Star Hogs, the popular turn-based strategy game from IUGO Mobile Entertainment, recently released a huge update, making a great game even better. From its terrific 3D graphics to the plethora of weapons and maps to the awesome online play, Star Hogs delivers a complete gaming experience that’s both light on resources and big on fun.
Star Hogs offers three gameplay modes: Freeplay, Campaign, and Online mode, as well as a nice tutorial to teach new players the ropes. Freeplay lets you pick a map, select a number of enemies, and get after it. Campaign is more of a season mode, where you must win the battle on one map to unlock the next. You earn money that can be used to upgrade your rig, making you stronger for future matches. The update has added an additional 32-map campaign to the game. Online play allows you to connect with other players over wi-fi, Edge, or 3G for epic battles in outer space.
Each turn in battle has a limited amount of energy to balance between firing weapons and moving your ship. In our experience, we only had enough energy to fire our weapon twice, with a bit of energy left over to move a short distance. We could also fire a single time or not at all and conserve our energy for moving if we need to go a significant distance. Firing weapons requires you to set the direction and then set the power to fire the weapon. There is no way to tell where the combination will lead your weapon, so practice is necessary to get a feel for how much of both are necessary.
Upgrading and customizing your ships is a huge part of the game, which has been improved with the addition of new weapons. While the default weapons can be effective if used properly, upgrading to better weapons can give a significant advantage when strikes aren’t quite on target. Defensive upgrades (shields, energy) can also be a great help in staying alive in the game. With a completely tricked out hog, you’ll have the confidence to taunt your opponents via the newly added in-game messaging system. This is just one of the several new additions, which also include a boatload of optimizations and gameplay tweaks.
Star Hogs has a beautiful interface, with rich graphics that create a fairly immersive experience. Asteroid belts serve to act as both a barrier and a shield. Destroying some asteroids can also result in the release of bonuses that can be picked up by the players. At times, there is a lot of info on-screen, and while it may appear busy, it never feels too cluttered. When examining upgrade options, many of the screens can be tucked away and brought out as necessary. The soundtrack is decent, though it can get old after a while. When you start the game, you are given the option to listen to in-game music or your own library, so you do have the option to change if you wish. Controls are all touch-based. You can pan around the screen by dragging, zoom by pinching, and make selections by tapping. Controls worked pretty well for us and were easy to use.
Replayability is high, with online leaderboards to contend on, a great campaign mode, online multiplayer, tons of content, and exciting gameplay. There are a bunch of similar games in the app store (Worms, iShoot, KIL.A.TON), but Star Hogs really shines with the aforementioned items and has certainly established itself as a premier app in the turn-based strategy genre. At $4.99, Star Hogs continues to command a premium price, but with updates that add tons of content, it’s clear that you are getting a great value for the price. Star Hogs raises a 5-Dimple flag over its competition.
Star Hogs gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
