Following on the heals of my other bird related puzzle game review, I picked up what is currently the most popular app on the iTunes store, Angry Birds.

Angry Birds is about a group of pigs who grew tired of eating grass and have turned to eating the eggs of their neighboring birds. As you can imagine, the birds did not take kindly to this.

As the group of justifiably pissed off birds, it is up to you to take revenge on the evil green pigs. This is accomplished by sling-shotting yourself at the pigs, who have taken up residence in various block structures. The structures vary from small platforms to elaborate fortresses and are made of materials that all react differently to your attacks; from glass to wood to stone.

Angry Birds is a physics based puzzle game. Using the touch screen, you pull back on the slingshot to determine your power and angle, then let your birds fly. You have a limited number of birds per level to take out all the pigs, and you are awarded bonus points for any birds you did not use. But it’s not just a one note battle.

Some of the enemies are very well protected within the walls of various structures. Some (as pictured above) even have helmets on, protecting them from being taken out from minor hits. More often than not, you have to start chain reactions that make their fortresses crumble around them. Sure, a direct hit will take out the one pig you hit, but it’s much better to take out three or four pigs with one bird (not quite as catchy as two birds with one stone, I know).

Fortunately, you have more to your arsenal than a regular old bird shot (pun intended). You have blue birds that can break up into three smaller shots by tapping the screen after launch, yellow birds that will take off at high speed at their current trajectory, bomb birds that explode after impact, and even birds that you can tap to shoot an egg straight down at high velocity to do massive damage to the pigs and their fortresses.

Angry Birds is exactly the kind of puzzle game I like. It is very simple in both design and concept, but extremely well executed. The cartoonish aesthetic adds a lot of personality to the whole package. From the birds’ angry expressions to the pigs sneers when you lose, it really sucks you in to the experience. Seeing the evil smile on those little piggy faces will irk you in the same way Duck Hunt’s laughing dog did.

Because the levels allow for you to replay them over and over for a high score, it is incredibly addictive. The addition of a friends list and leaderboards really adds to the feeling that you can squeeze a slightly higher score out of a given level by playing “just one more game”. And at only 99 cents, you really can’t go wrong picking up Angry Birds.

This review was based off a copy of Angry Birds for the iPod Touch / iPhone purchased by the reviewer.

Tags: angry birds, iPhone, puzzle games, Rovio

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 10:50 am and is filed under Indie Games, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.