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‘Enviro-Bear 2010’ Updated with Widescreen Support… and Otters?

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I have a folder of games on my iPhone which I refer to as the “Please please please I would do anything to have you updated for widescreen" folder. Front and center in that folder is Justin Smith’s Enviro-Bear 2010 ($1.99), and today my prayers have been answered. The game was updated with proper widescreen support for 4-inch devices as well as support for iOS 7. And, if previous updates are anything to go by, there might even be some weird hidden stuff tucked in there as well.

To fully understand why Enviro-Bear 2010 was at the top of my list of most-wanted updates, you have to go back to the very beginning. It was July of 2009, and a quirky Flash game called Enviro-Bear 2000 made the jump to the iOS App Store. It first drew attention from folks in our forums for a couple of reasons. First, it was a game about a bear driving a car, so what’s not to like about that? The second thing was that the graphics looked like a fourth grader’s MS Paint project, and immediately drew sarcastic comparisons to Real Racing, the graphical benchmark for iOS games at the time. Here’s a video of the Flash version to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

Here’s the thing, though. Once you got past the “so hilariously bad it’s good" novelty factor of Enviro-Bear 2010, you found that there was actually a surprisingly deep and challenging game lying underneath. The game is unapologetically hard, and trying to drive a car as a bear goes about as smoothly as you’d expect a bear driving a car in real life to go. It was a learning process though, and eventually you’d stumble across strategies that allowed you to get further and further into the game. It’s a very satisfying experience.

However, it’s also a very polarizing game. Some people just couldn’t “click" with Enviro-Bear 2010 and couldn’t for the life of them figure out how other people were enjoying it so much. It has sparked many threads in our forums where members passionately debate whether Envrio-Bear is actually a good game or if it’s all just some big joke. If you fall into the category that’s not crazy about Enviro-Bear, then this latest update doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, but for Enviro-Bear die-hards like myself this will likely be the best news you’ve had all week.

envirobear

The last major update to the game was way back in 2011 when it went Universal with iPad support, and the game played wonderfully on the larger iPad screen. I’m equally excited to see it get proper widescreen support, and can’t wait to waste away the rest of my day digging into this update to see if there’s any additional hidden features, like the magic mushroom or the golden fish. The update description mentions otters, so, there’s otters now apparently. At any rate, if you’re an Enviro-Bear nut go nab this latest update, and if you missed the boat five years ago and are curious about what the best Bear Driving Simulator is on the App Store, Enviro-Bear 2010 is by far the winner.

  • Enviro-Bear 2010

    Who is driving that car? Oh my God, a Bear is Driving! How can that Be?! How to play: * Grab stuff with your finger. *…
    $1.99
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