Indie Review: Angry Birds Space

Angry Birds Space is the next exciting entry in the globally famous series. While it's not perfect, it successfully manages to breathe new life into the series without giving up what made it so popular.

• Name: Angry Birds Space
• Genre: Puzzle
• Players: 1
• Multiplayer: N/A
• Platforms: PC, Mac, Android, iOS
• Developer: Rovio Mobile
• Publisher: Rovio Mobile
• Price: TBC
• Reviewed On: Android

Angry Birds, whether you love it or hate it, is fast edging closer to world domination. It may not be the most sophisticated game around, but Rovio faced a challenging task in trying to freshen up the now established and extremely popular formula, and what better way to do that than to take things into space and bring zero gravity into the mix. However, while the new space setting doesn’t dramatically change the way the game is played, I can respect their attempts to freshen things up, and they have definitely achieved that to a certain degree. It’s satisfyingly fresh without deviating too much from what makes it special. There are around 60 levels to keep you entertained initially, with more to arrive through free updates. Sadly, hardcore extra levels require an additional purchase, and while the asking price isn’t exactly a train smash, it’s a bit upsetting that these fun levels haven’t been included in the package already, especially when considering that Space has fewer levels than its predecessors.

It’s business as usual with you having to kill a bunch of pigs using your limited birds, except this time the focus on gravity has done wonders in creating some pretty unique and exciting puzzles. Due to the absence of gravity, firing your birds into space sends them on a slow, straight journey, while attacking nearby planets, which have their own gravity fields, will greatly affect the movement of your birds. Some gravity fields have a strong pull, while others will increase movement speed and alter your birds’ directions. These combine to produce some fantastic results, often presenting you with some pretty awesome opportunities to create chaos and unleash hell on those nasty pigs. You’ll get to curve your birds around miniature planets and attack pigs from behind, crush them by using floating debris and use the environment and gravity in rather interesting ways to win. For instance, things can get pretty trippy when you have two gravity fields right next to each other, and you’ll need to exercise more precision in your attacks unless you want to watch your birds go bonkers. However, due to this a few levels can feel like they rely more on luck than actual skill, as results will almost be random, but overall the game does a great job of presenting you with inventive new challenges with each level.

There are a few new gameplay features in Angry Birds Space, and they’re pretty awesome. The first is naturally the new birds. While you still get your standard Red attack bird, Blue cluster bird, Black Bomb bird, and the now Green large tank bird, you’ll also get a new Purple homing bird that has replaced the previous Yellow speed bird, and a new Ice bird. The former moves in standard fashion until you click to lock onto a target, where it will then gain a burst of speed and close in for the kill. The Ice bird, as you may have guessed, freezes pigs and objects, allowing you to crush them with your next attack, which is useful when faced with stone defenses. Another new addition to the formula is with the hidden golden eggs, which now instead of just giving you a sense of achievement, also serve to transport you to bonus levels that are really fun and act as mini intervals to the level you’re currently playing. Some are really cool, like the Space Invaders-inspired bonus. But my favourite new addition is the boss battles, which feature a pig in an armoured space vehicle, and you’ll need to crush his ride with floating asteroids and your Bomb birds. It can sometimes take luck to win these, but they’re easy and fun.

The only real downside to Angry Birds Space is that, because it only contains 60 levels initially, it can be over really quickly and leave you wanting more. And bar one or two levels, I didn’t find the game to be particularly challenging. Some might enjoy going through the game with minimal frustration and difficulty, but I’d have much rather preferred the game getting increasingly difficult as you progress. Either way, it’s highly entertaining, and despite the criticisms it’s picking up these days for its lack of sophistication and identical sequels, I couldn’t help but play this game continuously right until I completed it. Angry Birds Space is as addictive as its predecessors, if not more so with its fantastic space setting. It’s not perfect, but I had a great deal of fun with it and wouldn’t mind having some more levels. Although I really hope the new levels brought in are more challenging and over the top.

Angry Birds Space looks as awesome and as charming as ever with its new setting, and it’s a joy to play. Admittedly it’s not as vibrant and colourful as its predecessors, but the setting more than makes up for it. The new animations are great, and it’s worth a smile every time you see a pig get a sudden scared look on his face when danger is close or breathe a sigh of relief if he narrowly escapes it, and it’s funny to see a pig doze off to sleep while wrapped in a protective bubble. These pig expressions can make you really want to kill them though. The background music is pretty intense and really fitting for the style of the game, while the sound effects are just spectacular. It was definitely hard for me to get over the new Purple bird’s priceless “Peek-a-boo” scream. At least, that’s what it sounded like.

Angry Birds Space is a great new direction for the franchise. It admirably manages to be fresh without giving up or deviating too much from what made it so popular. If you’re a fan of this series, then you really don’t need to be told to go out and get this game. However, if you’re not, then the familiarity to its predecessors that Angry Birds Space holds onto definitely won’t turn you into a fan now. In the end, love it or hate it, Angry Birds Space is a great game that does what this series does best.

Name: Azhar Amien
Location: Cape Town
Position: Editor, Reviews

Azhar has published 2511 posts. Read all of Azhar's posts.

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