Space Angry 3D - No, Not Actually 3D, But Still Angry: Angry Birds Space

It’s one of those games that are not so much games as they are phenomena. Angry Birds. It’s a title that’s proof that there can be quite a lot of money in producing $1 games for iOS or any other portable system. Angry Birds is huge. One of this generation’s mega sellers and biggest success stories despite being dead cheap on the pricing end of things. Furthermore, it’s proof that casual gaming can work as a huge cashcow — under the right circumstances.

Everybody plays Angry Birds, gamers and nongamers alike. It’s a huge thing. The birds are everywhere. Walking down a street in San Francisco’s China Town I found more Angry Birds merchandise than I remember having ever seen for any other game. This means, it’s a game that has fully entered our popcultural mainstream.

And now they’re back. After a tie-in with the animated Dreamworks franchise ‘Rio’ and ‘Seasons’, Angry Birds Space is the first true sequel to the pigstomping avian shenanigans. The birds go to space - and well, the pigs do too. Space bird eggs are stolen, and the hunt to punish the evil pigs begins anew. Well, nobody plays Angry Birds for the story, right? Structurally, it’s the perfect game for a cigarette break — or whatever kinds of short breaks people have when they’re not smoking. Playing a level of Angry Birds only takes a minute or two. A perfect bite sized game for a device everyone already owns anyway.

This is as true for the original game as it is for Space. Only that this new title ups the ante quite a bit. It’s not so much a full reinvention of the formula, but a refinement with a lot of very interesting additions, which are all space based. First of all, there is no gravity in space. At least, not unless you’re close to a gravity well. Those exist in ABS too. Playing with gravity wells and parts of the levels without gravity are key ingredients to a lot of the puzzles.

If there is any doubt about the widespread, cross ‘gamer culture’ popularity, just take a look at what has just been done to Seattle’s most widely known landmark. It has become a huge Angry Birds Space slingshot, which, given that this is ‘just’ a tiny app store title, is quite a remarkable effort.

I admit, I never really got into the original game too much. It was fun, but the concept quickly wore thin on me, even though I could clearly see why people liked this game so much.. Space however is just crazy and inventive enough to get my full attention again and keep it this time around. Flinging birds through space is just much more fun. Lining up shots through several gravity wells, exploding bomb birds amid asteroid fields that then scatter, trying to find the perfect spot to kill all the pigs with one blow, that’s a whole new level of joyful craziness.

Since Angry Birds Space is what it is, I don’t think it’s necessary to give it a verdict. It’s a natural must have title for anyone and everyone. It’s a game that is far, far beyond guilty pleasures. It’s a bit like Farmville in that regard (only, you know, actually fun and not a chore). It’s a little piece of gaming that crosses the borders between hardcore gamers and supposedly ‘nongamers’. I know several people who don’t own either a gaming console nor have ever played a game on their PC (that wasn’t Farmville) who reportedly spent hours into the dead of night playing Angry Birds. That might not make them hardcore gamers in any traditional sense, but any game that manages doing just that is at the very very least worth a look. And since the entry barrier to that look is barely existent — it’s even FREE on Android, even though that version comes with not-too-intrusive ads — given the price point.