Angry Birds Windows Phone 7 review

We often joke that Angry Birds is everywhere you look – especially on smartphones – but until recently that really hasn’t been true. Rovio’s multi-million seller has only just been catapulted onto the Microsoft platform. Does it hit the target? We take a look at the critical reception so far.

Scores

Eurogamer: 7/10
Know Your Mobile: 10/10 (five stars)
WPCentral: 8.5/10
WMPowerUser: 8/10 (4/5)

We took a look at reviews from four websites covering the full spectrum of Windows Phone fannishness (okay, so I made up a word), from the general gaming focus of Eurogamer to the general smartphone-focuses Know Your Mobile and on to the dedicated Windows Phone sites, WPCentral and WMPowerUser.

All four liked the game, with the average score of 8/10 (rounded down to the nearest whole number) for once managing to typify the general mood across the board. What’s so good about it?

Comments

Eurogamer called Angry Birds on Windows Phone “a pixel perfect port,” and also made reference to the once major addition – “those lovely Xbox achievement points.” Just like any other Xbox 360 game (and a fair few WP7 games), success within Angry Birds on your Windows Phone yields points and awards that go towards your Xbox Live profile. For many gamers, this has become an obsession, which may be what Rovio and Microsoft’s was banking on when it decided to charge four times the amount of the original iPhone version.

KYM is less concerned with such a price disparity in light of the game’s recognised brilliance. As it reminds us, “the physics are spot on and never feel unfair, while the combination of luck and skill means that there’s plenty of fist-in-the-air moments of elation to go along with the frustration of seeing a pig avoiding a seemingly certain death.” The site acknowledges the pricing issue, but points out that there’s “potentially months of enjoyable game time here”. It’s all about perspective, it seems.

WPCentral‘s is pretty consistent with the others, lauding the game’s strength in depth (there are 165 levels divided among four chapters, with more sure to be added). One thing extra thing it does point out is “one small bug in the game that freezes the camera pan,” which thankfully doesn’t seem to be game breaking. Hopefully Rovio will fix this soon, as well as adding the Mighty Eagle smartbomb weapon in subsequent updates.

Finally, the WMPowerUser review talks up the game’s “superb lasting value” and “smooth frame rate”, while bemoaning the age-old Angry Birds issue of having to repeatedly “zoom out in order to see your target and your slingshot in one single view”.

Ultimate version?

It seems as if the inevitable Angry Birds backlash will have to wait a little longer. This Windows Phone 7 versions has been eagerly anticipated and gratefully received by the critics, with its compulsive gameplay and generous level count proving pretty much timeless.

There are reservations over the price of the package which are hard to ignore – especially when you consider that the Android version can be had free of charge (if ad-funded). Still, there is added value here, with the Xbox Live achievements almost making it the definitive version.

Almost, but not quite. The level count in the iPhone and Android versions have two whole additional chapters to play through, while both also have the Seasons and Rio offshoots – all of which can be had for less than it costs to buy this cut-down version for Windows Phone 7. More levels have been promised, but for now, it’s still playing catch-up.

Still, if Windows Phone is your platform of choice, we can recommend Angry Birds wholeheartedly

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