Bad Piggies Review
PROS
- Insanely clever free-form vehicle creation; while limited in some levels, your imagination can run wild in others.
- Cheerfully colorful world keeps you in a great mood; each failure isn't depressing so much as it is a chance to watch the manic mayhem.
- Plenty of content to pick at; each chapter focuses on new engineering disciplines, staving off boredom.
CONS
- Separate executables for iPhone/iPod and iPad; progress isn't saved between devices via iCloud.
- No real way to show-off creations to friends; missed social networking opportunity.
VERDICT
Bad Piggies doesn't just feel like the next logical step forward for a developer like Rovio, but the next step forward for the physics-puzzler genre itself as players engineer their own solutions and use them to succeed, no matter how whacky they may seem.
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You'd be forgiven for thinking Rovio spent too long resting on their laurels after Angry Birds, opting to drive the franchise instead of seeking new horizons. Thankfully Amazing Alex found its way out of the studio (albeit as a re-branding of an existing game) and it was clear the studio was ready to try something new. Note, not 'different' - one can't claim that Bad Piggies breaks away from the physics-puzzle-and-three-star formula we've come to know so well, but it's most definitely a different beast to the trial-and-error bird-flinger we've all come to know by now.
This time around you take on the role of the somewhat slow-witted Piggies as they attempt to steal yet more eggs - unfortunately their plans are scuttled due to an unfortunate accident and you'll need to collect the pieces for them one by one.
Cue a creative twist on the physics-puzzler concept that allows players to construct vehicles on a grid from a limited set of pieces. After making your tenuously held-together contraption and placing your piggie inside, you're left to the whims of gravity, with only your wits to control the various interactive pieces on the vehicle in order to navigate it to safety.
Control (technically) comes in three forms - manual, automatic, and fine-tuned manual. The first allows you to set off groups of similar pieces all at the same time - handy if you're trying to coordinate all the bottle-rockets attached to your speedster; the second controls individual pieces via motors, moving them faster than they otherwise would; and the last allows you to tap the individual pieces on the vehicle, pulling off complex maneuvers such as creating a long-slow ignition of rockets instead of one giant burst.
This level of finesse isn't to be understated as you'll need to master them to collect the inevitable slew of bonus items or to earn that last elusive star on each level. Only one star is awarded for completing the level, while the other two require you to pass minimum requirements such as finishing the stage in a time limit or not using particular items.
There's a lot of content too with the first chapter being dedicated to ground-based vehicles and the second focusing on flight. Earn enough stars and you'll unlock bonus stages that allow for far more free-form engineering in your solutions - something that's further explored in the third 'sandbox' chapter where you'll need to make multiple vehicles on the same stage to collect all the available stars.
Despite feeling 'safe' for sticking with the Angry Birds franchise, Bad Piggies is its own unique beast and one that proves to be horrifically entertaining thanks to its free-wheeling style of build'em-up puzzle gameplay. Of course it's going to appeal more to those who enjoyed tinkering around with things like LEGO and Mechano, but there's enough here for everyone of all ages to enjoy.
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