When I first heard that there was going to be another Angry Birds games I wept a little bit. I was a little bit concerned, I’ll explain why in a bit.
Never before has there been such a worldwide mobile gaming phenomenon. I suppose Sonic the Hedgehog or maybe the Mario Brothers are second and third place in the worldwide gaming phenomenon league table (I guess).
But in the mobile gaming world most people at some point have installed Angry Birds, when I first played I was addicted. It was like nothing I had ever played before, it was totally fresh. Subsequent updates added new levels and me, my friends and my colleagues all played it during any spare time we could get.
Rumours of a new Angry Birds game made me quite excited and when Seasons came out I was pleased, the subsequent updates were adequate as well. After a few months I really wasn’t bothered any more. Then rumours of another game surfaced, I couldn’t believe they would make a third game. They did, Space arrived and it was slightly different, after getting through the levels I really wasn’t loving the game any more. After that I uninstalled them all and got on with my life.
Then when I heard about Bad Piggies I was actually excited. I played it and I really liked it, it was totally different to anything I had played. Rovio had done it again, the future looked bright for them. Shortly after this though a trailer leaked, a trailer that made me sad.
When I saw the Angry Birds Star Wars trailer I was shocked they would continue the series on. Why did it need continuing, why oh why.
I was glad to see it appear on the main three Mobile platforms on the same day. I bought the Android version so I could play it on my Galaxy Note.
To play the game is quite good fun, at first I was full of anger and despair as to why the game even existed. After a few levels I was quite into it. It felt like what Angry Birds Space should have been.
The variations on the birds took a bit of getting used to. The slight visual difference between Han Solo bird and Obi Wan bird made me fail many a level. The large Wookie bird made smashing through obstacles just as easy as in previous games. As I moved through the different levels I looked forward to seeing what would come next, before I knew it I had finished the Tatooine levels and I was onto the Death Star levels. At this point it felt even more what Angry Birds Space should have been. You had pigs to kill all over the place, it was really good fun.
As I got near to the end of the Death Star levels I started to wonder what was going to be next, I quickly jumped to the menu and scrolled across to the other worlds. Hmmm, Hoth was coming soon and the Jedi levels were only available at an extra cost. So after 80 levels and a few bonus levels I was done, having bought the Android HD version of the app I was a little disappointed. I just hope the update for the Hoth levels comes out soon.
Overall I think the Star Wars version is a strange one, in my opinion it shouldn’t really exist, they could have just added some levels to Space. But it continues the whole Angry Birds series a stage. Which is where my problem is.
When should a developer give up with a franchise? Rovio are obviously making money on their Angry Birds range of toys, clothes and other random stuff. So why would they stop? If they continue in this manner people not be as keen to keep on playing the games. With Bad Piggies I thought they were moving in a new direction. Hopefully in the future we shall see some new and innovative games from them.
As regards links for the games here you go.
Android – iOS – Windows Phone