Play as an alligator as you eat prey and grow bigger to eat even larger prey in this endless cycle of a 3-D game.  There’s a story about an organization doing experiments on alligators in the swamp and you have to stop them, but it doesn’t seem to matter much in the minute to minute gameplay.  Angry Alligator is available on Switch and PS4, but reviewed on Switch here.

You’ll first pick a color for your gator and then start out as a baby.  You’ll learn the basics from Wisecroc before he sends you out into the world.  You can run around and bite nearby prey to eat them with the B button.  Another button swings your tail for an attack.  When you eat animals, you’ll gain experience points and fill your ever diminishing hunger meter.  When you gain enough experience points, you’ll level up and eventually become bigger and faster.  You can crawl on land and swim in the water, as well as hide in tall grass to sneak away from hunter drones and animals bigger than you.  You have goals that you can view where they are via a map.  Or at least the vague whereabouts anyway.  As you travel, you must constantly eat because if your hunger meter goes down to zero, it’s Game Over and you’ll have to start back at the last time the game automatically saved.  You must also watch out for bigger animals and humans that can attack you and cause your energy to go down as well.  Run out of energy and it’s Game Over that way, too.

Unfortunately the game has way too many problems to keep me interested.  Goals and objectives are very unclear, and the constant need to eat food makes the game frustrating.  Especially when you can’t find any.  Graphics are N64 quality or if I’m being generous, early PS2.  But the worst part is the camera angles and controls.  They’re worse than any N64 game I ever played, and I found myself wrestling with the camera more than actually controlling the alligator.  And it affected the gameplay, too.  Angry Alligator just isn’t a very good game.

Kid Factor:

Angry Alligator is rated E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence.  You can eat animals and presumably even humans later, but they just disappear with a chomp of your jaws.  If you run out of energy, the game just abruptly sends you to the Game Over screen before starting you at the last save.  Reading skill is needed for the text, and younger gamers may find it too frustrating.

Tags: Game Reviews