The original Angry Birds is arguably one of the most successful mobile games ever. In only just over three years, you can find a slew of sequels, hordes of merchandise and even an Angry Birds TV cartoon that airs in the developer’s home land of Finland. I’d bet that a large majority of readers checking out this article have played Rovio’s hit at some point, and if you haven’t, I’d wonder how you managed to avoid it.
Rovio is back with yet another sequel, but this time, it’s not an affiliation with a big blockbuster movie. Angry Birds Friends is all about bringing deep Facebook integration to everyone’s favourite bird-flinging game. Let’s take a closer look at what Rovio has crammed into its latest title, after the break.
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Overview
The idea behind Angry Birds Friends is to take the same renowned and loved gameplay formula of the Angry Birds series, and create a new title that essentially plays the same. But instead of working your way through stages, it has you compete against your Facebook friend’s scores in weekly tournaments, all whilst enjoying the same great gameplay style that made Angry Birds so popular since its introduction in 2009.
The stage selection screen, where you choose what stage to play next.
While this formula isn’t wholly original (tons of games already integrate with your FB friends list for personalised scoreboards), the addition of weekly tournaments and other time limited challenges keep things fresh and keeps you coming back to see if you can finally get a win.
Getting Started
Once you’ve downloading the app, you’re presented with a tutorial that comprises of a few test levels to introduce you to the gameplay mechanics. Upon completion of the tutorial, the app will request access to your Facebook information to fill the game’s scoreboards with your friend’s scores and profile pictures. This is all done securely through iOS’s Facebook integration, so there’s no need to reveal any login details to the app itself.
The main menu.
After the tutorial is completed and your friend’s scores are integrated, you can jump straight in and hit the week’s tournament. A tournament comprises of six different individual stages to complete, with your total score tallied up at the end and displayed in a leaderboard amongst your friend’s scores. You can go back and play any of the six stages as many times as you like within the seven days to improve your score and hopefully step up a place of two in the rankings.
Gameplay is pretty much the same tried-and-tested formula we’re used to.
This freedom to keep replaying stages helps with the longevity of the title. You could be in first place, then half an hour later you could have lost your top spot because your friend went on and improved their score. I like this style; instead of you playing the six stages then just waiting to see the rankings at the end of the week, it’s ongoing. It reminds me very much of N-Gage’s shadow racing tournaments back in the day (props to you if you even know what they were).
Gameplay
Gameplay has remained pretty much the same as previous Angry Birds titles. As a brief overview for those who aren’t familiar, in each stage there are several “bad piggies” that are (most of the time) stationary, and you have to fling your birds at them to destroy them. Sometimes the piggies are underneath or next to obstacles, like pieces of rock or a wooden tower, that you must either move or knock down with your bird flinging skills. The game is a cartoon styled 2-D, and very much physics based. You sometimes find yourself having to hit obstacles to then knock them into a piggie to destroy them, or skillfully bounce your bird off a surface to then hit an intricately placed piggie.
It’s all very addicting stuff. Add in different birds you can fling that have different skill sets (such as exploding when you tap the screen during flight, or ones that split into three smaller birds to take out multiple piggies at once) and you have a winning formula. Angry Birds Friends also features four classic power-ups from previous titles, as well as an exclusive new one.
Some stages are quite creative.
As with all other Angry Birds titles, it’s very much skill based and the more you play, the more accustom you’ll become with what angles to fling the birds at, what piggies to aim for first, and when to use your power-ups.
The only thing people may find a little strange is that once you’ve had your fun with the weekly tournament, that’s kind of it. There is no other game mode, apart from power-up practice (which doesn’t really count as a game mode).
Performance & Presentation
The cute cartoon-style presentation we’re all used to is back with Rovio’s latest addition to the series, and it’s as great as ever. Everything is sharp and crisp, in-game environments look great and overall the title is a joy to look at. Sounds are brilliant too, just as ever. The birds squawk as they fly through the air, say “ow” when they hit a rock and there are loads of other background sound effects to add to the whole cutesy nature of the title.
The blue triple splitting bird is my favourite.
Playing the title on my iPhone 5 is fantastic in terms of performance. I experienced no dropped frames and no crashes. Some users have experienced difficulty connecting to Rovio’s server, which has resulted in a few one-star reviews on iTunes, but I haven’t experienced that myself.
Pricing
Rovio has opted to make this title free, which is great. However, there are in-app purchases available (surprise, surprise). To be honest though, these are purely for coins which allow you to buy more power-ups, and these coins can be earned by playing stages anyway. Therefore, whilst I’m sure these in-app purchases will annoy some users, those who choose to invest a little cash in coins won’t be at a huge advantage — free users will just need to play a little longer to get as many power-ups.
Some in-app purchases are available, but they keep things fair.
Conclusion
Any Angry Birds fan is sure to find some value in this title, and those who haven’t played before are sure to find it good fun too. Having your friends in the leader boards adds a competitive edge to what is widely regarded as one of the best casual games out there.