Hoggy – Review

A Horrible Tragedy; Revenge Mandatory

Hoggy portrays the struggle between two star crossed lovers broken apart by an evil alien that looks like he belongs in Toy Story. Hoggy is a little pink blob creature who recently had his equally gelatinous girlfriend stolen by the evil Moon men. Instead of calling the local blob authorities, Hoggy finds it in himself to set out on a massive quest to rescue his girlfriend, slaughter cute woodland creatures, and eat a lot of fruit while at it.

Hoggy is a puzzle platformer so to speak, but the term “platformer” should be used lightly, since Hoggy never jumps. In fact, Hoggy can’t fall off cliffs either. Whenever the player tries to move Hoggy past a ledge, he grunts the cutest little grunt, showing that he is incaple of such movement. Not only that, but Hoggy isn’t able to attack anyways either. So the solution? Swap the gravity, of course! His adventure isn’t all cutesy either, here in lies the evil woodland creatures ready to butcher poor little Hoggy.

Hoggy is controlled by tilting the device either left or right. Hoggy can’t jump, but instead can alter gravity with a simple tap. Tapping again will send you flying back to the ground. Many people hate tilt controls, and while I’m not a fan of them myself, Hoggy’s controls work rather well. Hoggy isn’t the fastest creature around, but his movement feels slick and natural, the slightest tilt moving him easily. The tapping is always responsive.

The game itself deserves much praise for not following the linear route like many platformers. Instead of level progression, players will find themselves in a cave-like hub, with various jars that are able to be broken into. When entered, players must collect all the fruit in the room to obtain a key. These keys are used to open doors that open up even more levels, and so forth. This means that players will not have to beat all of the levels in a section to continue on with the game, so frustrating levels can be skipped and not dealt with until later.

I HATE CHERRIES

I personally found Hoggy to be one of the most interesting platformers around. Skill alone will not take you through all the levels, some thought is required before taking them on. Levels are filled with switches, a number of enemies to manipulate, spikes, ice blocks, movable blocks, magic eight balls, etc.

Instead of taking the classic route of “kill all enemies, get fruit”, many levels in Hoggy require you to use the enemies to your advantage. For example, moving tops can be guided into blocks that can be broken, giving you access to hidden fruit. Other levels you may find yourself guiding the generic little “goombas” into bombs that block your path (the cute devils will pay!), causing birds to drop their egg bombs into the ground, forcing white hairballs to shoot their children into harmful obstacles, etc.

However Hoggy’s main charm is the gravity altering dynamic. With a simple tap, Hoggy travels from the floor to the ceiling, ceiling to floor, or the nearest platform. It is almost ridiculous how much depth this mechanic adds to the game. Switches can be activated from both ways, platforms can be climbed backwards, and enemies are fought from the floor and ceiling. Players will find themselves utterly confused as the puzzles grow harder (the game is definitely difficult), and the gravity mechanic needing to be exploited in creative ways.

A special mention goes to the special acorn item that turns Hoggy into a smirking solid cube of death, its iron fist crushing any enemy in its path (let’s call the new form “Death Metal Hoggy”). Death Metal Hoggy is important in many puzzles, and seeing the normally cute and cuddly Hoggy turn into a killer is undoubtedly satisfying.

DEATH METAL HOGGY WILL MASSACRE!

Anyone can tell that Hoggy was meant to be a cute game (though the theme of manipulating poor woodland creatures doesn’t help). The game itself is filled to the brim with personality, and colorful enemies and fancy switches await you everywhere. The enemies are all ridiculously cute, and seeing the adorable little Hoggy makes you want to squeeze a kitten until it suffocates, but the real star of the show is Death Metal Hoggy.

I mean, really. He’s a grinning square that causes the ground to shake as he moves. He can smash right through blocks and enemies with the slightest of ease. The enemies’s blood runs cold with fear as they turn into a blue nervous wreck, just waiting for their turn to be crushed by the imminent wrath of the merciless Death Metal Hoggy.

Not only that, but the newest update comes with some peppy background music that really gets you in the mood for cold-hearted manipulation.

iFanzine Verdict: Overall, Hoggy is an extremely polished puzzle platformer with appealing graphics, excellent controls, creative and interesting gameplay, and is easily one of the best platformers on the iPhone to date.

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