PSYCHO PIG UXB By: U.S. Gold Download: pig.zip Hearing the game's tune and seeing the colourful graphics of pigs dancing about in the intro brings back some fond memories. In my youth I really loved this game, but now that I am a little older I can see that it has its faults. Psycho Pig is one of those games that is based on a really weird idea. You control a pig who battles with other pigs to become the pig champion. To do this you must throw bombs at your opponents and when the dust settles be the only pig standing. Told you it was a weird game.

It is tough to class this game in any kind of genre. The closest example I can think of is Bomberman, although in that game you can say that a certain amount of strategy is involved. Bomberman's levels consist of mazes which you blow up to get to your foes, Psycho Pig just sees a number of pigs on an open screen hurtling bombs at each other and running around like mad.

There are about twelve levels to complete so most people will be able to finish it after a few goes (especially as you are given a generous amount of continues.) In each stage you'll whiz around the screen collecting bombs and throwing them at your opponents. If you hit them they die and any bombs nearby will explode (so you have to be fast.) If you miss your target the bomb will bounce around the screen for a while before stopping. After that the bomb's timer is active and it will explode by itself (a number on the bomb tells you how many seconds are left before it blows up.) It is possible to run out of bombs in which case the game becomes a mad chase towards the referee pig who occasionally appears and drops a bomb.

From time to time the odd power up will appear. These range from items which make you run faster, throw further, make you invincible or just give you 1000 points. There is also a super bomb which when thrown blows up every bomb on the screen (muwahaha.)

The main game is occasionally interrupted by a bonus stage which is based on those whack a mole games. You'll run around the screen hitting any pigs which pop out of craters to get a bigger score before the time runs out.

This game is fun for the occasional go, just don't expect it to keep you entertained for too long. It is too easy to complete and the two player mode just makes finishing it easier. A difficulty setting might have helped things because the game AI isn't brilliant. The enemy pigs move around randomly throwing few bombs. It isn't uncommon to find pigs walking to the end of the screen and staying there. The game gets tougher, but that is because later on more than one bomb is needed to kill the pigs and they move around faster. It doesn't get tougher because the opponents you face get smarter.

All in all this is mindless fun whilst it lasts. It is too easy and the levels are practically the same. With a little more work this could have been great, as it stands it is amusing for about half and hour.

Rating: 67%