When the call came in to review Swing the Bat, we here at AppSpy were expecting some sort of arcade based home run baseball game, but what we got instead was a nocturnal creature with fangs and a hookshot. Why is a bat swinging around from cave ceiling to bamboo stalk instead of flying? Well its because he hasn't eaten enough fruit to gather enough strength to flap his wings yet. Stay with me here.

Swing the Bat bears some resemblance to Tiny Wings, but more in game structure. The level starts with the sun setting and ends with it rising. In that time, you swing through caves and forests collecting fruit, avoiding other animals that wish harm upon you, and completing objectives. Each completed list of objectives will net you a new costume for the bat, and there are two different worlds with separate objective lists to play through (one is on fire). What differentiates Swing the Bat from other swinging games is that there is a meter every time you swing, and you get extra points for letting go in the 'sweet spot', which is often the best way to travel through the level anyway.

Visually the game is lush, with good character design, and the bat's costumes are humorous and varied. The music is appropriate and never bothersome, but the speech of the bat when you accomplish a good swing can become really old, really fast. How long you play rests on how engaged you are in completing the objective lists.

While Swing the Bat is a fun little time waster, it feels that it's just short of being great. The swinging itself feels a bit loose and the levels themselves wear out their welcome before the day breaks. Still if you like goal orientated gameplay and swinging bats, this one just might be worth a play.