Them's Fightin' Words

I got the original Angry Birds on my Nokia N8 to kill some time when I was waiting for important life-stuff to happen and ended up getting hopelessly addicted to it for about a week or so.

Even after that I’d still revisit levels and shoot for 3 stars on them just for the hell of it. The physics were water-tight and there’s no denying I got a kick out of destroying shit and popping green pigs.

Then two weeks ago I read that NASA had partnered with Rovio for the newest instalment in the franchise, Angry Birds Space and, 3 days into playing it, I can honestly say the results are nothing short of brain-meltingly awesome.

If I was single, I have no doubt I would be elbows-deep in this game right now, but I’ve had to ration my playing to avoid BECOMING single, so as I write this, I’m about to finish “Pig Bang”, the first of two worlds (“Cold Cuts” is the second) that make up Angry Birds Space.

There is a third world called “Danger Zone” that can be unlocked with an in-app purchase (although on the iPad version I bought, it came unlocked) for hardcore Angry Birds fans who want to experience some insanely difficult gameplay.

The premise is the same as previous Angry Birds games. You fire birds in a slingshot to create domino-effect destruction on a massive scale in an effort to pop some smug little (and not-so-little) green pigs.

However, the massive change with Angry Birds Space is the way they’ve tweaked the gravity to make for an amazingly addictive and challenging gaming experience.

When firing birds in space their trajectory is dead straight, but the minute they enter an asteroid’s gravitational field their trajectory warps significantly. Depending on their angle of entry, this can result in them orbiting an asteroid at breakneck speed only to smash some piggy structures into splinters in the most satisfying way imaginable.

They’ve also thrown some new twists into the game in the form of “Eggsteroid” levels you can unlock by finding and smashing the golden eggs strewn about the normal levels.

These unlockable levels take the form of popular old-school games like Mario and Space Invaders and add a nice additional dimension to this addictive-as-crack demolition physics masterpiece.

You also get randomly awarded Space Eagles, which open up gigantic black holes, sucking those smug green basterds into piggy oblivion.

The new birds on the block are the ice birds who freeze the pigs and structures they collide into, thus making them more brittle for your other birds to decimate.

I really don’t think I need to bang on about this game for much longer. Buy it, play it and if shit gets too intense, swing by First Methodist on Tuesday nights. We have a group that kicks off at 7.00pm – the coffee is free but if it’s your first time, all we ask is that you introduce yourself to the rest of the group.

Admitting you have a problem is purely voluntary

-ST