Bad Piggies is a 2012 puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment. A spinoff in the Angry Birds series, it revolves around the villainous green pigs rather than the birds. It has the player build custom vehicles using various objects to guide a pig to the finish line, with optional additional goals being achievable by applying alternate strategies. Bad Piggies was initially released on September 27, 2012, being ported to numerous mobile devices and personal computers. It received mostly positive reception from critics, and a sequel was soft launched in 2023.
Bad Piggies is a physics-based puzzle game revolving around the green pigs from previous Angry Birds games.[1][2] The pigs aim to steal the Angry Birds' eggs, but their plans are shredded in a desk fan and become scattered. Thus, the pieces must be recovered by clearing levels.[1] In each level, the player is provided with a set of attachable objects such as crates, wheels, motors, balloons, umbrellas, soft drink bottles, and springs, with more being unlocked as the game progresses.[3][4] Each object comes with different behaviours that can be triggered by the player; for instance, desk fans can be toggled, boxes of TNT can be detonated, and balloons can be popped.[5][6] The objects provided must be used to construct a custom vehicle that can guide a pig to the finish line and recover pieces of the plan.[1] Alternatively, the player can press a "Hire a Mechanic" button to have a mechanic pig build a vehicle for them.[3] Vehicles can break apart while active, and the pig will be ejected if it does; levels must be manually restarted if the player get stuck.[4][6] Levels have three goals that can be achieved to earn stars; the first is achieved by clearing the level, while the latter two vary from reaching the finish line within a time limit, collecting crates, or excluding a select object from the vehicle.[5][7]
Bad Piggies additionally includes a sandbox mode, which contains large open environments where players can freely build any custom vehicle.[6]
According to the review aggregation website Metacritic, the iOS version of Bad Piggies was received as "generally favorable" based on 24 critic reviews.[12] Eli Hodapp from TouchArcade gave a 5-star rating, praising its accessibility and claiming that it "tak[es] the franchise in a direction that feels both totally fresh and entirely appropriate".[1] Justin Davis from IGN gave a score of 9.2 out of 10 and called it "the best title Rovio has released yet".[13] Jason Parker from CNET gave an 8.3 score and called it "a unique and interesting new game type that will appeal to both casual and serious puzzle gaming fans".[4] Stuart Dredge from The Guardian wrote that Bad Piggies "merits a four-star rating" and recommended it to "experienced gamers".[3] Mark Brown from Pocket Gamer gave it a Silver Award and an 8 out of 10 score; he called it "creative, addictive, and absolutely packed with content", although he additionally criticised it for "feel[ing] a little too safe and predictable".[5] Chris Plante from Polygon called the main campaign "a fine distraction", heavily preferring the sandbox levels.[6]
Three people covered the game for VentureBeat. James Pikover, a critic, gave a score of 85 out of 100; he wrote that "depth of puzzles and creative building aspect will keep players hungrily coming back for more" but criticised the game's difficulty for not being designed for casual players.[7] Jesse Divnich, an analyst, gave a score of 75 out of 100, calling it "a sign that Rovio is still gun-shy on experimentation" and added that "its lack of aggressiveness into other genres is resulting in missed financial opportunities", considering it a "sane business decision" overall. Devin Monnens, an academic, gave a score of 90 out of 100 and praised its themes of inventing and engineering.[14]
Sequel
A sequel to Bad Piggies was conceptualised in 2019 when concept art depicting an outer space setting and a playing card system similar also seen in Angry Birds 2 (2015), though the concept was quickly abandoned. In 2021, Bad Piggies 2 was announced via three advertisements on TikTok.[15] In 2023, the game was soft launched in select European countries for iOS devices, with an Android version planned for later.[16]
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