Gameplay Today - Because You're Always Gaming

When we heard about the new Angry Birds game being based on the Rio movie, we had a sudden gut feeling that the Angry Birds fad might be over pretty quickly because of a clear movie cash-in. I mean let’s be honest here; there aren’t a lot of games based on movies that are good. There are even less respectable ones that are on mobile platforms. Thankfully it turns out that Angry Birds Rio is a solid sequel of sorts, instead of a “re-skinned” knock off.

Now unless you’ve built a time-machine and then traveled here from an era before the iPhone and Android OS were both released, you know what Angry Birds are. The most basic explanation is that it’s a catapult game using geometry and angles to fling birds at structures housing pigs. The structures themselves are often designed in interesting manners that force the player to choose weak or strategic places to hurl their birds. Just like the structures are designed with a small variety of materials that have different attributes, your arsenal of birds vary in their destructive capabilities.

Much like the original, the Rio edition continues the trend of flinging birds at structures and looking for the one weak point that will set off a destructive chain of events or force the player into pounding away with force. Unlike a spin-off or most mobile games based on licenses, this feels almost like a real sequel. That’s because Angry Birds Rio has you freeing fellow birds that are held prisoner instead of attempting to kill pigs. The birds are housed in cages within the structures we’ve come to know in Angry Birds. It’s not just about freeing birds though. There’s quite a bit of variety here. You battle other jungle species and even character(s) from the movie.

Angry Birds Rio is a solid follow up and a very nice surprise considering what we initially thought we were walking into. If you like the original and have been aching for more birds to fling and more ways to use them, Rio edition is the perfect way to do so. The one surprise is that the game appears to be episodic, which is good because it means we’ll get more content to extend the approximate shelf life of 3 hours. Of course maybe you’re not a fan of buying a game in parts though? Either way, this new version is worth the price of admission and is fun to play.