Game Review: Tough Man (Mobile – Free to Play)

Although it is obviously quite different, Tough Man reminds me of Alpaca Evolution. In that game you tapped the screen to consume other alpaca’s until you could transform. Each new transformation requiring more and more creatures to be consumed and each transformation more and more horrific.

It was different but extremely repetitive with the only real replay value coming from seeing what kind of monstrosity would come with the next transformation.

In Tough Man, you hold your finger on the screen and let go to stop the pointer in the green or purple area to have your muscle-bound man lift weights. Do this to earn points that get added to your total bar. Fill it and he will transform, each new level requiring more points and each new transformation that little more horrifying.

There’s little else to it. Yet, Tough Man is far more addictive with far more replay value.

The big difference being that you never have to wait to carry on. If you have an hour spare you just sit there playing it over and over again until you’ve created something truly outrageous.

The appeal comes from seeing what he will transform into next. The first couple just sees him bulk up in the muscle department but by time you reach level 25, things have gone off the rails. It never gets spectacular ala Alpaca Evolution but it does get interesting.

As well as earning points (stop your marker in the small and tricky purple areas to pump the iron faster and earn more), you can also earn coins. These are spent on changing weights, new ones being heavier so increasing your overall score as you go on. There’s a ton of variety in them and it is kind of amusing to go from lifting weights to lifting over-sized hotdogs to lifting a man in a bathtub.

However, no matter how you put it, Tough Man is the same thing over and over again. After level 15 it starts to really get monotonous and after level 25, the transformations become so average, it’s probably where most will quit.

The developer suggests that it has endless upgrade levels but it’s unlikely many will go much further than level 30 to find out.