Angry Birds: Space

Angry Birds Space is the latest incarnation of Rovio's hugely popular physics game. The tried and tested gameplay formula that made the original game such a hit is back with an interesting new twist. All of the Angry Birds titles tasks you with destroying your enemies, green amoebic pigs, who are usually perched in or around structures which can be destroyed by flinging amusing looking birds at them via a large catapult. The same applies here, however the earlier games were all based on Earth, albeit with strange shape-shifting birds and even stranger sentient pigs with limbs or visible means of locomotion. This time you are in space, no longer constrained by a large and all encumbering gravity field. Now when you fire a bird they keep on going until they hit something.

This has been implemented very well. The structures you must destroy are now free floating, with the pigs all wearing glass space helmets. Now when struck by a high speed bird, they fly apart in a spectacular and immensely satisfying fashion. The pigs now react when things around them change, making scared or alarmed facial expressions when they are jolted or something nearby disintegrates.

Another really cool feature is the addition of asteroids or small planets that have a gravity field around them. Anything inside the visible gravity field is pulled down towards the centre of the asteroid. This adds lots of scope for interesting and challenging levels. Depending on the speed and angle of the shot, a bird can be fired in such a way that it just skims the gravity well, altering its trajectory in a way similar to that of how real objects would behave when passing planets in space. Sometimes birds can be launched in a way that results in them actually entering a stable orbit around the planetoid, endlessly circling it and adding another obstacle to avoid. Sometimes structures are in orbit with can be brought down to the surface if they are nudged with some well place shots. This looks great and is very gratifying.

Usually there are several asteroids of varying size and strengths of gravity. Many of the tricky shots needed to pass the later levels in the game force the player to plan out their shots carefully. The bird will then meander through the asteroids, each pulling on it to aim it correctly. The whole thing reminded me a lot of some of the levels in Super Mario: Galaxy for the Wii. Some levels take place entirely within a gravity field of a large asteroid, however the curvature of the shot is proportional to the size of the asteroid and still make a big difference. Occasionally things can be knocked out of orbit and sent crashing to the surface. The is plenty of variety and as usual a ton of levels. New ones seem to be planned and there is a nice 'Coming Soon' placeholder at the end of the world selection screen. 

Overall an excellent game, really cheap or free. For those playing the free version, the usual poorly placed ads from the are still present unfortunately, but easily overlooked for something that cost not a cent. If you enjoyed any of the other Angry Bird games then you will not be disappointed with this!