Angry Birds is one of the big success stories of the mobile gaming market, over 12 million copies have been sold through Apple’s App Store and a further 30 million free copies of the game have been downloaded for Android based systems. This means the iOS version alone has outsold World of Warcraft and has put up similar sales figures to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360.
In case you are unfamiliar with Angry Birds, the idea of the game is this: some pigs stole the bird’s eggs and now they are going to get revenge by using a slingshot to fling themselves at the pigs and their shelters, killing the pigs. As the player you are responsible for aiming the slingshot and activating any special powers the birds might have.
The game has an 80% rating on metacritic which means generally favourable reviews. Games with this metascore do not usually sell 12 million copies. Personally I just don’t like the game, I have tried to play it several times, I’ve played the full iOS version, the lite iOS version and the free Google Chrome version, which I noticed had 7,887,822 Facebook likes, and every time I found myself getting bored and wanting to play or do something else. However, let’s break down the different facets of the game and consider them.
Story: The story is simple silly fun and only serves to give a context for the gameplay. However, for a puzzle game the story really isn’t important, Tetris has no plot and I’m quite happy to play that for hours on end.
Gameplay: I find the way that you can’t see the targets when aiming with the birds frustrating and contributes to a lack of precision. Having to retry a level because you narrowly missed the last pig that was just standing out in the open does not make the game challenging but rather more annoying. While it is fun to knock down virtual blocks and buildings I find that other games, such as Boom Blox, better cater to this urge. One thing that the game does get right is the short amount of time it takes to play through a level (win or lose) which is useful when gaming on the go.
Graphics: The large cartoony graphics are easy to follow and give a reasonable aesthetic to the game, also the unique look of the birds and the pigs helps to create a recognisable franchise.
Lasting appeal: The game introduces new types of birds and more difficult levels as it progresses which does provide an incentive to keep playing. However, I’ve never found myself wanting to repeat a level.
Value for money: Obviously I can’t fault anyone for downloading a free game, but for all those 12 million people who actually paid for Angry Birds I just find myself asking why? The App Store has many, many games of similar or better entertainment value available for free or at budget prices. Furthermore, the free app of the day scheme enables you to get titles that previously retailed for a couple of dollars for free!
From this I must conclude that my dislike for the game comes down to two things. First, the gameplay and second, from a sense of injustice; why is this game a multimillion unit seller when there are much better games that struggle to make it past even 100,000 units?
For reference, it's possible to zoom out on the iOS version by pinching to zoom.
ReplyDeleteSo I have Angry Birds for iPod (and simply play it zoomed out on my iPad). I find it's good for five minutes, but I definitely wouldn't play it for a long period of time. I find that I get a "hit" from it in two ways:
* Perfecting my aim to hit a particularly precise target (or hit several)
* Adjusting my strategy to clear out as many targets as possible
Neither of these require that much time.
I think that AB got a whole heaping of money and publicity for two reasons. First, it's a quick game. It's quick to learn and you can reach a decent level of mastery in a relatively short time. iOS games are perfectly placed for the "quick game" - five minutes when you're waiting in line, or when conversation gets boring, or whenever else. As a result, people are looking to do something quickly, and one level of AB fills that slot well. Second, the game came out at a period where there wasn't quite as much buzz about gaming on iOS than there is now, I believe. As a start-up game they managed to shoot to the top of the app store ratings, and from there they could make a name for themselves. Now, of course, they have that name, and so people will buy expansions for the game since they know what they're getting.
Personally, I wouldn't buy expansions for the game (or re-buy it for the iPad). That's just me, however - I'm sure people are still buying the game.