Hambo

Pigs have gained a pretty bad reputation recently. Ever since some of them started stealing eggs from disgruntled fowl and hiding them in poorly built bases we never get to hear about heroic porcine achievements.

Until now, that is. Hambo is a tongue-in-cheek tale of one pig's vengeance-fuelled mission of freedom, and - ironically enough - he's learned more than a few tricks from the birds who've been giving his species a bad name.

You control the titular '80s action movie-spoofing trotter, and it's your job to clear 200 levels of the worst kind of pig-napping scum. In every level you've got a set number of bullets to slaughter the offending piggy soldiers.

In true Angry Birds fashion, physics is your friend. Hambo is rooted to the spot unless he's nudged by a falling corpse or box, so trick shots and scenery destruction are the order of the day. Each level is a set-piece, requiring quick thinking and quick firing.

The game takes its action movie roots to heart, offering up quick draw antics and far more violent fluidity than most of the other games in the genre. It's perfectly normal to finish a level sliding down an iced girder, blasting away with your Uzi, cackling like a loon.

The challenges are brilliantly designed, making you feel like the star of your own slightly weird movie. New weapons and more interesting scenery change the feel of the game as you progress, but it remains lodged in a spectacular and hilarious vein of slapstick violence.

Explosive arrows combine with volatile barrels, precarious glass ledges are shattered by precision pistol shots, and terrified guards cower as your sights come to rest on them. The controls are smooth, and having to tap an on-screen button to fire makes for more precision than a catapulting drag-back.

Pigs have finally found the hero they've been looking for, and the rest of us have been given a hugely playable riff on the Angry Birds template. Hambo isn't afraid to wander off in its own brilliant directions, and that makes it an even more entertaining title.

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