iPhone App: Angry Birds

March 15th, 2010

= 4 stars

Take revenge on the green pigs by launching angry birds at their towers.

The Good

• Simple gameplay: tap the sling shot and drag up or down to aim at the right side of the screen. Lifting your finger launches the angry bird at a tower at the far right. Watch the results and plan your next move. Your goal is to eliminate all the green pigs hidden within each tower to pass the level.
• Increasing challenge results from more complex level design. The towers you must destroy are built of rocks, glass, and wood of different size, weight, and arrangement, that react to gravity when falling. The challenge becomes a solid mix of skill and luck.
• Interesting details add variety as you progress through the levels. You start out with red birds, then tiny blue ones that split into three if you tap the screen after launch, and yellow, triangular ones that speed up for ramming capability. With all three, feathers fly upon impact.

The Bad

• After every shot, the screen awkwardly shifts from the screen’s far right to your slingshot at the far left. Timing could use some tweaks; it takes a little too long for points to tally up or the level to reset — I found myself manually hitting the reset button to speed things along.
• Would like the ability to have the bird-launching overlap more, or allow several birds to  be launched simultaneously. Terrible strategy, but would be fun.

Conclusion

Despite a few fussy details that slow the game down, solid entertainment. Am sticking with it to see if any cats show up. Recommended.

iTunes App Store Link: Angry Birds — Clickgamer.com