Format: iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Developer: Rovio
Wow is all I had to say when I first saw that teaser trailer for Angry Birds Star Wars. It really brought out the kid in me. I felt like I did when I would look through magazines seeing screen shots of upcoming NES games. Being a Star Wars fan for the better part of 30 years this was one game that I was not going to miss. I had incredibly high expectations for the game, but could it live up to them? Let me tell you right away the answer to that question is a big fat yes.
From a presentational point of view and I am talking sound and visuals Angry Birds Star Wars is amazing. When you first boot this game up you are greeted to the unmistakable sound of the John Williams Orchestra playing the iconic Star Wars theme. And then there is the way the game looks.
They have managed to tell the original Star Wars trilogy with the Angry Birds wonderfully well. The attention to detail is absolutely phenomenal and if you are a Star Wars fan you will certainly appreciate the work Rovio has put in. They certainly have done the original Star Wars saga justice.
The Angry Birds have all been given Star Wars make over’s the Red Bird is now Luke Skywalker, Yellow Bird is Hal Solo, Big Red Bird is now Chewie, Blue Bird is a Rebel, Black Bird is Obi-Wan and there is a Pink Bird who is Princess Leia. Also there are appearances from C3-PO who is pretty much the White Bird and there is also a Bird modelled on R2D2. In all everyone of the characters look amazing.
The pigs also look great. They take the form mainly of Storm Troopers, but there are also Snow Troopers, Tusken Raiders and even Darth Vader. The games levels are just as impressive as the characters. You start of with levels based on Tatooine, The Death Star, Hoth and Path of the Jedi. Path of the Jedi needed to be paid for, but if you were good enough at the game and you earned 3 stars on all the other levels you would get it for free. As well as this there are bonus gold egg levels where you get to play as C3-PO and R2D2.
The cut scenes in the game look great and it makes we want an Angry Birds Star Wars movie. I love the way they have captured the characters so perfectly. Darth Vader for example is 3 pigs all standing on top of each other in order to make him taller.
As far as the game play goes this plays very much like Angry Birds Space where you now have the zero gravity sections. But there are some very big changes in Angry Birds Star Wars with the birds themselves as there “powers” in some cases are radically different from there regular counter parts.
Luke Skywalker for example now can wield a lightsabre. Han Solo can shoot his laser. Chewie just smashes into everything with his big frame pretty much just like Big Red Bird does. Also the Rebel Bird operates the same way as the Blue Bird in the regular Angry Birds game does. My favourite of all the characters is Obi-Wan. He can use the force and learning to use this power properly can really rack you up some high points.
As well as the Birds having new powers so do the enemies. You now have to worry about droids shooting lasers and most importantly you have to worry about Darth Vader. If there is a Darth Vader pig in a level then you are in trouble. You see the Darth Vader pig uses the force to hold objects up or even pigs. But if you can take him out everything he is holding will come crashing down.
I am sure you can figure from the way I am blushing like a school girl at a Billy Joel concert (what the kids don’t like Billy Joel anymore?) that I loved this game. It not only excels because of the excellent use of the Star Wars license, but I hand on heart believe that this by far is the very best Angry Birds game that has been released so far. I am sure people even with the most basic of Star Wars knowledge will have a ton of fun with this game.