Ranking The Angry Birds Games On iPhone

When people talk about the ‘apps goldrush’ and how potentially lucrative an iPhone or Android app can be, this is a whole concept that was really brought about by Rovio. Rovio, the makers of Angry Birds, were the first company to really demonstrate just how successful a good app could be, and provided the killer app (pun unintended… for a change) for the smartphone era. This was the ‘Snake’ equivalent for smarter phones, and the ‘Mario’, ‘Sonic’ or ‘Halo’ for pared down devices. It’s a testament to just how fantastically well made this game is, that even people who don’t consider themselves gamers or who never normally play games on their phones, still managed to become truly enthralled by this little gem. I’ve personally lost about three years of my life to this time eater… No exaggeration. Okay maybe a little bit.

After conquering the apps market though, what do you go on to do? Rovio now had some spare time on their hands and had to follow-up their project with something new. So what did they do? They made more Angry Birds games of course.

But of all these various iterations, which entries in the series are the best? Which are superfluous and unnecessary? And does the formula still have it or has it run dry? Here we will look at which Angry Birds games are the best and which ones you should seek out…

5 Angry Birds

I’m not one of those people who says that the original is the best because it started it all. Of course this game is a classic and it was the first to cotton on to that fantastic gameplay mechanic that would prove so devastatingly addictive, however it has also since been outdone by more recent iterations that took the same mechanics and did something new with them, so it’s hardly the best out there anymore.

4 Angry Birds Rio

Angry Birds Rio should really be ashamed of itself for such obvious marketing and for selling out, but at the same time it’s hard to really hate a game that builds on the original with improved graphics and new mechanics. Sure it’s not the most original addition to the series (though you get some new birds to play with…) but it’s still ‘Angry Birds but better’.

3 Angry Birds Space

I’m putting Angry Birds Space here because it’s the hardest one to rank. The concept was the first time that Rovio really did something new and interesting with their gameplay – introducing gravity effects – but at the same time while this is fun for a while it doesn’t quite beat the best examples of the original bringing unnecessary confusion and some gimmicky feeling levels.

2 Bad Piggies

This is the first time that Rovio has really stepped outside of their comfort zone and done something new – Bad Piggies does away with the wanton destruction of its predecessors and instead introduces something opposite – construction. If you’ve ever played Apparatus then you’ll be familiar with the idea of building contraptions to reach goals, but Bad Piggies of course gives the whole idea a more Rovio flavour and makes it much more accessible. It seems overly simplistic at first, but when you build a flying contraption with a timed explosive to blow your pig across the screen you’ll be squealing with delight (that pun was intended…). The only downside is that you’re about to feeling even worse when you kill off those pigs in future…

1 Angry Birds Seasons   

This third instalment was yet another example of iteration over imagination, but while it might look the same it also brought a lot more gameplay tropes which made the levels more challenging and interesting. It’s simply the best example of a brilliant game and that’s why it’s at number one.

Robbie Crowe is an avid tech blogger who has shared his knowledge on how to  jailbreak iPhone 3gs iOS 5.1.1  through his blog.

Post Tags: Angry Birds, Games, iOS, iPhone apps, mobile games, Rovio, technology