Back in the New Year, I immediately got violently ill and had to put off this week’s game. It has a lot to do with being a teenager and how the prospect of “looking good” defines every moment of your life. I can imagine that most have had a run-in with diet culture and the consequences thereof. I have, for sure, and I think Consume Me does an excellent job at making you look at food in a different way and providing a rich gameplay experience.

My first review of 2026 is Consume Me

Consume Me is a life-sim RPG from Jenny Jiao Hsia, AP Thomson, Jie En Lee (illustrator), Violet W-P (Sound Design), Ken “coda” Snyder (Music), and published by Hexecutbale. The game was released on Steam in September 2025 and retails for $15.

You play as Jenny, a teenager going through life, dealing with boys, frenemies, high school (and college!), making money, and LOOKING GOOD. All of these things require a ton of oversight, and having a “TODO List” would be super helpful, especially when parents are pressuring you over dieting, which has taken such a toll on your self-worth. Consume Me, more importantly, Jenny becomes obsessed with her image, and her self-reflection is the harshest of critics.

Consume Me is autobiographical, essentially meaning that all of the moments that you personally find relatable are probably pulled directly from the life of the creator of the game.

Jenny’s reflection has a lot to say, nothing good, of course, but it is nonetheless damaging. How Jenny looks, her relationship status, and even her friendships. These talks usually lead to a strict “To-do list” that has an overarching goal, like “keeping your relationship alive,” while having to watch your diet so that you can lose weight, study to not fail in school, make money by doing chores to be a teenager effectively (to keep mom off your back), and do laundry to have clean clothes. Each chapter gives Jennys a new list of challenges to complete, all the while continuing her strict diet.

Consume Me is quite stressful, and if it were not for the modern dark humor that carries the game. Jenny is a goofy little shit, cruising through life in her own way, confronting stressful moments in such incredibly funny ways that the writing and sound/art design carries like Atlus holding up the planet. Jie En Lee, Violet W-P, and Ken ‘coda’ Snyder keep Consume Me constantly on a high note.

Consume Me‘s art design wins the award for “most charming” video game I’ve ever played; I love it so much. Everyone’s emotions are perfectly executed on screen. I sometimes like to think that when I am lying around, I just collapse into a pool of liquid on the floor, or I transform into a buff weightlifter whenever I exercise. The hand-drawn art style is so expressive that my wife and I were always eager to see the next scene. It was always such a joy to watch Jenny get out of bed, eat an entire energy drink can, see her reflection on the computer screen after she gets a piece of cheese from online shopping, and even watch her face as she picked up money on the street. I think the writing is superb, and Jenny is exceptional. I rooted for her the whole game.

When Jenny is happy, I am too; and when she is sad, I feel it deep in my heart. They’ve created a relatable character and made them so genuine that every moment is expressed perfectly.

Much of the gameplay is centered around quick mini-games that remind me a lot of WarioWare games. The “Tetris-like” food game is both stressful and exciting to play. It really sets a precedent for how the day is going to go if you can properly assemble a lunch box with tomato, kale, egg, and cheese. If Jenny does not eat enough, she will be hungry later, and the likelihood of a snack break occurring will be higher, meaning you will have to set aside time for exercise.

Free time is broken down into moments when Jenny can engage in a wide range of activities, from doing chores and hanging out to exercising and reading. Each activity that the player chooses will give experience to a specific skill and impact at least one of Jenny’s stats (mood, energy, and guts). Exercising is beneficial and will certainly help Jenny lose weight, so walking/jogging with the dog and engaging in various forms of aerobics will help Jenny get below her bite count so that she will not DIE. It is always a delight to see Jenny as a sort of rag doll as she attempts to stretch her arms and neck to incredibly uncomfortable levels to lose a minute of bits.

Consume Me introduces so many activities with so little time that it always feels like a zero-sum game that ultimately amounts to Jenny being forever tired. Overeating and dedicating time to exercising will give Jenny less time to study for school, which also means that she is neglecting her chores. She has a boyfriend and needs to make time for him; if she does that, then it’ll conflict with her diet if they go out to eat.

This life does not seem manageable, but with proper time management, it is, at least, possible (hardly). As the game progresses, the challenges become far greater and less manageable to the point where I tried to do everything in my power to have her pass a single test so that she could have some payoff to all of her hard work (which resulted in 2 clothing swaps, 3 workouts, 2 energy drinks, prayer, and 3 coffees).

The ending stumbles a little as it turns into a montage of Jenny’s life after everything, showing photos of the team and how everyone evolved, but it took what made the game fun and set it aside for a moment.

I think that Consume Me is a phenomenal game. I rolled credits and was satisfied with what I played. The narrative was great. I think more games should delve into these topics more. Making a game about food/diet culture is questionable from the outside, but when you get past it, Consume Me is a very fun game that made me laugh on more than a few occasions. Though the finale stumbles a little, Consume Me would have, for sure, been on my top ten in 2025 if I had played it then.

9/10