Angry BABA review (iOS / Universal)

♫ “Hit me baba one more time”

10 word description: Action game with batting. Strike all the flying objects. (Taken from app store description and, yes, I know it’s only 9 words).

10 word review: Ridiculous, inexplicable and repetitive. One of the funniest games ever.

You will like this if you enjoy: Getting drunk or wasted and howling with laughter while playing delightfully stupid video games.

The good news: I can’t begin to explain how daft, yet utterly enjoyable this game is. The app store description alone is worth the price of admission and the game exceeds even the wildest expectations you might have after reading that.

The bad news: Nobody will play it and the world will be a sadder place because of this.

Arcadelife verdict: So picture the scene: My son has just cleared the first 4 levels of Polyroll (good for him, at least he’s leading a productive life, right?) and he gets a bit bored of that – no criticism of Polyroll, he gets bored of everything very quickly – so he starts looking at the icons on my iPad and decides he wants to play Angry BABA. Don’t ask me why – the icon is as bizarre as the rest of the game. So anyway, after I explain how to play – like I have the slightest idea – he has a few goes and declares it to be the best game ever. I’m not one to argue with a 4 year old’s logic, particularly when it involves video games, so I start getting into the game and discover, much to my surprise and not a small amount of horror, that he is right. It is indeed the best game ever. It’s silly, incomprehensible, completely bonkers and none of that really matters. Any game that prompts the questions “why are those mammoths helping us?” and “do all cavemen punch  flying rocks?” is an essential purchase as far as I’m concerned.

Defy logic, ignore the voice of reason, get this game and forget for a few minutes that your life outside video games has any real meaning, assuming that it does which I very much doubt anyway.

If you need to know more, all I can tell you is this: You control the timing and vague direction of the punches delivered by what appears to be a caveman, defending the smouldering ruins of a planet (earth, probably) from incoming meteorites, UFOs, giant insects and other random objects. When those objects ultimately return to the surface, there’s a chance that a mammoth will punt them back into the sky. If the flying objects hit one of the pelicans, manta rays (possibly) or other flying creatures carrying large pink gems, swipe or tap those gems to spend on upgrades and other characters in the store.

Anyone who doesn’t laugh, or at least smile wryly at the absurdity of it all, while playing this game needs to punch themselves in the face a few times. And, for the more observant among you, of course the ratings don’t reflect my claim that this is the best game ever. I’m taking the piss just a little bit, ok?

Arcadelife rating

Visuals – 7.5/10
Audio – 7/10
Controls – 9/10
Content – 8/10
Fun – 10/10
Final rating – 83/100

Rating categories explained here.

Version reviewed by Arcadelife is 1.1.0

PIGMENT website link

Arcadelife played and reviewed this game on:
iPad (iOS 5.1.1)