IPHONE GAME REVIEW
Crazy Penguin Catapult 2P-P-Pick up a penguin. Literally. |
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There are many strategies you can take to war. You can form an impenetrable defensive line to hold off your adversaries, or you can launch a blitzkrieg to force them back. You can infiltrate their homeland with spies to tap into their plans or feed them black intelligence to throw them off the scent.
All such plans have their respective merits, but none quite matches the directness of the ultimate strategy: lobbing penguins at them with a catapult.
It's a tactic that's already enjoyed much success. The original Crazy Penguin Catapult picked up numerous accolades and fans. It's fair to say that this sequel doesn't alter the formula all too much, adding new levels and a few new power-ups to what was already an addictive ode to cannon fodder the world over.
The game has you using kamikaze penguins to take out a pack of evil polar bears who've taken some of your comrades captive. Play is split into two different arenas: one where you flip the penguins with the catapult itself, and another in which you direct them toward their targets. If there was ever a cute and cuddly form of shattering the enemy with artillery, then this is it.
The flipping itself is fairly simple: each penguin either swings from the a rope above the catapult or drops straight down one-by-one, the only action required being a tap on the screen when they line up with the exit.
It's this section that determines just how many penguins you have at your disposal when firing upon the polar bears. Get the angle wrong and your penguin will splat into the wall, taking him out of the equation when it comes to the actual dive bombing.
And dive bombing it most certainly is. The penguins glide over the pack of polar bears like Lancaster Bombers, and you direct them down to the ground by touching the screen when they cruise over the top of the bear you want to target. Each penguin takes out every bear it hits, bouncing around until it finally bows out, quite literally.
As you advance, you're able to collect power-ups that vastly expand your bear bombing abilities. Upgrades include upping the number of bounces, adding a couple of penguins to the tally, or giving them the ability to smash through the ice that encases some of their fluffy foes.
Such plusses become increasingly important as you move from one level to the next due to defensive measures taken by your polar opponents. The bears start shielding themselves with walls of ice and doors that can only be opened after the penguins have pressed a few well placed buttons.
It all helps Crazy Penguin Catapult 2 maintain the perfect balance: as your power-ups build, so the maps get just that bit harder, meaning you're never really on top, but you're never left hanging either.
All this almost leaves the game's other mode, Strategy, feeling a little superfluous. Here, you take charge of a grid filled with scores of penguins on some squares and packs of polar bears on others in some turn-based play. Your job is to take out the bears by targeting them with any penguins you have on nearby squares, the idea being that the pack with the biggest number comes out on top.
With four different difficulty levels on offer, there's plenty of scope here for Crazy Penguin Catapult 2's Strategy mode to take up just as much of your time as the main mode. That's a good thing, too, since the game's main mode doesn't evolve much over the original.
Nevertheless, whether you're prising your wallet open for either version, this is one of those iPhone phenomena that's unlikely to be catapulting out of here anytime soon.
Crazy Penguin Catapult 2 |
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Drawing on the same gameplay as the original, Crazy Penguin Catapult 2 adds a few refinements to ensure that its bear-busting action remains an iPhone classic
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