Safari Rescue Review

So, Safari Rescue is pretty weird. It starts out weird and quite comfortably stays weird forever more. For instance, pretty much all the Game Center achievements unlock as soon as one starts the game. That's not a bug either. As the developer has explained, it's simply because it's nice to be rewarded.

Safari Rescue continues that oddly positive trend, even despite the fact that it potentially offers a pretty dark subject matter. Players are, technically, rescuing animals with a giant net but don't expect any animal to have actually lived by the time the level is done. It doesn't matter how the animal fits into the net or how it's dumped on the helipad at the end of a level, it counts as a victory.

It keeps things steadily lighthearted though, mostly through how the animals are used. While zebras, giraffes, and monkeys might stay calmly waiting for rescue, it's a different story with kangaroos and lions. Kangaroos constantly bounce, making them tricky to catch, while lions leap towards the helicopter attempting to take it down. Elephants are ridiculously over-sized, getting in the way of mostly everything, while a sole bee can take down a helicopter. Yup, Safari Rescue is pretty daft.

It's unfortunate then that Safari Rescue's controls let it down a little. There's a choice of three different methods encompassing tilt, swipe, and touch. The default method, touch, is the best one to use, although it still takes some figuring out. At times the helicopter will go flying up into the air for seemingly no reason, but I have a weird suspicion that it's meant to.

Safari Rescue doesn't always work, given it's pretty repetitive, but it's hard to dislike such silliness. Its charm is curiously infectious, even if it might not be the kind of game that will be played for hours on end.