iPhone App Video Review: Extinction Squad

Extinction Squad is the latest and greatest [adult swim] published game. They’ve partnered with developer Pik Pok once again, who were also involved with Monsters Ate My Condo and Bring Me Sandwiches!! It’s a hilarious and gruesome title with great, colorful art, nice music, and highly addictive gameplay.

This is definitely up there as far as [adult swim] games go, offering a lot of fun and replayability thanks to the in-game store. It takes a little too long to unlock content and the app constantly encourages you to buy things, but I assure you all purchases are optional. You can save up for everything naturally.

After an explorer named Chuck Darwin goes out and discovers that the Dodo bird is not actually extinct, all hell breaks loose in the animal kingdom. All the endangered species of the world would rather throw themselves off cliffs than deal with the Dodos. It’s up to you to save them firefighter-style with a big trampoline. Otherwise they’ll hit the ground with a nice bloody splat. Different animals have different falling patterns, and as you’re juggling them, you’ll have to deal with collectibles and bombs as well.

The game is split into two modes. In Adventure mode, your goal is to save constantly increasing numbers of animals as you move from region to region. You can afford to let plenty of animals splat, as long as you don’t die yourself. However, letting them fall will break your score multiplier, which is always important. In Countdown mode, you’re racing against the clock, and can’t really afford to let them go splat at all. Special power-ups, such as animal magnets and bomb shields, will be randomly thrown to you from off-screen along with coins and various other goodies.

At first it seems like coins are hard to come by, but then you’ll get some tokens used to spin the Wild Wheel. This wheel offers all kinds of huge rewards, and it won’t be long before you amass enough coins to unlock new levels in different parts of the world or permanent upgrades to your power-ups. Of course, you can always buy coins in-app if that’s your thing, but some patience pays off in this game. It always helps to be lucky, though!

The aesthetics and sound design are all top of the line, and everything aims to make you smile and laugh, from the animations to the brutal deaths to the whacky sound effects. I especially loved the bonus segments in which you bounce a massive whale for as long as you can, with some rather messy end results. Game Center achievements and leaderboards are both supported, and while buying coins in-app can definitely give you an edge on the leaderboards, the game is still mostly skill based. Extinction Squad is iOS Universal and available for just one dollar at the time of this review. I fully recommend it as a great way to kill some free time and hundreds of endangered animals.

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