Iron Snout – PS Vita | Review

By James Perry
| 24th April 2019
| PS Vita, Review
| 0

Developed by SnoutUp Games and published by Ratalaika Games Iron Snout puts the little piggy at the centre of this simple fighting game. No longer do the little pigs need to build houses to protect themselves. This piggy has spent some time studying martial arts instead of worrying about building straw houses.

So, let me get this out of the way first. I completed this game in about 90 minutes and that includes getting the platinum. Therefore, this game sits firmly in the complete in one sitting category. The shortness of the game pushed me to play this game on my Vita, it hasn’t been out in a while, and I am glad I did.

You are a pig fighting off waves of wolves across 3 different 2D backdrops. Your battle arenas are a road, the forest and finally the deck of a pirate ship. 2 of these will require you to fulfil a number of kills before they unlock. There is no movement in this game as you stand in a single spot punching, kicking, jumping and ducking as wave after wave of wolves come at you.

The D-pad and action buttons control the attacks you make. Enemies approach from the left or right of the screen with the odd flying enemy here and there. You need to time your attacks right with certain enemies as well as paying attention to items being thrown at you. Let too many enemies build up and you will find yourself very quickly overwhelmed as you can only hit one side at a time.

Enemies vary from rocket riding ones to chainsaw wielding wolves. You start to learn their attacks after a few encounters which will help you build better hit combos and final kill counts. You can catch and throw items that you knock out of enemy hands. Apart from that combat is limited to punching and kicking.

There are no super attacks for high hit combos or special powers to unlock. Killing a certain number of enemies or using items to kill enemies will slowly unlock skins for your pig so you can battle wolves dressed as Santa. However, with the Platinum being achieved so quickly and there being no trophies for specific types of kills I am not sure many will stick round to unlock all the skins.

There are 3 modes to try on the maps. These include classic where you face off for as long as you and your 8 health can last or a sudden death mode where you have just a single health to survive for as long as you can. However, once you have unlocked all 3 backdrops you have probably seen everything there is. Add this to the quick pop for the trophies and there isn’t too much motivation to come back to this game.

Visually the game is bright and fun. The controls are responsive which you need to keep yourself alive. It is a shame that there aren’t more backdrops to unlock and with them only being a single screen and no character movement I can’t see why this wasn’t the case. Games are quick and the addiction comes from wanting to beat your previous score.

Final Impressions

There is nothing wrong with Iron Snout. It is a quick and fun game to pick up and play on the move with the Vita. I am not sure it would win any time on my main screen and the PS4, but I don’t think that is a problem. The game functions well and you will certainly up your trophy score pretty quickly. I just wish there was perhaps a bit more there to keep me coming back. Overall, an enjoyable game for any Vita owners still out there.

*Code kindly provided by the publisher for review*

Developer: Snoutup Games / Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Release date:
Platforms: PS4, PS Vita
Platform Reviewed: PS Vita