Piglet’s Big Game

Little Piglet… Big Dreams!

NA release: 20th March 2003
EU release: 2nd July 2003
JP release: N/A
Developer: Doki Denki Studio
Publisher: Gotham Games
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: Widescreen Hack

A tie-in game to Piglet’s Big Movie, and one that actually adjusts the name properly for the game. This isn’t an adaptation of the film itself, but instead a unique game that takes the themes of the film – that small things can be brave – and creates a game around its concept. The developer’s ideas for the game seemed to create a spark within them, as you can see the passion in the final product, as it’s a game based on a kids film that treats the kids with respect.

Piglet’s Big Game is a horror game for kids, with inspiration taken from Luigi’s Mansion and Resident Evil. However, it comes across as something more like Eternal Darkness, focusing more on a feeling of uneasiness and dread as opposed to shock value. Even the music is ominous, with the game going viral many years after release after people noticing that one track has many similarities to a Silent Hill 2 remake track. It turns out, both tracks use the same noise sample in it, which certainly shows how well Piglet Big’s Game handled its atmosphere.

The game itself is fairly simple, mainly being a point and click adventure. Despite being a horror game, it’s still full of whimsy and charm, with a narrator explaining what is going on while also providing hints. None of the point and click puzzles will tax anyone, but the tone of the game still makes it pleasant to work though, despite plenty of backtracking. Each world has a unique theme, from the gloomy depths of Eeyore’s mind (featuring classical art and alcohol, like a troubled artist) to the colourful cardboard cut-out world of Roo’s dreams.

There are also enemies, but you don’t defeat them by attacking them, but rather than confronting them straight on. When you decide to “fight”, a path of dots will appear (you want to trigger the fight from the furthest distance) and you’ll be taken to a void of space as the heffalump or woozle walks towards Piglet. You’ll need to perform a bunch of button commands to make faces to scare them off. You never know how strong each creature is, as sometimes you need to perform multiple sequences. For some fights, you’ll need to be extremely quick and accurate for multiple complex sequences – it’s certainly no breeze.

You’ll also get to play as Tigger and Pooh a couple of times. Tigger has to sneak past enemies, while Pooh has to run past them all. The later sequences of these are quite difficult and tense, but then there’s an amazing sense of satisfaction when you return to Piglet and get to scare the enemies away, partly due to the qualities of the characters (they’re all played wonderfully by the proper actors). The camera for the entire game is a fixed camera, but it’s done really well where it never causes any problems, and gives you some great looking views.

While the gameplay is quite simple and repetitive, there’s something special about the tone of Piglet’s Big Game, as it nails the uneasiness and foreboding nature extremely well, and not just for a kids game. In many ways, it’s designed in a way where kids have to go through the same journey as Piglet, and believe in themselves to have the courage to progress. It’s something that could have easily been a low-effort cash-in (the PC version of Piglet’s Big Game is a terrible collection of four minigames), but people actually cared about this.

Fun

Even with the heavy-handedness of the message (Wham!) and Tigger’s snail’s-pace tiptoeing, I thoroughly enjoyed playing this game. I giggled at the different Heffalumps and Woozles and laughed out loud when Piglet made his faces. And let’s face it, not even the button mashing combinations could completely ruin it—although there was a lot of screaming on my part. The fun just never stopped. And for that, Piglet’s Big Game gets the FFC thumb up from me!
Toger, Tap Repeatedly

Remake or remaster?

A re-release with proper widescreen support would be nice.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Piglet’s Big Game.