It’s here! The Second Coming of Rovio is here! Well, actually – perhaps this could be thought of as the Third or Fourth Coming, technically. Maybe even the thirtieth or fortieth one you take all their previous games into account.
So what I’m basically saying is that Bad Piggies just rewrote the Bible, and added DLC.
It’s a brave move for Rovio to open a window onto the world of their swine antagonists. In fact, many have seen it as the biggest thing to happen to military story-telling since Homer gave Hector and the Trojans some air-time during the Iliad.
Their tale is one of experimentation and, interestingly enough, can seem rather complicated – or perhaps somewhat underexplained. It speeds past the simplicity of Angry Birds in a vehicle of its own design. Or, perhaps, the design of Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts or Rigonauts – depending on who you listen to.
Your provided pig must be ferried from A to B, preferably via points C and D for maximum stars, and for this you’ll have to figure out the best recipe and set-up for a vehicle from a pre-set collection of items. It’s the game where Ready Steady Cook and Pimp My Ride collide.
Say your pig needs to slide down a hill. That’s easy enough – just secure him in a box, add wheels and let gravity do the rest. The challenge comes in as the terrain gets more varied – and fans, jet-propulsing bottles of fizzy pop and bellows can be strapped onto your inventions. The timing of the taps that let these off and the delicacy of the vehicles themselves make for endless tries and retries – there’s little doubt that habitual fans of the avian trebuchet are in for something of a culture shock.
Our initial impressions of Bad Piggies, then, are fairly positive – and gently surprised that Rovio are up for doing something fun and (as much as anything they can do could ever be risky) a little risky with the opposing forces of their mega-franchise. The game could do with a little more hand-holding in its early stages, but there’s a lot to love here – especially when pigs fly.
Before Bad Piggies I’d snarl and wave my fists at the caustic smile of a pig. Now my heart bounces – that grin means I’ve pasted the right ingredient in the right slot. If nothing else Bad Piggies has cured me of my irrational hatred of pig-kind. I’m on their side now. It feels a bit like I’m Sean Connery in The Hunt for Red October or something. I’m a turncoat. Death to all birds.
Bad Piggies can be bought for the eternal sum of 69p from the App Store.
