Crazy Pig offers up a number of minigames that involve using the touch screen and shouting loudly
This video is in French. Pigs are known as le cochon in France. Bon apetit mes amis!
Here you can see your little piggy, who requires food and water, and sometimes even a little TLC
You wouldn't think so if you met me, but I've
actually been called a Crazy Pig [on more than one occasion
- Ed].
There was this one time that I forgot my wallet
and asked my dearest date if she could pay the speeding fine (she said she
wanted to get back in time for Deal or no Deal).
Thankfully we bribed the police officer in
question with a bucket of tepid KFC and some potato and gravy, so all's well
that ends well.
To get an idea of what Crazy Pig is about, think
of it like Nintendogs.
Only with less fur and more oinking.
Aimed at a younger audience, the game is fairly
simple comprising of some pet 'caring' elements and plenty of amusing
minigames that do the 'Crazy' part of the title proud.
The premise of Crazy Pig is simple. Your little
piglet (I called mine Oinky, who perished due to malnutrition and was
replaced by Stinky) is the farmyard's saviour of sorts.
Your pig's dream is to improve
productivity on the farm and drive the wolf away.
There are three main elements to the game:
Pet care: Feed,
wash, groom your pig Costume: Dress your
pig Minigames: Complete
objectives around the farm
The learning curve on Crazy Pig is almost
non-existent - it's a pick-up-and-play game that's suited to younger
gamers but can be quite fun for jaded sociopaths too.
To begin with you must name your pig, then you come to
the barnyard screen. From here you can dress your pig, care for it, or
play a minigame.
The best aspect of the game is by far the
minigames. By and large they're quite entertaining, making good use of the touch
screen and microphone.
After flying through the air with umbrella,
running on bales of hay, stealing honey from the bee hive and sliding
down long chutes of ice a
la curling, Crazy Pig rewards you with selectable gifts
for achieving minigame milestones - usually some food or some clothing.
Dressing your pig is kind of pointless in my
opinion but I can see that younger gamers might like it. Feeding and
grooming and cleaning your pig can be fun, though the choice of food
for a pig is curious.
Ice cream cones?
I'm no farmer, but I reckon a pig reared on
refined sugar would be pretty, um, crazy.
And therein lies one of the things that strikes a chord. The name just works.
Crazy. Pig.
Pigs are cool, but crazy pigs are just off the
scale. You do the math.
So as I was saying, completing minigames will get
you more items to keep your pig clean and healthy, but only one
minigame is available from the get-go.
You have to attain certain scores to open more
games, and the type of games on offer also depends on the
season.
In spring, for example, there's a game where you
have to open flowers for the bees to get nectar, who then return to the
hive to deposit their goods. Using the stylus you must open the flowers
and attract the bees long enough so your piglet can eat the honey while
the bees are busy. Get stung and your pig will be unhappy.
The wolf will also try to murder you, so you have
to yell at him (via the microphone) to scare him away, which is always
fun on a crowded train full of brain-dead office zombies.
Sometimes your pig will also run off for no reason - probably the ice-cream addiction - and you have to yell
"Crazy Pig! Crazy Pig!" to get him to come back.
There's no multiplayer or link-up action which is
a great shame, as racing your friends' pigs in the various minigames
would have been quite a lark.
It's true that Crazy Pig doesn't have the depth of
some DS games, but there are enough minigames in there to please casual
gamers and it must be said that the sound effects are hilarious. Every
time I hear that pig snuff and snort, a wry smile creeps across my
face. They should make a pig movie - it would be awesome.
While it's probably not going to change the price
of hogs jowls on the agricultural commodity exchange anytime soon,
Crazy Pig is a light-hearted diversion that won't strain the brain.
And it's much less annoying than the crazy frog...
If you're getting this game for a youngster or
someone new to gaming, add another 10% to the score because it's an
intuitive title with excellent in-game instructions and is a good
entree to the world of handheld gaming.
It's reminds me of the old Nintendo hand-held LCD games of the 1980s with its charm and simplicity and old fashioned fun.
With a name that's sure to keep on giving,
the Crazy Pig franchise is off to a good start.
