Crasher Squirrel

When I spotted Crasher Squirrel my first instinct was to put it under the WTF category because I thought it was just gonna be stupid, but as it turns out it’s stupid and well done and it’s even mildly amusing so I’ll spare it the WTF label.

When I spotted Crasher Squirrel my first instinct was to put it under the WTF category because I thought it was just gonna be stupid, but as it turns out it’s stupid and well done and it’s even mildly amusing so I’ll spare it the WTF label. Crasher Squirrel is basically a poor man’s version of Hendrik Kueck’s Juxtaposer, but instead of mashing together two photos you’re just slapping a squirrel onto your pics.

There’s nothing terribly fancy going on here, but United Playcos did a nice job of making the squirrel move and resize with two-finger gestures and you can also erase/unerase squirrel parts as you see fit. This last bit is important because erasing portions of the squirrel does a lot for integrating the furry little guy into photos in ways that are a lot funnier and more creative than if he’s just standing there in the foreground like an idiot.

Crasher Squirrel handles landscape photos well, although at first glance it seems like your landscape pics might not come out quite right (check out the screenshots to see what I mean). All finished products have a Crasher Squirrel caption added to the corner which I find kind of annoying… if the app were free I could understand this move, but you’re paying for it so I think the app promotion should definitely be optional.

Another thing that I’d like to see is a choice of different squirrel lighting. The lone squirrel featured in this app has light hitting his right side which is great if the pic you’re crashing is similar, but a neutrally-lit critter would be more all-purpose. In a perfect world you’d be able to choose a squirrel based on the photo’s lighting situation (indoors, dark with flash, light from left, light from right, etc.) but this is a joke app, after all, so I kind of doubt any developer would be willing to go to such lengths to go squirrel crashing.

United Playcos has made a solid app, though, and if you’d prefer to crash with monkies or bunny wabbits or something else I’d recommend you let them know… putting out different versions of this app doesn’t sound very difficult and they might even do it if enough people ask. If squirrels suit you just fine, though, paying a buck for this app seems pretty fair.

iTunes Link – Crasher Squirrel
Version 1.0
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1