Gamelist / Trucks and Skulls

Many people out there probably wouldn't purchase an iPhone game called Trucks & Skulls because, well, it's called Trucks and Skulls.  I, on the other hand, spent the .99 cents specifically because of its crappy title and the promises of trucks and skulls within.  Unfortunately, the only way to describe this game is as a Trucked and Skulled version of Angry Birds.  Now, that doesn't mean I don't like the game.  Let's break it down.

Okay, so you have the gameplay, which is pretty much identical to Angry Birds.  If you're familiar with Angry Birds, the Trucks are the Birds and the Skulls are the Pigs.  If you're not familiar with Angry Birds, let me give you a little more to go on:  Trucks & Skulls is a problem solving puzzle game where you are given a certain amount of and different types of Trucks to dismantle the protective layers of glass, ice and steel around these skulls. 

Each truck available to players has an activated power that you tap the screen to use in order to defeat the evil skulls.  Just plop your index finger down on the launch pad, pull back, aim, and fire away your truck.  Tap the screen once more mid-air to activate the truck’s power-up, destroy all of the skulls before you run out of trucks and you move on to the next level!

Overall, Appy Entertainment's done a pretty good job of recreating the level of fun and addiction that Angry Birds brings into our lives, but it will always be just sort of a step down from the original.  The touch commands on the game are sometimes unreliable, and you'll fire your yellow monster truck with an activated speed boost directly into the ground when that was most definitely not your intention.   However, the control problems are so minor that, until you play Angry Birds, you just think it's being like almost every other .99 cent iPhone game on the market: Buggy.  The music is fun when you first start out playing, but it does get boring and repetitive as it is just several of the same guitar riffs, clouded in distortion, over and over again.  I found the visuals to be quite charming, with their Hot Wheels-esque appearances and cartoonish vibe.  Perhaps the only advantage Trucks & Skulls has over Angry Birds are the explosions!  In Angry Birds, can you hurdle a semi-truck into the air, make it spin, crash it through two layers of ice and a layer of steel and into a pyramid of stacked TNT?  Nay.

Appy Entertainment put in a solid effort with Trucks & Skulls, but you can't just be the new king when the king still sits in his throne.  If you're done with Angry Birds, Angry Birds Halloween and Angry Birds Seasons, then absolutely, check out Trucks and Skulls and see what it's all about.  It's a 99 cent download that's well worth the money you pay for it, but it ain't perfect.