Angry Birds (beta)

Angry Birds (beta) Review

by on September 9, 2010

There’s not many phone games which can boast a rumour that there will be a Hollywood film based on them. But Angry Birds can lay claim to this fact and also sleep easy knowing it is one of the most addictive, time-wasting games to come along since, well, Tetris.

There’s no getting around just how good Angry Birds is as a game. Based on physics, the aim is simple: catapult some angry birds into some rickety buildings and explode some pigs while you are at it.

Angry Birds isn’t quite the finished article for Android just yet. The game is in beta stage and is only available for ’second gen’ Android handsets. But even then it is hit and miss – we downloaded it to a Desire (without 2.2) but couldn’t find it on the Market when trying to put it on to a HTC Legend. This will change when the game is made official, but for now you have to put up with some bugs. So far we have encountered some lag in later levels and numerous crashes and freezes for no apparent reason. On the contents screen, there is a place to mail all the problems to Angry Birds’ maker Roxio, so they can iron out the numerous creases in the game.

Niggles and bugs aside, the Android version of Angry Birds is fast and frantic. In fact it is faster than the iPhone game, which means that it feels slightly different to the version available to iPhone users. And it looks better too, this is because resolution has been upped to 800 x 480 from the iPhone version’s meagre 480 x 320.

The gameplay is undoubtedly top notch and once you get the hang of how the birds fly through the air, the only thing you will be dreaming about is nabbing those three gold stars for every level you play.

And let this be a warning: once you load Angry Birds on to your phone, wave goodbye to your life.

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