Retelling the Three Little Pigs is Mike Lorenzen’s Oink!, a 1983 Atari 2600 video game from Activision. Players assume the roles of the three little pigs and survive as long as they can against Bigelow B. Wolf’s antics. As the wolf huffs and puffs and tries to blow their houses down players lay down pieces of straw, wood, and bricks to rebuild where the wolf has destroyed. Although it looks as though the wolf is using his tongue, the manual ensures that he is huffing and puffing. Should he be able to create a large enough opening, he’ll be able to suck that piggy out and control transitions to the next one until all three are gone.

I did not much care for this game. It was visually quite good but the way the gameplay was executed seemed to favor the wolf. As a piggy I had to move much more than the wolf did and rebuilding was, understandably, a labor intensive task. While I’m not a fan when playing the computer, I do find it stellar with another player.

There are two multiplayer modes. The first is a score attack mode where the players alternate control of the pigs and try to outscore each other. That’s okay but it’s the mode where one player controls the pigs and the other controls the wolf that my friend and I had a good deal of fun with. Although the pigs still seem handicapped, it’s more competitive against a human opponent and can be a riotous affair.

With 5,000 points or more in the first game, the patch will be unlocked in Activision Anthology. Originally players had to achieve 25,000 points or more. I didn’t/won’t get either most likely.