Thanks to Ratalaika Games for the review code

Title: Hoggy 2
System: PS4
Price: $4.99
Release Date: 07/23/2019

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Story

In this puzzle-solving adventure, you take control of a squishy gel couple who sets out to rescue their kids after they’re kidnapped by aliens! The plot here is very generic and just an excuse to start going into puzzle solving, but I talked about it anyway since it exists and the game opens with it.

Presentation

Hoggy 2 might easily go down as one the most flash-browser worthy game I’ve ever reviewed for Seafoam Gaming. Everything about it, from the generic art style, the stock sound effects, to the UI, all scream “This game is meant for a web browser!”

That being said, this game isn’t part of a flash-based series at all, but rather one that started on iOS in 2010. While the presentation may fit that period of time and that type of system, it’s pretty disappointing that there wasn’t any effort to make better sprites or add unique sound effects for Hoggy 2, so the presentation here is incredibly poor.

Gameplay

Hoggy 2 tasks the player with sending either the Mother or Father off on a mission to rescue the kidnapped kids, by going into vases to collect keys to unlock their way into the lairs of the aliens. Thus, each vase is a stage, with the main objective of each being to eat all the fruit pieces to produce a key. Your only controls in Hoggy 2, are to move around and flip vertically with the X button, so the game’s super simple.

Really all you need to keep in mind are the powerups, such as the acorn that turns you into a smashing block, along with knowing how to take care of certain obstacles such as enemies and walls leading to fruit. It’s your everyday logic puzzler for better or worse, so there’s not much else I can say. I didn’t find any of the stages here too enthralling if I may be frank, with each of them being pretty darn boring and not offering anything that made me engaged.

There are two difficulty modes on offer in Hoggy 2, each with their own unique sets of levels! The Kid mode only gives you twenty stages, but acts as a brief, mini-version of the game, complete with the final boss and ending. Having beaten this, I can say that it does an OK job at introducing a player to the mechanics, but the stages are still mindnumbingly boring. The normal mode is far, far more robust with way more stages and bosses, but I still found each of them to be a bore, though thankfully there are a few toughies even early on, so it’s not something you can beat blindfolded at the very least. Just don’t expect too much engagement from these puzzles, even with some extra difficulty.

Last but not least, a very odd addition in the form of a level editor. It’s a really crappy one if I may be frank, as it’s clear this was made for touchscreens in mind, and only touchscreens. The DS4 touchpad doesn’t seem to work in this mode at all, and using a controller to place objects is a big, clunky drag that doesn’t result in easy level creation. You can save your levels locally and mess around with them, but you can’t upload them to any online hub nor download any stages, which makes this entire mode utterly pointless. I don’t even get why such a mode is here to begin with, since without any form of sharing it seems really pointless.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Hoggy 2 is a puzzler that’s generic in every sense of the word. Generic presentation, generic assets, generic levels, generic feel, and a generic concept that has been done many times before in many other flash and mobile games. I can’t really say much else about this, since it seems silly to have such a game cost $5 to begin with, especially with oddities like a pointless level editor. It’s weird to think that I hoped this would end up being a fun, brief puzzler, but when it’s so boring and something that makes me question what I’m doing with my free time, that’s a big problem.

I give Hoggy 2 a 3 out of 10.