Tasty Ramen is a free horror action video game wherein you have to avoid the wrath of a haunted bowl of ramen that’s taken over the local convenience store. Developed by Siactro, this PS1 graphics-styled game was made for the Scream Solstice 2019 competition and is also a part of the Haunted PS1 demo disc collection of indie games. It’s still in beta but has challenging-enough gameplay.

Take back Uncle’s shop

Tasty Ramen starts with Episode 1: Shopkeeper!, which includes the prologue of how the sentient ramen bowl came to be. You play as Ren, a young girl helping out at her uncle’s convenience store. However, when she arrived late, Uncle was nowhere to be found. Instead, a little bowl of ramen with hands, feet, and an animated cute face now roamed the aisles. You have to power up the store’s airconditioning to defeat it.

The gameplay consists of you running around the map, collecting large batteries to deposit to the airconditioner’s fuse box in the back of the store. You need 10 of these batteries, which are scattered and partially hidden everywhere in the store—including the bathroom. At the same time, you must avoid attracting the ramen bowl’s attention. Once it spots you, it will turn murderous and rush after you to boot you out of the building.

However, getting caught isn’t so bad since your progress won’t be reset, and you can just easily go back inside to continue. The most challenging part is finding the batteries because there are tons of items that you can pick up. If you’re being chased, you can get a snack and leave it behind you to calm the ramen bowl down. Over time, some floating tempura will start appearing in mid-air to block your path.

Both panicky and cute

While considered a horror game—or at least something a bit creepy—Tasty Ramen is actually quite adorable and colorful with its art style. Everything is reminiscent of ‘90s anime shows—from the obvious Japanese food items for sale to the bright cherry blossom trees outside the store. This game even has an opening and ending song, complete with cutscene animations and voiceovers. Overall, this is a nice little indie horror to try out.