The whole concept of the “fly and dodge” game is not real interesting in and of itself. Sure it can be addicting, but it’s not because of game play. Let’s face it – all you do is touch the screen or press a mouse button or push a key to go up, and let go to go down.

Super Turbo Action Pig ($0.99)

What makes or breaks a game in this genre is atmosphere, and let me tell you, Super Turbo Action Pig has atmosphere to spare. I was a bit disappointed at first that this wasn’t a platform game (don’t know why I thought that anyway), but now I love Super Turbo Action Pig just as it is. Of course, I wouldn’t mind a platform spin-off some day…

Presentation

Like I said, it’s all about the atmosphere, and Super Turbo Action Pig looks great. The background is actually a simple multi-layered scrolling mountain backdrop, and it would be nice to see that changed up a bit as you progress further in the game, but overall it works fine. The important part is what’s in the foreground, and the pig and its adversaries are colorfully rendered and nicely detailed. When the pig flies up it squints its eyes and straightens its tail, and there are other nice little touches like the mines fluctuating as they are floating in space. The butcher looks really cool too, and it would be nice to see some more cut scenes between the pig and the butcher.

The sound effects are good. The large spinning blades sound deadly, and the butcher’s laugh is great. However, a little more noise would be nice. There are small spinning blades that could be making whirring sounds, and the fuses on the dynamite could be sizzling, just as a couple examples. The music is top notch, and really gives you the spirit of high intensity action. In fact, the beat of the music kind of outpaces the actual action taking place at times.

Controls

Basically, you touch the screen to fly up, and let go to fall down. What I didn’t care for was the fact that you have a little button in the lower right corner of the screen. Why not just let me tap anywhere on the screen besides the pause button? I suppose the whole “turbo thruster” concept is cute, but it just seemed unnecessarily restrictive.

Game Play

Boy, I have to be careful so that I don’t overcomplicate this! You play Super Turbo Action Pig, and your goal is to defeat Butcher Bob. I suppose maybe he processed your family at some point or something, and you’re seeking revenge. Anyway, in order to get to him you must navigate an air field of deadly traps. One misstep and you become the next pork special at Denny’s. You’ll have to evade such things as bundles of dynamite, spinning meat cleavers, and small whirling blades. There are also big mines dangling from chains (where DOES he hang those chains?). You can go under them or through the chain part, but I’d suggest not hitting the mine itself.

As if that weren’t enough, every once in a while Butcher Bob will pop up and unleash a special weapon of doom upon you. These consist of such vial weaponry as semi-guided missiles and larger spinning blades that protrude from the top and bottom of the screen. Your main objective is to just keep going for as long as you can. A secondary objective is to collect 5 golden sausages that will appear after every so many obstacles that you’ve passed. My sausage limit is 2 so far, so I’m not really sure what happens when you get all 5. I’ve hung around the Easy difficulty setting, but you can also bump the challenge up to Medium or Hard if you’re a seasoned game player. Super Turbo Action Pig is OpenFeint enabled, and there are currently 13 achievements to challenge you even more.

Suggestions

You know, the truth is there really isn’t a whole lot you can do with this genre of game. If anything it would be nice to see a little more variety in the types of super weapons Butcher Bob unleashes. And of course, making the whole screen work for flying up would be nice.

Conclusion

This is a “fly and dodge” game, and by and large there’s not a whole lot you can do within this genre. That being said, Joystick Generals have done a solid job of making an enjoyable variant of the basic theme, and I certainly enjoy this one a lot more than any of the many clones involving helicopters. Because of its simplistic nature and limited interaction it certainly won’t appeal to everyone, but if you’re a fan of this genre already this is a must have. If you’ve actually not experienced this type of game before, Super Turbo Action Pig is a great place to start.

[Free App Source Via Free App A Day]