Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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Angry Birds Review
★★★★★
After having had their eggs stolen from right beneath their beaks, this flock of pissed-off birds has enlisted in your help to exact revenge, kamikaze-style. You must help them slingshot their way to victory.
Title: Angry Birds | Developer: Rovio Mobile | Genre: Brain & Puzzle, Action |
Players: 1 | Version: 1.3.5 | Size: 12.2MB | Price: Free
Click QRC image (from phone) or scan with a barcode reader.
Games that involve grumpy animals going to extreme measures (including using themselves as cannon-fodder) in order to exact revenge always seem to make me smile... and Angry Birds is no exception. I have to admit, I gave this game 1/4 of a star just because of its hilariously over-the-top concept.
In Angry Birds, a group of militant swine have pilfered eggs from the wrong peeps. Do pigs even eat eggs? Little did the sows know, these birds are willing to use every tool at their disposal to show them who's boss. You have been summoned by the disgruntled birds, as the hand of God, in order to operate the Sacred Slingshot - a tool of last resort. Using the slingshot, combined with the various aerial maneuvers granted to each avian species (tap the screen), you'll launch birds one-by-one with the solitary goal of bludgeoning the enemy to death. The pigs won't make your objective easy, however, as they've fortified themselves in crude structures of glass, wood, and stone. At the end of the day, Angry Birds feels a lot like Jenga would - if you played it from forty-feet away, using a slingshot. You'll need to plan (slightly) your attacks, making sure to hit the weak-points in the structure that either a) collapse on the pigs, or b) leave them exposed so your next bird can make a direct-hit. Easier said than done.
There are three stages in Angry Birds, each with twenty-one levels. For you math whiz's, that's sixty-three levels of killing-enjoyment! In the time I played, I discovered three types of birds: blue, red, and yellow. By tapping the screen (anywhere) in mid-flight, the blue bird splits into three, raining down feathery-chaos upon the structures (or pigs) below. Blue birds are most useful in laying-waste to glass. Red birds have exceptionally hard noggins, and are best launched at weak-points in structures to make things collapse or shove bits out of the way. Yellow birds get a turbo-boost, and will tear-through wood (and pigs) if properly aimed. On occasion, you'll also crash into a random Easter-egg item allowing you to unlock and play a special level that's separate from the rest. The one I played involved beach balls.
Every level has its own high-score, as well as a potential three-star rating for efficiency. Similar to Xbox Achievements, this star mechanism will motivate you perfectionists to keep coming back for more.
Controls
You can scroll the screen horizontally to get a better feel for the pigs you're up against, or pinch to zoom-out. I find the zoomed-out view the easiest to use for targeting, since you get the whole picture. Unfortunately, the screen seems to "stick" on either the slingshot or the pig-structure, which makes it difficult to zoom the screen to fit the entire scenario into view without zooming all the way out. This really got annoying for me, and is my biggest gripe with the game. The slingshot works perfectly, and I haven't had any problems with premature-release as some other Market users have reported.
Graphics
The objects in Angry Birds, especially the foreground structures, can get a bit rudimentary-looking and angular, but for the most part the game is nice and cartoony. I saw no pixellation or distortion. The puff-trails that your birds leave-behind are a nice way to gauge your next shot, but it's difficult to see the white trails against the powder-blue sky. I love the fact that the birds all hop and dance in line while waiting for their turn at the slingshot. Each major stage has a new background, which leaves me feeling a bit stagnant after twenty levels of the same background. It would've been nice to switch-it up more often.
Sound
Sounds are great, from the background music to all the bird and pig chatter. No complaints here.
Options
You can mute and un-mute the sound, but that's about it in terms of options. Strangely, every time I load Angry Birds for the first time, the game defaults to muted.
Verdict
Angry Birds is a fabulous time-waster, and always leaves me in a good mood when I'm done playing. The bird-abilities add a nice bit of variety to an otherwise straightforward game of catapult, and the "achievement" system will likely keep you interested for a little while longer. This game is free, as of this review, but I hear this is only a promotional thing. You really can't lose by downloading such a great game at no cost.
Get Angry Birds on AppBrain!
After having had their eggs stolen from right beneath their beaks, this flock of pissed-off birds has enlisted in your help to exact revenge, kamikaze-style. You must help them slingshot their way to victory.Title: Angry Birds | Developer: Rovio Mobile | Genre: Brain & Puzzle, Action |
Players: 1 | Version: 1.3.5 | Size: 12.2MB | Price: Free
Click QRC image (from phone) or scan with a barcode reader.Games that involve grumpy animals going to extreme measures (including using themselves as cannon-fodder) in order to exact revenge always seem to make me smile... and Angry Birds is no exception. I have to admit, I gave this game 1/4 of a star just because of its hilariously over-the-top concept.
In Angry Birds, a group of militant swine have pilfered eggs from the wrong peeps. Do pigs even eat eggs? Little did the sows know, these birds are willing to use every tool at their disposal to show them who's boss. You have been summoned by the disgruntled birds, as the hand of God, in order to operate the Sacred Slingshot - a tool of last resort. Using the slingshot, combined with the various aerial maneuvers granted to each avian species (tap the screen), you'll launch birds one-by-one with the solitary goal of bludgeoning the enemy to death. The pigs won't make your objective easy, however, as they've fortified themselves in crude structures of glass, wood, and stone. At the end of the day, Angry Birds feels a lot like Jenga would - if you played it from forty-feet away, using a slingshot. You'll need to plan (slightly) your attacks, making sure to hit the weak-points in the structure that either a) collapse on the pigs, or b) leave them exposed so your next bird can make a direct-hit. Easier said than done.
There are three stages in Angry Birds, each with twenty-one levels. For you math whiz's, that's sixty-three levels of killing-enjoyment! In the time I played, I discovered three types of birds: blue, red, and yellow. By tapping the screen (anywhere) in mid-flight, the blue bird splits into three, raining down feathery-chaos upon the structures (or pigs) below. Blue birds are most useful in laying-waste to glass. Red birds have exceptionally hard noggins, and are best launched at weak-points in structures to make things collapse or shove bits out of the way. Yellow birds get a turbo-boost, and will tear-through wood (and pigs) if properly aimed. On occasion, you'll also crash into a random Easter-egg item allowing you to unlock and play a special level that's separate from the rest. The one I played involved beach balls.
Every level has its own high-score, as well as a potential three-star rating for efficiency. Similar to Xbox Achievements, this star mechanism will motivate you perfectionists to keep coming back for more.
Controls
You can scroll the screen horizontally to get a better feel for the pigs you're up against, or pinch to zoom-out. I find the zoomed-out view the easiest to use for targeting, since you get the whole picture. Unfortunately, the screen seems to "stick" on either the slingshot or the pig-structure, which makes it difficult to zoom the screen to fit the entire scenario into view without zooming all the way out. This really got annoying for me, and is my biggest gripe with the game. The slingshot works perfectly, and I haven't had any problems with premature-release as some other Market users have reported.
Graphics
The objects in Angry Birds, especially the foreground structures, can get a bit rudimentary-looking and angular, but for the most part the game is nice and cartoony. I saw no pixellation or distortion. The puff-trails that your birds leave-behind are a nice way to gauge your next shot, but it's difficult to see the white trails against the powder-blue sky. I love the fact that the birds all hop and dance in line while waiting for their turn at the slingshot. Each major stage has a new background, which leaves me feeling a bit stagnant after twenty levels of the same background. It would've been nice to switch-it up more often.
Sound
Sounds are great, from the background music to all the bird and pig chatter. No complaints here.
Options
You can mute and un-mute the sound, but that's about it in terms of options. Strangely, every time I load Angry Birds for the first time, the game defaults to muted.
Verdict
Angry Birds is a fabulous time-waster, and always leaves me in a good mood when I'm done playing. The bird-abilities add a nice bit of variety to an otherwise straightforward game of catapult, and the "achievement" system will likely keep you interested for a little while longer. This game is free, as of this review, but I hear this is only a promotional thing. You really can't lose by downloading such a great game at no cost.
Get Angry Birds on AppBrain!
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