Full Review

I'm not sure what it is that made the war between birds and pigs escalate to such intense levels, but apparently the swine and avian forces are at it again. Pigs in Trees places you in control of a flying pig (get it?) in an attempt to destroy the waves of birds attempting to destroy his home tree (maybe it's a large cache of Unobtanium?).

Each map is set in a top-down perspective with the player drawing a path on screen for the pig to follow. Ending a path on a bird will initiate an attack, with combo points being awarded for drawing paths that result in multiple birds being hit before the main target goes down. This is not as easy as it sounds as each bird has its own agenda (either homing in on the tree, laying traps, or attacking you directly). Things get even harder when later levels modify the basic birds to cover their weaknesses (smaller birds gain shields protecting from frontal assaults), so you'll have to refine your tactics all the time.

The zoomed out perspective can make things hard to keep track of, even despite the easy-to-recognize outlines of each bird and in later levels this can prove to be immensely frustrating as you concentrate on one side of the screen for a fraction too long, only to have the tree demolished a second later. Power-ups help to smooth out the difficulty (though using them will reduce your bonus score at the end), but there's no getting around just how frantic the screen can get.

For some the fast-paced action will be a boon, but casual gamers aren't left out in the cold entirely as most levels can be approached with some level of caution, skipping combos for safer routes and easier kills. Sadly there's almost no break in the pace once things get going, making it hard to play for extended periods, but if you're after a game that mixes action and tactics seamlessly, Pigs In Trees is for you.

App Store Info