ePig Rope review (iPod/iPhone)

♫ “Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are”

Graphics and presentation are of a high quality

10 word description: Help Eddie to explore the jungle. Swing from Ropes. Unlocks.

"Tap to Begin" - That's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming.

10 word review: Great looking, crushingly difficult rope swinging game. Requires extreme perseverance. 

"And so on" ... And so the tutorial ends, with you tumbling towards your doom. Again.

You will like this if you enjoy: Pitfall, Jungle King, Hunchback, the words GAME OVER

Get used to seeing this.

The good news: Graphically it’s quite a treat. 

"Touch twice to kill" - But I'm already tapping & holding and there's no multitouch. Thanks. Thanks a bunch.

The bad news: For several fairly unnecessary reasons it is very, very difficult.

Arcadelife verdict: I really like the presentation and graphics of this game, but it’s just a little bit too frustrating for me. I assume the iPad ‘XL’ version possibly plays a little better due to the larger screen area, but on the iPod/iPhone there’s too much “finger obfuscation” of vital screen elements to make it particularly enjoyable.

The basic gameplay involves tapping and holding a sequence of anchor points to which your tumbling pig shoots out and attaches a rope, Spiderman style. It is far too easy to miss a tap or fumble a hold, which will pretty much guarantee that you lose one of your 3 initial lives. Your pig travels left to right, so you are generally tapping and holding to the right of where the pig is swinging, although occasionally you need to anchor a rope somewhere else to avoid obstacles, or to back up a bit to gain swinging momentum. This is hard enough as it is, but once your holding finger (or thumb) is in position … you can’t see much of what is underneath it or to either side.

... sure, when pigs learn to fly.

The fact that anchor points often don’t appear on screen until you are tumbling towards your doom (just before they scroll into the play area) adds to the frustration.

Overall, it’s a shame the game is so difficult because it looks very nice and is basically a fairly sound and proven concept. However, looking back at its spiritual predecessors – Pitfall, Jungle King, Hunchback – this genre has never been about easy, casual games.

The version of  that Arcadelife reviewed is 1.2

ePig Games website link

Arcadelife played and reviewed this game on:
4th gen iPod Touch (OS 4.3)