Developer: Mommy's Best Games
Publisher: Mommy's Best Games, INDIECN
Platforms: PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One
Tested on: PC
Pig Eat Ball – Review
In the age of gaming, a lot of game studios have come up with ridiculous concepts in order to make their games unique and refreshing. Some people would think that after all those games, nothing would be a surprise anymore. Ask yourself, are you one of those people? Well, if you are, prepare to seriously reconsider. From the first few images, Pig Eat Ball looks to be an entirely unique game like you’ve never seen them before. Curious to find out if that means it’s a good game? Then look no further.
Story
The story of Pig Eat Ball is not unlike any other story about a princess rebelling against her parentage. You play as Princess Bow, a somewhat strange space creature living in a spaceship castle, who wants to explore the world. However, her father, King Cake, thinks she’s “too young – or maybe too old – to be unwed”. He has organized a series of games across the five surrounding stations to determine who is ready to marry his daughter.
Princess Bow then decides to take the matter into her own hands and play the games that have been organized to find her future husband, and win back her own future. In order to do this and not get recognized as the princess, she puts on a disguise, as to not be recognized by her father.
The game doesn’t throw too much backstory in your face before you start playing. You get a short little cutscene, from the same perspective as the one you will be playing the game from, and after that you immediately travel to the first station to start playing games. The games don’t take very long, and there are a couple of rounds to each game before you win. Travelling around the overworld doesn’t take long either, and sometimes characters will give you tips regarding how to get into certain areas.
Graphics
Graphic-wise, Pig Eat Ball isn’t the greatest looking game out there as it looks rather wacky, but it somehow works for the type of game it is. Everything about it screams comedic purpose, and that’s a good thing for what the game is trying to accomplish. The characters look a little weird and therefore unique, which in the end pays off. It makes for a one-of-a-kind game that you’ll surely never see anywhere else.
The level design of Pig Eat Ball is simple and to-the point. Everything’s functions is clear, and whenever you open a new area, you’ll know exactly where something has changed. Opponents and hazards are distinct and you’ll know what will work against you when trying to win games.
Sound
The music of Pig Eat Ball is a nice mixture of classic video game music and a more modern approach to video game music. The overworld themes are reminiscent of music in games like Zarvot, which is somewhat jazzy and relaxing, supporting the atmosphere very nicely. When playing mini-games, the music is intense and comical, perfectly suiting the ridiculous shenanigans Princess Bow is going through in order to win the games.
The sound design of the game is another great example of why this game is so comical. Without having to spend too much time on voice acting, this game achieves chuckles abound with wackily pitched screams coming from scared roaches to gut-wrenching barf sounds coming from Princess Bow herself. Even the sound of Princess Bow slurping up balls left and right never gets old. Every sound in this game is there to support the fact that the main goal of this game is to be comical, and they achieve this goal without fail.
Gameplay
Pig Eat Ball is an arcade-style action-adventure game. You play as Princess Bow, who is ready to discover the world outside of her kingdom. Your father wants you to get married though, so Princess Bow escapes. You traverse a map and play games with different kinds of creatures. In these games, your objective is simple: get the highest score possible. Sometimes this means getting the fastest time, in other occasions it means breaking more tiles than your opponents. Most of the games involve you eating tennis balls, getting fat, and barfing everything back up to solve puzzles, but there are more than a few exceptions. Playing these games and winning them will win you Pearls, which will let you access new areas and are ultimately needed to keep your kingdom afloat.
The way you play this game is by pointing your mouse in the direction you want Princess Bow to go. Point her in the direction of a ball, and she’ll suck it right up like it’s nothing. The more tennis balls you eat, the fatter she gets. Sometimes this means she won’t be able to fit through narrow pathways, which means she has to barf everything back up in order to proceed to the next area. Eat those barfballs too fast, and Princess Bow might get sick. You can also dash, which you sometimes need to do in order to break through certain tiles. There are a few games where you will find yourself trying to break more tiles than a set of bugs.
There’s also a build mode, in which you can build your own levels. There are a lot of options to choose from, and you get complete freedom to build your ultimate Pig Eat Ball mini-game. In order to know what every tile does, you may have to play a little bit of the game. This way you can use every tile to its full advantage.
Finally there’s a multiplayer mode. You can play with up to four people, however you need four Xbox-controllers in order to be able to play the multiplayer mode, which is a little disappointing if you don’t own more than one or even any. However, playing with four people on one keyboard would be difficult too, so it’s an understandable move.
Conclusion
It’s safe to say, the best way to describe Pig Eat Ball is to say it’s unique. There aren’t many games where something as ridiculous as eating tennis balls and barfing them back up pave your way to victory. That’s where this game really seems to hit an ace. If not that, then at least it hits very close to one. The gameplay is nothing unique and the music isn’t revolutionary, but that’s not the purpose of this game. Pig Eat Ball is at its core comedic adventure game, and it does a really good job achieving that.
Pig Eat Ball - Review,
No Comments