Angry Birds Go! Review

Angry avians take on the might of Mariokart in their first 3d foray, but does the world need another contender in the kart racing genre?

Post franchise deals, merchandising, the forthcoming movie, and the international success of the worlds most popular mobile game, how can Rovio perpetuate the success of their former back catalogue? By taking on Nintendo’s finest at their own game, and seemingly out of nowhere, Rovio has managed to take the best bits from the side scrolling puzzler, and somehow made a cracking racer with the charm, wit and appeal that made the many former iterations of Angry Birds so popular. Rovio have gone out of their way to make this game a lot of fun. From the very beginning it feels like a premium product with enough bells and whistles to appeal to a wide range of gamers from young to old.

The 2d realisation into 3d has fared well with the colourful backgrounds being rendered faithfully in an almost Flintstonian styling, akin to the backgrounds in previous versions of Angry Birds. Track themes vary throughout but always feel solid and well designed with early tracks guiding the player gently into the game. Karts initially appear to be made of a ramshackle mix of stone and wood and are lashed together to form an impossible (but extremely fun) range of vehicles. Makeshift kart parts also come in the form of milk cartons, sardine tins, wooden spoons, pressure gauges and camera lenses. Karts are destructible with collisions resulting in parts of your karts flying into the ether. Smash them up too much and the rear wheels start to wobble, impeding your progress to the finish. The Angry birds characters have transitioned into the 3d world seamlessly with their expressions and vibrancy intact.

Each level begins with the trademark slingshot placement in which Rovio have had the genius idea of integrating into the starting mechanism. As the starting countdown begins, pull back the slingshot and wait for the flag. You launch your kart into the air and the race begins. Wins and placement in the top three, result in the reward of coins and the ability to upgrade your kart in the categories of top speed, acceleration, handling and strength. Upgrades can be purchased through the app, speeding up the levelling up process. In app purchases are of course ever present with most menus offering paid shortcuts or game enabling treats. Gems also unlock the ability to skip game challenges speeding up your progress further. Sometimes the gems can be picked up inside a dense pack of coins on the track or in a precarious position along the way.

Upon beating other Angry Birds in VS matches, comic book interludes reward your progress, giving Angry Birds Go! a narrative element to break up the cyclical nature of the races. The karts control brilliantly even from the beginning of the game. Rovio’s ability to keep you playing ABG is impressive with a compelling sense of fun rewarding the player in progress and upgrade hooks. You can choose to play a number of different race events, each testing the players ability in a different way.

Level modes.

Race

Race mode pits you against other coloured Angry Birds and the infamous green pigs, which try to stop you from advancing to the later levels.

Time boom

Time boom is a bespoke time trial mode with a fuse that burns out to signify how much time you have left. Leave it to burn out and you fail the level.

Vs.

Versus mode pits you against one of the other famous Angry Birds in a mono a mono race to the finish. They will utilise their special powers to help themselves reach the finish first.

Fruit splat.

Sees the player with a designated number of fruits to splat or run into. Once you have collected your quota, coins replace the fruit and you can accrue them to spend on further upgrades to your wheels. Stars are awarded after every event depending on your progress through the level, much like the original Angry Birds games, but sometimes it is unclear how you could have earned that elusive third gold star on a time trial based level or VS match. Rovio have also upped the ante in terms of monetising the game by implementing an energy bar specific to each of the birds you earn along the way. The energy levels deplete on your journey through the game and for every event you race, your bird loses an energy dot. This can be overcome by progressing to use other Angry Birds or by spending real money on skipping the wait for their energy bars to refill. This fundamentally reduces the amount of time you can spend in the game unless you are willing to spend currency (real or faux) on refilling this bar. This forces you to cycle angry birds and get to grips with their different powerups. The different power ups demonstrate the different abilities of the birds and give a reason to have a number of different feathered characters in the game. Some powerups are more useful than others. The soundtrack by Pepe Deluxe belts along in an aptly farcical Angry Birds manner (bring on the trumpets). An intentionally out of tune brass section reward your successes and failures to complete the authentic Angry Birds experience. Incidental sound effects and exclamatory bird voices are endearing, passing the annoyance test well into the depths of the game.

Overall an impressive display of Rovio’s non 2d side scroller talents. Proving that they have more up their sleeves than their previous puzzle output would suggest.

8.8