The birds have been to Rio, celebrated various seasons and just generally wreaked havoc on those egg stealing low down dirty pigs in many titles, along with several updates to each over the years.  Now, they have gone to Star Trek country by entering space, the final frontier (where will the go next?) as the pigs have apparently turned out to be aliens of some sort, mastering interplanetary travel and the whole 9 yards.  At first, I thought this was just a cash run on the part of Rovio but after a few levels, I began to see the light, so to speak.

The tried and true game mechanics are still in place, I like how Rovio doesn’t mess with something that simply works, pull back, aim (with the handy dotted line to guide your bird) and let go and wait for the mayhem to ensue.  This mechanic works and works really well.  To some, it may be limiting after so many games and so many levels but I believe those are the minority here (judging by installs on the Android Market, er Google Play and general popularity of the series).

In space, there is gravity thanks to the various planetoids floating around (the severity of the gravity is represented by a shrinking ring around the planetoid).  If entering the local space of a planetoid, represented by a circle, the trajectory of your bird will change (as shown by the change of angle of the dotted line within that sphere).  Also, the left to right approach is out the window.  Now, you have to take into account that going UNDER the planetoid may be better than going OVER it. These little tweaks add so much strategy to the game.

Along with planetoids, there are various bits of debris floating around that can, and sometimes has to, be used to complete the level (getting three stars is not only about using one bird anymore as later levels prove).  Ricochets, deflections and explosions can set debris flying all over the screen, helping and sometimes hindering, the quest to get the eggs back.  What is at first an annoyance is quickly turned into a great asset that sets this title apart from others in the franchise.

A new addition is mini game levels that help break up the monotony of just killing pigs in space (sorry Ms. Piggy).  So far, I have seen a level that resembles the first scene of Super Mario Bros 1 from the Nintendo Entertainment System and a Space Invaders style level.  They are triggered by finding certain things in the regular levels and flinging a bird into them, this opens a portal to the mini games (one per portal so far).  Interesting concept, cool way to pay homage to other games and just a unique twist on the gameplay.

Good job Rovio, now where will you take the birds next?

S601 Specifics:

As has been mentioned elsewhere already, the S601 features a single touch only resistive display.  This does in fact rear it’s ugly head when facing the daunting challenge of levels bigger than the S601′s screen (this brings in a bit of guesswork and swiping back and forth to line up just right).  Not a deal breaker but it is a hindrance to players that could hurt overall enjoyment.

One nice thing about ABS on the S601 is, you can press the “settings” button while in a level and it then click the “?” mark and it will replay the little videos telling you what each bird does.  I am sure this was probably in other versions of Angry Birds too but I just discovered it so I think it is worth mentioning for anyone else that didn’t know about it.

Angry Birds Space by Rovio
Platform: Android
Rating: Everyone
Score: 88/100
Available on Google Play
JXD S601 used for review, to learn more about this device, please read our JXD S601 article.  Purchase your JXD S601 from Willgoo.com today.

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Written by: triverse on April 8, 2012.
Last revised by: triverse on April 29, 2012.