Pig Eat Ball | PC Review
When I first watched the gameplay trailer for Pig Eat Ball, I was fascinated by its absurdity and bright, nostalgic graphical style. I had hoped to be drawn into its vibrant, wacky world, and to be consumed with the desire to play this like I used to play old-school arcade games. It ultimately wasn’t my kind of game, but I know that a subset of gamers will love this odd little treat. It’s obvious this game was made with a lot of love and reverence, and Mommy’s Best Games is definitely a creative studio. This is basically Pac-Man with a dash of Katamari and lashings of vomit (really).
All You Can Eat
Pig Eat Ball’s story centers on Princess Bow, whose father King Cake (he’s seriously a piece of cake) wants to arrange a marriage for her to the man who can win his contest. She is extremely unhappy with this decision, and decides to disguise herself and win the contest so she won’t have to marry some stranger. What follows is a journey that takes you through five different areas with wildly differing designs. Did I mention this all takes place on a massive space station?
I loved how each area had its own visual style and aesthetic (such as sushi, sports, etc.), and I thought the top down viewpoint and pixel graphics made this feel like a genuinely authentic retro game. Even the barf looked suitably disgusting. The soundtrack was also old-school and upbeat, and elevated the game’s atmosphere. I did feel like there were too many areas, though. Five main hub worlds plus twenty sub-worlds made the game feel long in the tooth.
The Meat and Potatoes
Sadly, the actual gameplay didn’t entice me as much as the candy-coated outer shell did. The levels are monotonous and vary wildly in difficulty. You’re tasked with eating a certain amount of “yummies”, bright yellow balls that help you earn pearls to reach the next destination in the contest. I quickly grew tired of this direction, and the game started to feel like more of a chore. Also, the random difficulty spikes didn’t sit well with me. There was no gradual difficulty curve, or any discernible pattern. Some levels were just super easy while others took me multiple times to finish. Some gamers will relish this old-school challenge, but it personally didn’t do it for me. On the plus side, though, the controls are extremely simple to learn and are very responsive.
Pig Eat Ball Final Verdict
Pig Eat Ball is a game that was made with a lot of love and has tons of hours of gameplay nestled inside it’s attractively weird packaging. This will appeal to anyone who has spent hours feeding quarters into arcade machines, or to gamers who relish games packed to the brim with originality (especially weird, quirky creativity). I wanted to love it as much as the developers obviously do, but it just didn’t personally tickle my fancy. I hope it tickles yours, though, because Mommy’s Best Games is a studio that has major talent and creativity.
This review is based on a PC copy provided by SuperIndie.Games for coverage purposes and will also be available on PS4 and Xbox at a future date of this writing.
Pig Eat Ball
$14.99
Pros
- Lovely graphics and soundtrack
- Incredibly original
- Simple, responsive controls
Cons
- Repetitive gameplay
- Random difficulty spikes
- A tad too long for its own good
- Could be TOO weird for some
