Space Swine – Xbox 360 Indie Game Review
Developed by: Robot Foot Games
Genre: Shooter
Countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States
Price: 80 Microsoft Points (US $1.00)
Languages: English
Players 1-4, Co-op 2-4,
Features: HDTV 720, Custom Soundtracks
Developer Summary
In the near future pigs gain superior intelligence and learn of their eventual goal, The Slaughterhouse. They band together and create ships to leave earth! What will all the farmers and chefs do without the delightful pig to serve people up bacon and ham! The farmers and chefs join forces to go after the pigs into the far reaches of space, where the final battle of PIG KIND will take place!
What We Think
Sporting gameplay mechanics akin to Geometry Wars and Super Stardust HD, Space Swine puts players in a spaceship and repeatedly asks them to believe that the game has something to do with pigs.
Sweet and Sour Pork
Pilot the ship with the left analog stick, and fire at enemies by aiming with the right. Fly over upgrade icons for increased firepower. Clear all the enemies on screen to advance to the next wave. Occasionally you’ll have a temporary ring of white orbs that appear randomly in a stage (pearls before swine, perhaps?) and you can fly your ship inside the ring for a temporary respite from the barrage of energy weapons. You have a freeze-cannon at your disposal (though the charges are limited) and you can also throw up a shield, allowing you to take four hits before your ship takes damage. Should you sustain enough hits, your craft will erupt into strips of bacon. You’ll also be confronted with occasional boss battles.
The bosses are really the only connection between this space shooter to the pig theme the game’s title implies. Though there is a decent variety of enemy craft in the game, none of them (including the boss ships) give any indication that they belong to the jilted pork industry. Once you’ve encountered them all, the waves start to get pretty repetitive. After you’ve fought the sixth boss, they also loop. I played into the 100th wave and a few waves past and there was no indication of any looming final boss confrontation.
You can play the classic mode, or Boss Rush, in which you assault all six bosses in succession. The game also features multiplayer and co-op modes. Try Insanity Mode for a foray into bullet hell.
I've been told there are pigs in this game...
Another Swine Mess
I’d like to make a plea to any budding game designers that are out there who are thinking about incorporating voice acting into your upcoming XNA indie title: If you can’t do it well, skip it. The voice acting in this game is terrible. On every tenth wave, you’ll confront a boss. His ship will appear in the center of the screen, and the boss piloting it will appear to taunt you with slight variations on the theme “My kind eats pigs. You are a pig. I will eat YOU!” and all die by sharing a slightly different version of “A pig beat me? How is this possible?” (swine flu joke: Check!) If my guess is right, it’s one guy doing all the voices. The bosses are all hackneyed clichés both in their sprite design and in vocal delivery (hicks, rednecks and French chefs OH HONH HONH) and still aren’t delivered well. If you don’t have access to someone with at least a little talent in creating voice characters, don’t bother putting your own recorded voice in the game; it can actually make the game worse.
Also, I know that the concept of pigs piloting spacecraft is a silly one, but when I see a one-toothed, slack-jawed yokel in his overalls and I’m asked to accept that he is also flying a spacecraft, I feel as though there is too much suspension of my disbelief required. Meet me halfway. Have his ship look like a jug of moonshine or something…at the very least, give him some kind of helmet.
Ham-Fisted
Space Swine is a decent shooter title, but it is ultimately hobbled by some of its questionable design choices.
Rating: 
