Angry Birds Rio (Iphone and Android)

Hot of the plane… And by far my favourite ‘Angry Birds’ yet

Within a week of writing a review on Angry Birds seasons (the Angry bird application that I believed was “ingenious” and the best of its kind) the massively exciting Angry Bird Rio, application for Iphone and Android was released. As suggested in the title this is a review on an application which is extremely new on the market, literally only been out a few days and therefore I cannot give a full view on all the levels (especially thinking that some levels come out in the following months of May, July, October and November respectively (a feature which has been adopted from the previous special addition Angry Birds Seasons and something I will comment on shortly).

Introduction

If this application was to have a movie-introduction it would go a little like this (please imagine the appropriate voice, the fidgeting of children behind you and popcorn being spontaneously stepped on): ‘From the creators of Ice age and the Developers of Angry Birds comes a game so brilliant, one could call it the best application… In the world’.

You may be wondering: what is the application so called Angry Birds Rio (I will from now on refer to Angry Birds Rio as ‘Rio’, because I personally think Angry Birds Rio is rather laborious to say fourteen times let alone more). The easiest way to help improve you understanding is to do two things, first give you a brief introduction into the idea of Angry Birds and another description of the up and coming (2011) to be 20th Century Fox Entertainment animation Rio.

Angry Birds

Angry Birds as a whole is a very simple concept you have an arsenal of birds, all of which have different powers for example there are blue ones (which split into three little ones) there are white ones (which fire eggs – as if they were a stealth bomber – or more of a B52 bomber plane as they are far from stealthy), there are little red ones and big red ones which smash through everything, there are black ones there are yellow ones and there are green ones.
You take these birds and you aim them carefully with one finger, then… Bang… Let them fly. Then watch as the chaos unfolds. Though it sounds slightly simplistic it is far from it… I can assure you that!

Rio

Rio is an up and coming animations from Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox, it is said to be a “potential must see” and is predicted to be a top seller. It is about two very rare parrots from the same species (Spix’s Macaw) that fall in love in Rio de Janeiro and embark on a wondrous adventure when they get captured by poachers, wanting to sell them for a tidy profit. And that is all I can say as of course I have not seen the film because not even I have the powers to fast forward to its preview date, watch it then retell the story back to you.

As far as I am concerned the generalise description seems perfect for an Angry Bird story line – but wait a second, a story line for an Angry birds game… how can that work?

Now you know the background, a little more on the game

What makes Rio different to ‘Seasons’ or the original?

First of all, I will comment on the most obvious aspect, you don’t flatten pigs anymore… instead you break the cages of trapped birds (of course attempting to fit in with the story line) and watch vibrantly colours birds flutter out as you set them free.

I am unsure about this change in idea. I am sure some would argue that it is a step to far away from the basic structure of the game, after all that is all one could do on the originals. I too can reason with this argument, this difference is rather shocking at first, however in my opinion there is a second light to the matter – which becomes more apparent the longer you play the app.

I think setting the birds free instead of popping pigs is a way of setting the app free. It opens a whole new horizon of ideas, an endless spectrum of possibilities, which is far from negative it is exciting. It is like giving that same old bedroom a new ‘lick’ of paint. It is fresh vibrant, of course different, but I deem it a sensible change in direction for Rovio.

Secondly…

The interface of the game has slightly altered, along with the graphics. Simple things such as the star rating systems at the end of each level have been animated, so that you see your star rating improve as your score increases. The idea being it is more exciting. I however do not think it works as well, I think it looks a bit too ‘Arcady’ – far from the sleek professional appearance the previous two provided.

Furthermore the interface of the game has remained similar to ‘Seasons’ the idea being new levels will be unlocked at different times of the month, with updates providing the needed data. Similar to seasons I think this aspect is fantastic. It makes the game all the more interesting the fact that the next month a whole new door will be opened. The same idea makes the value of the application better for the Iphone user, as usually, granted not always, but usually the updates are free (this only refers to Iphone users as Android users can get this app for free whereas Apple users have to purchase it for 59p).

Apart from that…

As assumed before the release and to my relief the game has not strayed away from its inherited fame of the previous two angry birds. It is still as exhilarating, simplistic and plain ‘fun’, as the others however it has an additional ‘Brazilian spice’ which not only makes the game more recommendable but also makes it more addictive!

What does Rio offer that the others don’t?

Interestingly, this is the first Angry Bird application that has a solid story line, thus making it play more like a fully designed game rather than a carefree app (which I had previously like), but by no means is this negative. On the contrary the story line makes this version, Rio, slightly different; more unique than the other two were.

Not only this but Rio offers a whole new structure of achievements and prizes, if you were familiar with the Angry Bird structure you would have remembered the golden egg prize format (golden eggs where hidden prizes, Easter eggs being the technical name, that you collected as a form of achievement). Fittingly Rovio (the producers of Angry Birds) have modified these Easter eggs and changed them into golden fruit, for example Pineapple. I personally love this aspect. I have found as of yet ten out of the fifteen golden pineapples (the first fruit unlocked out of a possible twelve) and I have been playing on the app for some time over the past week. So as you can see not only does this add another dynamic to the game it also vastly increases the potential gaming time. Thumbs up in that respect!

Unfortunately the golden fruit (as far as I am aware, however I am sceptical about what happens when you find all fifteen of one fruit) do not unlock new levels to play on as the golden eggs did. But like I had previously mentioned I will update if I find otherwise.

My favourite aspect

My favourite aspect of Rio is not the new interface, the rhythmic sound track or the traditional gameplay. No, it is the new backgrounds. I may seem like a rather sad, monotonous person as you read this but I think that the new backgrounds, a variety of detailed settings of which differ depending on the level make Rio stand out thoroughly compared to the tedious green and brown back ground of the ones before. A perfect example of this is the cargo hold backdrop, which is filled with crates that have been strategically placed to make the graphics seem slightly more in-depth and partially three dimensional (of course I am only commenting on the illusion 3D graphics as angry birds is not in 3D)

Additional information

It is important to mention that the ‘Rio’ is only free on android and sadly and rather frustratingly for Apple users it is an additional fee of 59p which of course isn’t worthy of breaking the bank but it seems slightly unfair how it costs via ITunes for exactly the same app when it is free on android. However it is not all gloom and doom for the iphone user as the only negative I have with this app is the reason why it is free on Android… ADVERTS!

Adverts, the one and only negative

I completely realise that the only reason that android users get the game free is because Rovio and fellow producers Fox and Blue Sky can recuperate their costs through adverts and therefore don’t have to charge me, or you, the users. However the adverts not only are an eye sore, being rather un-aesthetically pleasing but more frustratingly, they slow the whole application down. This is the first Angry birds App which has had to load on both my Ipod touch and my HTC Desire HD, i.e. after every level it almost buffers to allow succinct gaming on the next level. This of course is unexpected and rather annoying.

Retrospectively my improvement: There should be the choice, like other games offer, to remove the adverts at a cost for both apple users and android. It seems strange why one has to pay and one doesn’t…

My lasting opinion

I really like this application. I think Angry Birds have done an exceptional job with not only improving previous series but revolutionising them. To take such a simple application and manipulate it to incorporate an animated story line, as clever and as imaginative as the one seen in Rio is extremely clever and without a doubt has pulled off (with a recorded 10 million downloads in ten days – impressive)

I would highly recommend this to you, to your children, to your friends to your family. It is a fantastic application along with a really good fun game. I cannot urge you enough – modernise you mobile, your app list, unleash the full power of the little red bird – unleash Angry Birds Rio – and you will be flying back for more!

Thank you for reading, I hope I have helped you either by informing you or helping you with your purchase, if you have any questions on anything I have not covered please feel free to send me an email or get in contact via my ciao account.

BazzaBoyT