Thank you Mommy's Best Games for sending us this game to review!

Pig Eat Ball is an action-packed arcade-style 3D-platformer game that is available on Windows/Steam, PS4, and Xbox One. You play as Princess Bow, and your father tells you that you should be getting married soon, however, you have other plans, which consist of exploring the galaxy. He has devised “The Royal Games” for men to participate in, and the winner of these games is to marry Princess Bow. You do not want this to proceed, so you disguise yourself so that you can play the games with the hope that you will win, and not be forced to marry.

In each minigame (which you can’t quit in between), your goal is often to eat all of the “yummies”, which look like yellow tennis balls that are rolling around the screen waiting to be eaten. Sometimes, you are timed to devour a certain amount. This task is difficult because enemies will often inhabit the environment and disturb your objective, and sometimes even make you throw up your food. Barfing the yummies you have eaten so far is common, and often necessary to get through tight spaces, because you get slower and fatter the more yummies you consume, thus making it more difficult to maneuver in the level’s environment.

That is not the only minigame featured, however. In some minigames, the game-mode is different. Different game-modes include trying to break the most blocks (some of which alternate from breakable to non-breakable), collect the most stars, and in multiplayer mode (playing the same competitive challenges except with up to four players using connected controllers), game-modes can vary from these to challenges like eating the most ice cream cones, staying inside the circle for the longest amount of time as it moves around the screen, or making the most sandwiches by retrieving all of the materials first.

Once you complete a level, you will get a rating of multiple medals. This rating will depend on how well you did in the level, how much time it took to complete it, and a few other factors. If you earn all of the possible medals you could get, you will receive a pearl. The space station you live in runs on the power of pearls. Pearls can be viewed by pressing Tab, and they are much like achievements of perfection because they show you how many levels you have completed without flaw.

In order to retrieve all of the pearls, you must travel all throughout the space station to play all of the minigames and win all of the medals. The space station is divided into four main sections: there’s the Main Hub, the Alpha Module, the Beta Module, and the Gamma Module. You will go through the game in that order.

Before you start each level, you are given the option to customize your character‘s looks, accessories, and power-ups. You can change your character’s disguise and/or abilities. Power-ups help a lot, but once you use a power-up, you can’t use it again. Power-ups are one use only.

The controls are pretty simple and easy to adapt to. The direction your character is facing is that of the mouse cursor, and you can use WASD to move around. Left-click to boost your character to your mouse cursor’s current location, and right-click to zoom in on your character’s spot on the map.

Since this title supports gamepad as well, the controls for that are worth explaining. Use the left-stick to move around, A to boost forward into the direction you are facing, B to barf up the yummies you have eaten so far (may be necessary to fit into tight spaces), X to zoom in on your character’s spot, and Y to zoom away from it. You can also use the D-pad to maneuver across the map, if it is preferred.

The somewhat pixel-like art style is semi-detailed, with unique portrayal of the characters. This look is an interesting one, not something I would think to be desired by some people, but still not repulsive at all. These eccentric graphics are very colorful and quite fitting for the kind of game Pig Eat Ball is.

The audio is something else. It is quite descriptive, with the barfing noises especially, and I found that somewhat uncomfortable. Not that I couldn’t endure it, but I still found it to be somewhat disturbing. Otherwise the audio is fine though. The music is alright, and the style of the music changes when you go through certain areas of the game. To illustrate, in the minigame rounds, the music seemed more intense, yet fitting for the environment. After the games were over, once I went back into the space station I was in at the time, the music seemed to get calmer. I think it’s supposed to compliment whatever atmosphere your character is residing in, and it does a good job doing that.

As far as moral warnings go, Pig Eat Ball is rated E for everyone 10+. It earns this rating for the crude humor it has (the way it portrays barfing and stuff), the fantasy violence, and the use of alcohol and tobacco in this game. I think this rating is appropriate, but if anything, maybe it should be T. That’s just my opinion though. I would recommend keeping this in mind, however, that it has use of tobacco and alcohol.

The game itself is pretty fun, though! Don’t let the title fool you, this game is really fun. With the multiplayer option, I think that makes it even more worth the purchase. For those wishing for an eccentric, interesting title with an outlandish story, I do recommend the title Pig Eat Ball.