By Andrew Reeves
Big Buck Hunter Pro aims to please the masses in this arcade style shooter
with a well crafted package that shows a lighter side of hunting. After spending
just a short amount of time with the app you'll notice, among other things, that
load times are impressively quick for the amount of graphics that get thrown on
to the screen for each aspect of the game. Getting into the game is a simple
choice between a single trek to one hunting area, or opting for the full hunting
adventure across three U.S. locations. Each trek will present five different
scenarios in which you have the opportunity to take down three Bucks by tapping
on the screen where you want to take a shot. You can fire as many rounds as you
want, but be careful, misses ding your accuracy score, and any shots that hit a
Doe will automatically end the round. Regardless of how well you do on each
trek, you'll have the opportunity for some extra points during the bonus round,
which consists of some old fashion duck hunt action or other rodent mutilation.
High scores can be tracked via the in-game leader board, or you can create a
Buck Hunter account to see how you stack up against the world. There is no
multi-player functionality built in, but a game in this genre rarely calls for
it, so no loss of points for the exclusion.
When I spoke of the load times earlier, some might think that these
impressive marks are achieved by loading lower quality textures or not focusing
on constant frame rate, but nothing could be farther from the truth for Big Buck
Hunter Pro. Considering the platform, they have crammed an impressive amount of
scenery and well-rendered wildlife into a continuously well performing
application. Adding on to this, the music tracks and voice acting is something
that simply has to be experienced firsthand. I imagine that the audio collection
from this game, consisting of a mix between twangy and heavier rock-country
guitar chords alongside a humorous voice track that will applaud your successes
and berate your failures will be greeted by two different types of people. The
ones who will feel right at home somewhere in the southern U.S., and the others
who will appreciate the game's ability to mock the stereotypes that come along
with some of the hunting community. The only real complaint I have about Big
Buck Hunter Pro is that hit detection, when you have tapped on the screen and
can see the gunshot burst animation over a target, seemed to somewhat
inconsistently not mark shots as 'hits' every few rounds (although the jury is
still out on whether or not this perception is related to my own slow and stupid
fingers).
Overall I give Big Buck Hunter Pro a thumbs up for its presentation. Whether
you're a diehard hunting fan or just looking to take out some aggression on a
few dozen forest creatures, you can't go wrong with spending the $0.99 this will
set you back to fulfill either of those needs. The initial treks may seem to
pass by pretty quickly, but it's the re-visiting of those sites to one up your
score or take down the one that got away that will have you coming back for
more.
Final Rating: 84%
