Or as Rovio call them, “Bad Piggies”.
The title is somewhat unfortunate, inferring some mindless pastime for infants, when in fact it is a challenging delight for infants of all age groups. But they had to reference pigs in the title because this is the spiritual follow up to the ultra-successful Angry Birds.
Angry Birds has been around for nearly three years and has been downloaded over a billion times. Apart from the original game, there has been Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Space; and each of the games has been subject to regular updates over the years. The objective of each puzzle in the game is to catapult birds into structures and thereby terminate pigs with extreme prejudice. Assuming all pigs have been destroyed, you will earn up to three stars depending on how many points you accumulate in the process.
There are more than six hundred separate puzzles in the Angry Birds collection; and getting three stars on some of the puzzles can take many many attempts. Only an idiot would have put the time in to obtain three stars on every single Angry Birds puzzle and thus be ranked in the top 5% of players in the known universe.
Pause for applause. I thank you.
So, in spite of the name, I had to give Bad Piggies a chance. Again there are a series of puzzles, ninety in the initial release with more to follow. Each puzzle requires you to transport one or more pigs to a finish line. To do this you are given an increasingly varied selection of components (boxes, wheels, balloons, wings, engines, rockets) and you construct your transport. Then press start and try and guide your contraption to the end, negotiating you way past numerous hazards.
Bad Piggies also employs a three star system; but stars are achieved by meeting varying requirements. Going past set checkpoints, finishing within a certain time, not breaking your machine, plus of course delivering the grateful pig to the finish. Rarely can you achieve all three stars in a single run, and often you have to totally redesign the machine to meet specific requirements within each puzzle.
This game is much tougher than Angry Birds, and the understanding of the physics of the game is essential to success, especially when you build flying machines which seem to mirror actual flight when it comes to subtly altering the centre of gravity or the impact of changing the amount of power applied. Many a happy hour can be spent tweaking machines to obtain exactly the flight characteristics you need.
Indeed “many a happy hour” is what you will need to spend if you want to gain three stars on all the levels; and as the game has been on the market for less than a week, only an idiot would have devoted so much of his life over the past few days to achieve that.
Pause for applause. I thank you.
As you work your way through the levels, you unlock parts which are then available in the sandbox. The sandbox contains massive levels with no set objectives; you are free to construct anything you want from all the available parts, and then see how far you can get.
This is my politically incorrect suicide bomber pig, seeking out something to disagree with:
This is my twin-engined, twin-umbrella, balloon-assisted, rocket-boosted flying death trap; about to insert a pig into a cliff:
And finally; to boldly go where no pigs have gone before (straight into a wall of rock):
Bad Piggies is $0.99 on the iPhone and $2.99 on the iPad. Probably available on Android.
Right, I’m off to build the Hindenburg, stuffed with TNT and pigs.
Comments 🔗
2012-10-01| Grant saysVery ingenious, but I can see where this is leading. You’re going to mount a thousand bomber pig raid on the Middle East and start World War four, aren’t you?
2012-10-02| Jock saysFair warning .. looks like my next contract will be in Abu Dhabi … hopefully I´ve got time to get my defences ready before the pigs arrive … on second thoughts pigs = bacon … not readily available locally !!
2012-10-03| Galumay saysHmmm..just what i need, another mindless & pointless game on my iThings, and more competition with my 8 yo son. you can imagine the likely winner. :(
2012-10-03| Spike saysLife is pointless, this game no more than anything else; and it actually requires some thought. You should be able to thrash you son easily and deduct pocket money in exchange for clues.
2012-10-03| Galumay saysThat would require me to start paying him pocket money! I told him pockket money was any money he found, that was then to be handed to me.
Have you tried to beat an 8yo at anything recently!!??