Sausage Bomber Review

Sausage Bomber is game that could not have a more literal title if it had tried, as the gameplay of the game is dropping “sausage bombs!” The studio behind this title is Katsu Entertainment, who released the title in May 2016.

First off, I’m going to make a start on the least important part of the game: the story! With iOS games, they tend to be a touch hit and miss with the story, with Sausage Bomber being no real exception. The story exists for the sole reason to be doing what you’re doing, rather than just letting you get on with it, similar to that of an arcade game. When you load up the game for the first time, you’re treated to a short cutscene; explaining that the enemy that has invaded your country and needs to be stopped. Unfortunately, no such weapon has been able to put a stop to the invasion, that is until they develop the sausage bomb. Somehow, this bomb can tear through both structures, as well as fully-armoured tanks, all at the drop of hat. That’s the entire story you’re treated to within Sausage Bomber, and as I said before, it exists only to give the player some reasoning on why they’re doing this.

Moving onto gameplay, Sausage Bomber plays a lot like Angry Birds, except instead of slingshotting birds across a field, you’re dropping sausage bombs from the air. Before you’re thrust into a real level, the game will treat you to a tutorial, where it will teach you that all there is to the actual gameplay is tapping the screen once to drop a sausage bomb. When it comes to controls, Sausage Bomber makes sure to keep things nice and simple for the player yet manages to include a few mechanics to make for a fun time.

At first, when you tap the screen to drop a bomb, it will proceed to leave the plane and fall down to the right, and requires you to time the drops or else you might not get the kind of reaction you’re looking for; with emphasis on “reaction!” The reason I say this is that whenever you land on a tank, it will proceed to explode and make everything around it launch into the air, flip around, before eventually landing and exploding. This is where the real meat of the game comes in.
Depending on how many times a flying tank does a flip, you’ll increase the amount of score you earn, and if you’re explosions are considerably epic, you can even get a juggle combo for launching the same tank in the air. It doesn’t matter how many times you go through this, the reaction you receive from the explosions are unique almost every single run, and make for one darn fun light show.

To keep things interesting, there are a number of different bomb types for you to sink your teeth into. There’s one that doesn’t bounce, but slides along the floor upon hitting the ground. There’s a teeny-tiny one that bounces like a jack-rabbit during Easter. There is a giant one that is very slow moving, but rolls over tanks and buildings like a monster truck. Lastly, you have your typical sausage bomb that bounces a little bit, slides a little bit, but mostly doesn’t do anything too special in comparison to the others.

Surprisingly in a game of this type, there is an in-game currency for you to purchase one of two items; none of them being upgrades, however. Firstly, there’s the cosmetic paint jobs you can purchase to change the look of your plane, with that being literally it. It doesn’t affect speed, drop rate or anything like that and is purely visual. The second purchase you can make is a special type of bomb that will clear any level for you if you decide to use it. It’s quite useful for those tricky levels that you just can’t seem to finish.

As you can probably tell by now, score is what you’ll be aiming for on each of these levels, similar to Angry Birds. The fewer bombs you use; the higher score you will earn and you will earn extra points if you manage to complete the level with only one bomb. Once all tanks are destroyed, the level will end and you will be treated to your final score and one of three medals: bronze, silver, or gold. For any completionists out there, expect to have plenty of fun and enjoyment with this one, as getting all of the gold medals can be quite the enjoyable venture.

So far I’ve seen few issues with the game, with the exception of occasional slow down due to all of the explosions on screen, and this is on an iPhone 5S. So, if you’re on an earlier model of an iOS device, then be wary that the frame rate could be a little patchy in places.

For me, though, the real issue wasn’t the occasional spout of lag; it was the lack of levels. There are about 30 levels in the game right now, which didn’t take me any longer than an hour at most. While it is a shame that the game is considerably lacking levels right now, on the overworld, where you choose which level you want to go onto; there are a number of other countries that say “coming soon”, which demonstrates that the developer has plans on adding some new levels in the future.

Even though it is good to see that they intend to add more levels in the future, I feel for a title that you have to pay for, you should be getting the whole product; rather than 25% of it. I would much rather have waited a few more months for them to finish off the rest of the levels, instead of leaving players with a subpar amount of gameplay for the price.

Aesthetically, Sausage Bomber has this department down. The backgrounds in the game look gorgeous and vibrant, and they are a visual treat every time you load up a level. Explosions – something you’re going to be seeing often – look nice and won’t be something you find yourself getting bored of very quickly.

Overall, Sausage Bomber in terms of gameplay, mechanics, and visuals is all really good and enjoyable, but the only thing dragging the game down at the moment is the current lack of levels. I’m hoping that the game will be updated with new levels soon enough, so I have an excuse to hop back onto the game.