Naughty Bear Review

Sadistic killing is usually left to sadistic killers, but 505 had different plans for their off the wall rampage game. Instead of letting humans terrorize each other, Naughty Bear has you in control of a revenge seeking bear, intent on killing all the bears that didn't invite you to the party.

Naughty Bear, once you get down to it, is really just an enhanced version of PAC-MAN. The map is a simple forest setting with paths that go in all sorts of directions. Like PAC-MAN, there are little things to collect while you walk (cupcakes) and killing enemy bears requires you to pick up weapons that last for a set amount of time. Each level has a different requirement, but all boil down to killing X number of bears or collecting X number of cupcakes.

The thrill of the game though isn't the simple task of killing and collecting, it's making quality kills. The weapons that you collect are varied in nature, and if you run head-on into an enemy bear or meet it by a special item -- for example, the bbq pit-- you'll do a special kill. The kills are all way over the top, sort of reminding me of the ending of Duke Nukem, where he pops off the enemies head and, well, you can look it up.

Even with the over-the-top kills though, it's hard to not notice the game's flaws. For one, the controls are pretty clunky. Instead of a D-Pad, Naughty Bear has you just tap in the direction that you'd like your bear to go. It sounds easy enough, but the system is fairly imprecise and could use an overhaul. The other major issue was with the weapon variety. For example, at one point I found a stick to kill bears with, and then found three bears in a line to kill. Because I was using the same weapon, each bear died with the exact same death scene, kind of ruining the whole experience. Naughty Bear could really use either more weapons or some death variations. I like the whole death scene concept, but it has to be changed up every once in a while.

For a quick iPhone romp, Naughty Bear really isn't a bad selection. It doesn't have a ton of depth and the whole gameplay aspect is lacking, but it is fairly entertaining.