Parents' Guide to Bacon Escape

With increasingly clever, dangerous parts for you to manipulate, this clever puzzler is fun for any prison escapee, regardless of age or species. In Bacon Escape, a pig has broken out of jail and is now in a cart on a series of roller coaster-like tracks that, presumably, are taking him to freedom -- but whoever built it is clearly sadistic, because there are parts that have spikes, electrical traps, poison gas, and even gaps that will drop poor piggy to his doom. As his protector, you have to switch these dangerous track pieces on and off so he can glide past them to safety. You can also switch some sections so they take him to different parts of the track or make him jump and grab the gold coins floating above. Oh, and did we mention that piggy's cart keeps moving even if an upcoming spiked track hasn't been swapped for a flat one? All of this makes this game feel a lot like the mine cart parts of the Donkey Kong Country games (which is a good thing, because those were often the best parts of those games). In fact, the only bummer is how, when your pig gets poked, you can't just start over right away; you have to eat some apples you've earned or watch a 30-second ad, which gets tiresome after a while. Even with this annoyance, though, Bacon Escape is still a challenging and creative game that will keep you occupied for three to five years -- less with good behavior.