It’s like knocking over dominoes with dynamite. It’s like “making it bacon”, but in a hilarious and not-so-yummy kind of way. The name of the game is Angry Birds, and you’ll be shooting a lot of them out of a slingshot to kill some evil green piggies in one of the most spectacularly stylish physics-based puzzle games to hit the iPhone thus far.
Premise
Birds love their eggs, and these disgusting green pigs stole some and made omelettes, so it’s time for revenge. The pigs think they’re safe in their various stone, glass, and wood fortifications, but they thought wrong. It turns out that the Big Bad Wolf has nothing on a set of angry birds, and they’ll do a lot more than blow a house down. The goal of the game is simple: complete each level by killing all of the pigs before you run out of birds to fire from your slingshot.
Controls
I’ve wrestled with the topic of Angry Birds’ controls for a little while now. On the one hand, they’re workable enough that I’ve been able to get about 80% through the game, but they’re definitely far from perfect. There are different kinds of birds (bombers, bombs, divers, scattershot, and regular), but you shoot them all from a slingshot on the left side of the level. The problem here is that the slingshot mechanic is very similar to the zooming and panning mechanic, so it’s far too easy to accidentally shoot a bird when all you meant to do was get a better look at the level.
Levels in Angry Birds are huge and there isn’t any sort of aiming assistance — you figure out the power and trajectory all by yourself, and this can vary based on the weight of each of the different kinds of birds. The game is still a lot of fun despite the crowded control set, but it could be a lot better if there were some dedicated camera controls or settings.
Bacon and Eggs
Angry Birds is a game that goes great with breakfast, but it can be enjoyed at any time of day, because smashing things into other things at high speeds is always fun.
The best part of Angry Birds is all of the personality that has been injected into almost every aspect of the gameplay. Enemy fortifications will break down differently depending on the building material, and the amazing variety in level design made sure I never got bored during my 3+ hours with the game. Certain levels can be taken down with brute force and fantastic explosions that level a whole building, while others require you to figure out very specific weak points in a structure and exercise great control over the flight paths of your birds. Reaching the end of any given stage is incredibly satisfying, and I always moved on to the next one feeling just a little bit more clever.
Conclusion (resisted Coinklusion – thank me later)
Angry Birds is a great mix of very cerebral gameplay (examining enemy fortifications and finding weak spots), hand-eye coordination (firing birds from a slingshot), and a very good sense of humour (you can’t NOT laugh at a moustached pig taking refuge under a glass castle), and it’s one of the best casual games I’ve played in a while. Not only is Angry Birds easy to get into, but the ridiculous number of unique level designs combined with the online scoreboards can keep you busy for days on end.
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Angry Birds is available for $0.99, though there is also a lite version you can try.
The game was provided by Chillingo for review on Just Another iPhone Blog. For further information regarding our site’s review policies, please see the “About” page.
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TAGS: chillingo, puzzle
