Nat the Breakfast Savior
A strange curse falls across the land!
Breakfast everywhere... has DISAPPEARED!
This looks like a job for me... NAT!!
Creator of the #1 Breakfast Cereal in the World!
Breakfast everywhere... has DISAPPEARED!
This looks like a job for me... NAT!!
Creator of the #1 Breakfast Cereal in the World!
Hazelnut Hex is a 2022 indie Cute 'em Up / Horizontal Scrolling Shooter made by Chunderfin Studios, a one-man company headed by cartoonist, animator, computer programmer and long-time arcade fan James Hamilton who envisions the game as a "love-letter to old-school arcade shumps".
In a manner reminiscient of Cotton and Mystic Riders, Hazelnut is set in a fantasy-themed universe (rather than a sci-fi one). Players assume the role of a Cute Witch named Nat, famed for her skills in conjuring "the best breakfast cereal in the world", especially her trademark cereal brand called "Hazelnut Hex". Nat's jealous nemesis, Lamona, whose cereal sales - notably her "Cauliflower Curse" brand - is lagging due to Nat's success, decides to retaliate by stealing all the breakfast in the world. It's up to Nat to battle her way through hordes and hordes of Lamona's minions in multiple levels to save breakfast before it's too late!
...nope, the game doesn't attempt to make any sense of all this. Not that it needs to.
The game is available on the Nintendo Switch, macOS and Microsoft Windows.
Come on, let's rescue breakfast!
- Aerith and Bob: The credits confirm the names of every enemy when they throw a rush of them all. Almost all of them have some sort of pun-related name, until reaching the final miniboss at the very end — a giant eye monster — which is named... Dave. Just Dave.
- Alliterative Name: The game's title and Nat's trademark cereal brand, Hazelnut Hex. Also her competitor, Lamona's Cauliflower Curse.
- Animate Inanimate Object: One stage have toasters as enemies, who can launch their toasts at Nat as an attack.
- Anthropomorphic Food: Many onscreen enemies are sentient food who can chomp on Nat, and each of them have a unique death animation depending on what food they are - for instance, killer apples turns into an apple core, pumpkins become pumpkin slices, popsicles becomes popsicle sticks, and so on.
- Asteroids Monster: Stage 2's second miniboss, a giant slime bubble named Bubble Jeopardy, splits in to several more slimes once defeated.
- Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: The Nintendo Switch port got a T rating from the ESRB for Partial Nudity and Fantasy Violence. The former is entirely from one brief miniboss being a nude woman covering herself with her arms; absolutely nothing else in the game would warrant anything higher than an E10+ rating, if not E.
- Berserk Button: For Nat? Mess with breakfast, the "most important meal of the day", and she'll come after you. She attacks Vivian soley for not believing breakfast is important, and visibly starts losing her patience when a hungry Jules berates her for talking about it all the time. Insulting her trademark cereal brand, "Hazelnut Hex" is another way to tick her off.Milli: I don't even like your cereal that much, but I was hungry enough to eat anything!
Nat: EXCUSE ME? [accompanied with an audible Death Glare]
Milli: I mean, uh, thanks for the help! I really wasn't myself back there!... - Big Boo's Haunt: Stage 4 is set in a haunted town, and all of its enemies are spirits of some sort or haunted swords.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Going to the final boss from the level select menu will change the cutscene to one where Lamona remarks about skipping straight to the end, with Nat replying that she's only practicing for a one continue clear. Lamona will further go on to say that doing such a thing will not grant a special ending, or even a congratulations.
- Bullet Hell: Exaggerated in the later levels, where the bullet density gets so intense to the point where there are hundreds of onscreen projectiles, all at once. Luckily Nat has a power-up that can neutralize bullets and add extra points to her score, though that needs to be used sparingly.
- The Burlesque of Venus: One of the mid-bosses, Bottishelley, is a nude witch in a flying clam striking the exact same pose as Venus in Sandro Botticelli's artwork. Defeat her and her clam blows up, sending her falling with her hands clinging on her privates all the way.
- Charged Attack: Nat can release a charged projectile by holding down the firng button.
- Color Contrast: Enemy bullets are always of a color that stands out against the background, for visibility. Stages 1 and 4 have orange bullets against a green and purple background, respectively. Stage 2 has blue bullets against a pink background, Stage 3 has red bullets against a cyan background, and Stage 5 has the inverse of Stage 3.
- Conveniently Timed Attack from Behind: After Nat defeats Lamona, the latter taunts that she's just getting started, and prepares to cast another spell. Just then, Sabine, the boss fought before Lamona and restored to her natural state, finishes Lamona from behind.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits are a stage on to themselves. The player controls a solo Sam and fires at the credits themselves, then goes through every enemy and miniboss in the game at reduced health. Defeating an enemy also reveals its name.
- Cute Witch: Nat, the player protagonist and all the bosses, including Lamona the Big Bad. The game runs on chibi-graphics, after all.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Unlike the other bosses, Vivian is not irate from the lack of breakfast. Nat fights her anyway just because she says she doesn't think breakfast is an important meal. Even after cooling down, Nat still runs in to Vivian during the end-of-level cutscene instead of flying around her like she does with everyone else.
- Evil Is Petty: Lamona's reason for depriving the world of breakfast? Because her cereal brand, Cauliflower Curse, has been cancelled after failing to beat the sales of Nat's Hazelnut Hex.Lamona: The one who made breakfast dissappear was none other than me... Lamona! Creator and mascot of Cauliflower Curse! The only breakfast cereal inspired by real cauliflower!
Nat: Cauliflower Curse? I've never heard of that cereal...
Lamona That's because most retailers refuse to stock it! And it's all because of YOUR dumb Hazelnut Hex! - Familiar: Nat has a flying squirrel familiar named Sam who tails behind her during gameplay. He can serve as an Assist Character by shooting projectiles, though his attacks aren't as effective as his master's.
- Flying Seafood Special: The second stage is set atop a lake, where Nat battles flying fishbones, jellyfishes and conch shells popping out the water.
- Game-Over Man: Run out of lives and you get a clip of a dizzy Nat with spiral eyes.
- Gorgeous Gorgon: The second boss, Jules, is a chibi-gorgon with snakes for hair, though she averts the usual depiction of gorgons with her lack of petrification powers.
- The Grim Reaper: Sabine the witch is a lady version of Grim, wearing a face-concealing hooded sweater with jeans instead of robes and wielding a scythe taller than her as weapon.
- He Was Right There All Along: A stage is set in an ice cavern filled with icicles, which Nat has to avoid or shoot at. Halfway through, a Mini-Boss - a gigantic ice skull named Zamboney - will chomp down on Nat, having disguised it's teeth as icicles at the top and bottom of the screen.
- Horned Humanoid: Cass is a witch with reindeer antlers, for reasons unexplained. Appropriately she's the boss of a snow-themed level.
- Improbably Female Cast: The only confirmed male character in the game is Sam, Nat's squirrel familiar. Some of the enemies and minibosses have masculine names, noteably Dave, but whether they are male or even sapient is not known given that they are all animals or monsters in some way.
- Lethal Lava Land: Stage 5 is set in a volcanic cavern, and is littered with fireballs, flying peppers, and eye monsters for enemies. Its first miniboss is a fire-spewing dragon.
- Light Is Not Good: Lamona is the only witch character who's dressed intirely in white. She's also the main villain who stole all the breakfast in the land, necessitating Nat to stop her.
- Meaningful Background Event: Lamona can be seen in silhouette in the background of each stage after defeating the first miniboss, stalking Nat throughout the whole game.
- Mickey Mousing: Stage 3's opening is timed such that the music will pick up right when the first sideways icicles and a barrage of enemies will fly at the player.
- Mirror Match: The Mini-Boss enemies fought in the middle of stages are gigantic monsters larger than Nat. The actual bosses of every stage, on the other hand, are all witches roughly the same size as Nat and uses similar attacking spells.
- Ms. Fanservice: Bottishelley, Stage 2's second miniboss. She is the only nude character in the game (covered by her arms), drawn in a relatively realistic and less chibi artstyle than the main characters, given a curvier design than anybody else, and her default animation is her swaying her hips while winking hearts as bullets.
- Never My Fault: Lamona is quick to blame Nat's successful cereal brand, Hazelnut Hex, over her own brand Cauliflower Curse being discontinued in the market due to failing in sales... never mind she's selling cauliflower-flavored cereal to the public. Nat lampshades it.Lamona: NOBODY wants to sell Cauliflower Curse because there's already a cereal with a witch mascot!
Nat: You think that's the reason people aren't interested in a vegetable-themed cereal... - Non-Lethal K.O.:
- All the bosses, save for Lamona, comes back instantly after their health meters are depleted, looking none the worse for wear. Justified that instead of defeating them, Nat is feeding them.
- Some of the enemies, notably the humanoid ones, fall off screen when defeated instead of bursting.
- Oculothorax: The first Mini-Boss of Stage 2 is a floating Blob Monster with a single eye. It fires weak projectiles, but shooting it will divide the monster into smaller copies.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: Nat battles hostile, airborne mermaids called Murdermaids while flying atop a lake. These enemies are armed with tridents capable of shooting energy bolts.
- Plant Mooks: Plant-based enemies inhabits the forest level, ending with a mid-level Mini-Boss - a giant rose capable of shooting projectiles and slapping Nat with Vine Tentacles.
- Power Floats: Every single witch boss has the ability to hover and float all over the area.
- The Quiet One: Sabine only says three words through the whole game. Her dialogue is otherwise Visible Silence.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Nat battles swarms of bees throughout the first stage (set in a forest). They drop honey upon defeat which can be collected for points.
- Serious Business: Breakfast. The game's plot is kicked off by a witch jealous of the success of another breakfast mascot witch and causing all breakfast in the world to disappear. Nat is quick to bring up its importance every chance she gets (if a hungry Jules' comments are accurate, she's like this even when breakfast isn't endangered) and becomes angry if it is insulted in any way.
- Set Swords to "Stun": The witch bosses turn out to be hungry due to being deprived of breakfast. Nat's attacking spells are feeding them, and the bosses are defeated by having their hunger sated.
- Snowlems: Nat takes on multiple andromorphic snowmen as enemies in the ice cavern stage, including a gigantic snowman mid-boss. And also sentient ice-cream and icicles if that counts.
- Skewed Priorities: Lamona turns into a ghost after her defeat. And then rejoices because she can promote her cereal brand, Cauliflower Curse, now that it has a ghost mascot.Lamona: [as a ghost] Hey! You killed me, you jerk!
Nat: She's a g-g-g-g-GHOST!
Lamona: Wait... I'm a ghost now? This is perfect! Retailers will definitely stock Cauliflower Curse now that it has a ghost mascot instead of a witch! Later, losers! [flies away] - Sky Surfing: Nat, who averts the Flying Broomstick trope by being a witch who flies on a giant spoon. Her nemesis Lamona on the other hand flies on a fork.
- Spread Shot: Nat's type A and type C magic projectiles, which fires in a wide arc covering plenty of area. More than one enemy boss uses the same attack as well.
- Succubi and Incubi:
- One of the bosses, Vivian, is a chibi-succubi. Who can fire heart-shaped projectiles at Nat.
- Female demon enemies in leotards called Cinderhellas appear in Stage 5. It is not confirmed if they are also succubi or not, but they have one of the common appearances of one in media.
- Super-Deformed: The whole game runs on these animations.
- Sword Beam: Gigantic, floating swords are enemies Nat encounters, who can fire crescent energy beams from the blades.
- Symbol Swearing: One of the possible lines that appears when Nat is hit is a string of symbols, implying that she's cursing.
- Wave-Motion Gun: Nat's "Bullet Cancel" move, which allows her to fire a thick energy bolt covering most of the screen, neutralizing all onscreen bullet attacks and deal heavy damage on bosses. Said attack drains most of Nat's mana, however.
- Winged Soul Flies Off at Death:
- Oddly enough, the ghost enemies will dissolve into souls and float away after their defeat, probably to be "reborn".
- Lamona, the Final Boss, with a We Shall Meet Again taunt at Nat while she floats offscreen.
- Wreathed in Flames: Millie, Jules, Cass, and several of the bosses are witches whose entire body are shrouded in flames.
