Tornado Jockey

If you’re a gamer, casual or not, you’ve played the role of elves, dwarves, giant robots, gods and a lot more, but have you played that of a tornado? Probably not, which is why Tornado Jockey is something you have to try out.

The goal of the game is very simple: using your mouse you have to guide a baby tornado, 0 on the Fujita scale, and have it inflict as much damage as possible to the surrounding world. There is a fixed number of objectives which you have to completely obliterate to be able to advance to the next level but if you move fast and get extra time, you can use it to demolish even more stuff.

Rip trees from their roots, take billboards up into the air and pull out houses off their foundations and then use them as projectiles to smash even more stuff. General in-game destruction is really nice but Tornado Jockey makes it even more so. Since everything around is destroyable, you can enjoy yourself going over a cow farm or a nuclear bomb launch site to pick up some ‘ammo’, and what’s better, you can combine the aforementioned to get a funny Armageddon-class combo.

The scientific minds of the digital world in which you unleash the prodigy of natural disasters have managed to come up with some clever devices and ways of reducing the tornado’s strength and damage. Throughout each level you will have to keep an eye out for Ray Cannons and other contraptions that can considerably slow your destruction-spree.

To handle your business, there are some interesting power-ups to pick up such as flames to convert your twister into a firestorm. Running over crop circles brings a UFO to your aid that can easily blast police helicopters and other foes. Apart from destroying nuclear power plants, gas stations and hot-air balloon shows, you will also have to feed on tiny tornadoes so you can grow to at least an F4 or F5 category tornado.

Tornado Jockey, apart from offering quite the dose of fun, actually teaches you a lot about how tornadoes work and how dangerous they are. Before each level, apart from a summary of the enemies you encounter, you get some actual facts about tornadoes.