over 90 frames per second throughout my whole several-hours-worth gameplay session.
3. Ads & Microtransactions
There are no microtransactions. With exception being the option to purchase an ad remover, there are no other ways to spend real money on in-game content. Everything can and has to be earned by progressing through levels, because this way you earn coins and get keys — coins are for unlocking sausage (and fork) skins, keys are for opening “chests” with coins or other elements. If something cannot be obtained this way, you have an option to watch an ad instead. That’s it.
Advertisement remover costs £4.09.
Regarding ads themselves, there is always a banner served on the bottom of the screen and a fullscreen one between every couple of levels. They are rather short, but I noticed that the banner can cause awful stuttering, I was not able to verify what is going on exactly.
4. Verdict
Awesome game, almost perfect. Fork N Sausage can provide entertainment for several hours, and since it’s offline, you can play it wherever you’d like to. Puzzles are more or less simple, so don’t expect it to burn your brain, but it may make you think about how to approach certain levels. I fully recommend this game.