How much fun is a slice of bread?

I Am Bread is a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, like developer Bossa Studio’s Surgeon Simulator and of course Goat Simulator. A game about a sentient slice of bread would be hard pushed to take itself seriously, but unfortunately once the novelty has worn off it’s often more annoying than fun.

Bread loves to be toasted

In this iPad adaptation of the PC original, a reasonable job has been done adapting the controls to touch screen. You swipe with left and right to flip the bread, and hold and slide when you want to climb walls.

Each level begins with a slice of bread in a room, and your task is to turn yourself into toast, however you can. That might mean using a toaster, or an iron, or a heater. Spreading jelly on yourself will also help your cause. You get penalized for getting the bread dirty by either falling on the floor or passing over moldy walls.

You need to complete levels as quickly as possible, with a minimum of dirt on your toast. There are fiddly camera controls you can use to search for something to toast yourself with, though I found too often moving the camera would result in the bread also moving, which is irritating.

Goats. Funnier than toasts

Controlling the bread is a hit and miss affair, and purposefully awkward. This can of course be very funny, but the slightly quirky camera, which sometimes makes life harder than necessary, alongside bread physics which are unreliable, makes the game just a little too hard.

Surgeon Simulator is gruesomely funny, while Goat Simulator gets laughs with its ridiculous physics. What makes them successful is they are a lot of fun to play. Their controls work with the game to become something ridiculous, where as to beat I Am Bread you have to fight the game’s awkward controls rather than enjoy how crazy they are.

The 3D graphics are fairly generic – not unusual for a ‘sim’ – and the sound is similarly bland. This might not be a problem you were bringing chaos to the levels, but the requirement to keep your slice of bread clean gets in the way of this.

Funny controls rendered… less so.

There’s a fun tradition of games with amusing controls that result in chaos, but I Am Bread doesn’t hit those heights. The plot is fun, explaining via doctor’s notes how the tenant is disturbed by finding bread apparently toasting itself in different parts of his house, and the doctor’s bewilderment at his patient’s apparent descent into madness.

However, these reports book-end missions that are not particularly fun to play. I Am Bread could be improved with better camera angles and more reliable physics. I can’t help feeling there’s a fun game in here somewhere, but the level design makes it hard to enjoy.