Angry Birds 2 Review

It’s taken 600 levels and sixteen spin-off titles over six years, but Rovio have finally done it. Angry Birds 2 brings the birds up to date in a way that no amount of spin-offs ever could, no matter how awesome the Transformers attached franchises are.

Whilst it’s true that there are now over 600 levels in the original title alone, not to mention the hundreds of other levels in over 15 other games… I forgot where I was going with that -- if you’ve played all of the Angry Birds titles, that means you’ve decided the fate of literally thousands of green pigs… Since the games have been downloaded billions of times amongst them, that means the entire populations of several planets worth of pigs have been wiped out.

Run, pigs! Your kind is undergoing genocide!

So, why did Rovio create yet another title, instead of just updating the old ones ad infinitum? Well, my theory is that with the Angry Birds movie coming out next year, they wanted to bring the art style more in line with that. And compared to the original game, the art is definitely lovelier. It’s a lot more vibrant and colourful (which is saying something), and there are a lot of nice touches such as when you pull the catapult back, it shows a close-up shot of the bird in the corner of the screen looking angry, and the same box flashes to show the pigs one-by-one looking afraid. It’s small enough to not be in the way, and can be easily ignored if you really don’t like it - but I did, so I’ve been watching it almost more than where I’m aiming!

That’s right -- I said catapult. Once more you are trying to pop the pigs and save the eggs, but what else would you expect from a direct sequel? To change it would be like Call of Duty: Black Ops IV being a single-player-only trading card game. The change up this time, is that each level takes place over multiple sections, and every five or ten levels you must fight a boss. The boss has a health bar, so with your limited number of birds you must knock it down to zero, mostly using the environment. It’s more fun than some of the spin-off bosses that have a habit to move about as you launch twenty birds around the level.

As well as having multiple sections, each level only gives you a certain number of birds, including Silver, the new grey silver feathered bird who plunges straight down and replaces the green boomerang one, usually one of each type you’ve unlocked. This gives things a bit more strategy than the original, but you can unlock extra by causing more destruction of the pigs’ construction efforts, or by paying gems. I love the fact that you can now select which of the birds you want to launch: one thing that I felt was very lacking in past iterations. If you’re not allowed to select different birds, then there must be one set way to complete a level, which never sat right with me.

Aiding your destruction is each bird’s special power. They all retain the powers from the original, but whereas black still explodes, yellow still speeds and blue still splits into three, red also now has a power! I was quite happy to see that, though it’s not exactly a revelation as his power is a slight ‘force wave’ firing out a few lengths in front of him to help knock things over. There are also spells, one use only items that do things like turning the entire construction into ice or make a ton of ducks fall from the sky.

Because as well as worrying about eggs, the pigs now have to worry about other stuff falling upon them

The first taste is free, as they keep telling me say. Of course, to get more spells you have to pay gems, which you can guess by now, cost real money. You can get them by completing daily objectives, such as popping 30 pigs or as a reward for playing, but it is never close to the amount you need. The gems are used for spells and for more birds, should you fail a level -- and for more lives to retry levels should you run out of those and not want to wait for the timer. Gone are the days of hitting retry as soon as the first bird launches, because it wasn’t the perfect angle…

In most other Angry Birds titles, you get adverts shoved down your throat. I was happy to not find that wasn’t the case in Angry Birds Stella POP!, and I’m delighted to find it’s the same in this game. It’s okay for games to have in-app purchases and adverts, but Angry Birds Transformers for instance, I played it a few times and saw more adverts than I would by watching the same amount of television...

The bosses jump from the airship, but the eggs always remain on it

Angry Birds 2 continues the tradition of being able to play even in airplane mode, which is just another star in its cap. However there is one mode that you cannot do without a data connection/WiFi -- Arena. Take part in a league, where you try to score more points than everyone else, which you can enter once every three hours -- unless you pay gems. It’s a continuous level with many, many sections, so you have one supply of birds and loads of opportunity for destruction. There are multiple daily leagues to enter, so if you want to prove you’re the best, you can keep entering and do so. No longer will you be restricted to your Facebook friends, now you can take on the world! Or just prove to the world how badly you suck, in my case...

Say what you will about Rovio, they know how to improve their addictive formula. One could claim they are the drug dealers of mobile gaming, pedaling loads of products that will only serve to scratch that itch for as long as you can afford it. And if you’re like me, willing to wait for timers to run down to regain lives after multiple retries, then you will be scratching for years to come especially given their proven record of supporting titles for an entire console generation worth of time.

No, that pig isn't eating the power bar, it's flying past it!

Angry Birds 2 improves on a solid foundation with great visuals, improved gameplay, more fun levels and the replayability of Arena mode. It’s hard to find fault, given that it’s a strong start to an F2P title that will last longer than some relationships. It’s unfortunate that there isn’t a paid version, as well as the free version like with the original, and the fact it’s exactly the same formula as the last one with some new content does hurt a little, but if you’re a fan then you’re in for a ride.