Savvy Duck Reviews: Angry Birds Space

Rovio has had great success creating their Angry Birds line of games, toys, clothing, more games, more toys, etc. The newest game in their catalog is Angry Birds Space, which represents the first departure from the traditional Angry Birds physics model. It includes many changes as compared to the traditional games, from the visual effects to the music to the appearance of the birds themselves. Read on to find out whether this is a good or a bad move by the successful company. Tweet

First Impressions

The setting for Angry Birds Space adds new elements to the game which immediately become apparent. First off, the graphics, music, and even the appearance of the birds is just a little more "spacey" than in the other games. Secondly, the game is not played on a flat plane as is the previous Angry Birds games , but instead is set on round asteroids complete with plant life, atmospheres, and gravity. Because of the round nature of the asteroids, gravity is not always felt in the same direction, in fact, it never is. When a bird, pig, or object is inside the atmosphere of an asteroid, it is pulled toward it. You can even put birds into orbit (see the video below)! Outside the atmosphere, however, objects travel in a straight line.



Controls and Mechanics

Controls will be very familiar to players of the previous games, as will the behaviors of the various types of birds when you activate their abilities. The goal is still to eliminate egg-stealing pigs, though they appear to be stealing egg-shaped asteroids in this game. You still toss the birds by pulling back on the familiar-looking slingshot, so the only real change there is the expected path of the bird once you release it. And while gravity in the game can cause the birds to travel in all sorts of crazy directions (as you can see in the video above), it's fairly easy to predict once you get used to it.


Some of the birds' abilities do seem to have been tweaked for this new game. For example, the black bird is now much, much more explosive than it was before. And though the birds do not appear to need an atmosphere to breathe, the pigs do. If you catch them floating in one of their air bubbles outside of an asteroid's atmosphere and burst it, they'll quickly freeze and explode. And nothing says Angry Birds like exploding pigs!

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Pigs in Bubbles
Another change is in the space version of the Angry Birds Mighty Eagle. The eagle comes with the game instead of only being available as an in-app purchase, but you only get a limited amount of them to use as you play the game. Also instead of smashing everything on the screen, it sucks everything intoa black hole. And as we all know, black holes rock. Reliability

After a morning of extensive (read: addictive) testing, I've found the game to be completely bug-free. Once again, Rovio seems to have done an exceptional job in testing and releasing a well-polished, reliable game. I don't have any complaints whatsoever.

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Conclusion

All in all, Angry Birds Space appears to be for Angry Birds what Mario Galaxy is for Mario: a clever twist on the traditional game that adds new dimensions to the gameplay. The new mechanics, despite being somewhat different to the other games, are easy to learn and add very rnjoyable elements to the game. I find it exceedingly fun and I'm looking forward to working my way through more of the levels.