Angry Birds [iOS]

Angry Birds is a game for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. From just the title alone, I was apprehensive to download this game as it seemed like a violent and aggressive game. After checking it out on my sister’s iPhone, I found that it was extremely fun!

My daughter actually discovered it first. The sounds and graphics are hilarious! The basic story is that a small group of birds are overjoyed with the birth of their eggs. The pigs nearby are fed up with the boring grass they are munching on and get the great idea to steal the eggs for a tasty meal. The goal is to get the eggs back from the hungry piggies.

To do this, the birds load themselves into a giant slingshot. All you do is pull back, aim, and release. Based on physics, you hope to knock down the structure housing the thieving pigs. When the pigs are defeated, they just turn into a puff of smoke and disappear. The angle and strength of of the shot will change how the structure falls.

Each bird has a different characteristic and flies differently based on their size and weight. For example, the yellow bird can speed up to break through several wooden beams, the black bird can be used as a bomb that easily knocks through concrete, and the little blue bird flies really far then splits into three to shatter ice blocks in one shot.

The pigs will make you chuckle as they get black eyes and bumps all over. Their laugh is so evil and miscellaneous. Then they’ve got these giant bug-eyes. You will find small piggies, one with a mustache, some sport a yellow hardhat, and finally the main culprit – the king.

It’s an addictive game that everyone in my family enjoys. Sometimes we had to ask our nine-year-old daughter to beat a level my husband or I couldn’t, and visa-versa.

Angry Birds Lite is available for free but there are only a few levels that are fairly easy to get through. If you like it, I would highly recommend buying the full game which is only $0.99. It’s a great deal for such a content-rich game. There are regular updates and many times those include additional levels.  This sure beats a $35 game for the DS or a $60 game on other consoles!