Overview
As reported a few days ago, the birds are back and they mean business. Rovio’s has finally released Angry Birds Space and this time our feathered friends are headed into Outer Space to battle the piggies and get back their eggs.
Gameplay
If you’re familiar with the franchise, you’ll probably want to skip this paragraph and jump to the next, but in case you’ve been living in a cave or haven’t owned a smartphone for the past few years here’s how Angry Birds works. You load your little birds into a slingshot, pull back with your finger and send the birds hurdling towards the portly pigs. Of course it’s not quite that simple as the piggies are hiding behind blocks, ice, stone and anything else they can scrounge.
Luckily for us our Angry Birds have powers that will help you get past the pigs defenses. You’ll get bomb birds, homing birds, and scattershot birds just to name a few; anytime you get a bird with an ability you’ll see a brief tutorial to let you know how to use its special power. It’s a very simple, but fun concept that’s been replicated hundreds of times since the first Angry Birds popped into the world.
Features
Rovio decided to change things up a bit for Angry Birds Space, now you’ll have to deal with gravity which can both hurt and help you depending on how you use it. Your path to the pigs will be blocked by asteroids and other debris, but this can work to your advantage in certain scenarios. Have a piggy out of reach? Just catch a ride around a planet or trigger a TNT crate and send the whole playing field towards him. There are a few new or revamped birds in the game as well; I’ve just gotten the Ice Bird which comes in very extremely handy, especially when you pair it with the bomb bird or have a red bird coming up behind it.
The level count is comes in at 60, unless you get the version with the extra 30 Samsung levels. I’m not exactly sure what the deal is with those as I heard they were for the Note (that’s where I played them), but I’ve also heard they’re in another version on Amazon as well. I honestly have no idea, but Rovio really didn’t need to release this many versions. Samsung levels aside, everyone gets the new Golden Egg levels dubbed the Eggsteroids levels. These hidden levels are unlocked via a wormhole when you find a golden eggsteroid hidden on a level. I’ve always enjoyed the “Golden” levels in Angry Birds and personally I think the ones in Angry Birds Space are the best so far. I don’t want to give too much away on those, but you can see the awesomeness for yourself below.
Verdict
As much as I hate to admit it, I was a MASSIVE Angry Birds nerd early on, but like a lot of other people I slowly moved to other games over time. Rovio has always done a great job with providing new content, but sometimes you need to really shake things up which is what they’ve done with Angry Birds Space. There are a lot of things to like about the game from the graphics and revamped birds to the actual physics themselves. I also really enjoyed the little interactive bits like the random floating pig or iceteroid; the games credits are even interactive and I “popped” everyone’s name as I gave them silent thanks for making such a great game.
I’m sure there are other things cool things like that hidden throughout the game, I’ve found a few but half the fun is finding them yourself so I’m not tellin’. There are a few minor things I’d like to see changed and there’s no real need for 3-4 versions in my opinion, but overall its physics fun at its finest and a game anyone can easily pick up and play. Angry Birds is available on Google Play in three different flavors with HD (2.99), Premium (.99 cents), and free with ads.