There are many dual stick shooters for the iPhone and iPod Touch out there, but as you guys probably all know, I just can’t get enough of them! It’s always great for me to see all those great dual stick shooters released onto the App Store!

However, a short while ago, Mac and White released a new game that they claimed could put even shoot em ups to shame! The game Is called Pingi and it is the first ever slap em up ever to be made.

You are Pingi, an ordinary penguin who has been asked by Santa to protect his presents. Naturally, you agree so the game begins.

Firstly, I’m going to say the graphics in this game are beautiful. Everything in this game is beautifully rendered in 3d and really caught my eye. Graphics wise, I can really not complain, except for the fact that the pile of presents never seems to get smaller even when presents have been stolen from it.

The controls are also really good. On the left, there is a joystick that controls moving, which always works for me, and to the right there can be up to two buttons: one to slap and one to pick up and throw snowballs. They work really well for me and I never have got any problems with them. I would like to have three buttons though, as when other penguins come and steal your presents, you have to get them back to the pile by first slapping the penguins to make them drop the present, then walking into the present to pick it up and bring it to the pile. The problem is, many times, I have had problems getting Pingi to pick up the presents. A third button that came on at those times would be handy.

The sound effects in this game are also nice. The music is a slightly edited instrumental of  (yes, another Christmas carol!) ‘we wish you a merry Christmas’. It works and makes the game feel a bit more fun in an inexplicable kind of way. The sound effects are also really great. The sound you make when you slap another penguin is very satisfying and the ‘ping’ sound you get when placing a present back in the pile also seems right.

Overall, this is an ok game, but it isn’t perfect. A problem that I’ve encountered is that I started on medium then got to a level, which I couldn’t pass. To this day, I still play that level, even when starting a new game on the easy difficulty. But otherwise, this app is a nice purchase and I do think it will please the casual and hardcore audience alike, due to multiple difficulty levels.

Overall rating
4/5 (very pretty and fun game, but it gets boring after a while)

Pingi on the App Store.