Angry Birds Rio

Angry Birds Rio is one of the many great and colourful offerings in the Angry Birds franchise. The major difference in this game is that there are no green pigs to defeat, in this version, the birds are plagued by being imprisoned in cages and must be freed and, in later levels, by pesky and screeching (but undeniably cute) furry marmosets.

As in the original version of the game, the player has to navigate through various levels of the game, flinging birds in order to reach targets which, in this game are to defeat the marmosets and open cages containing new birds, some of which have new powers to be explored.

The beauty of Angry Birds Rio is the colourful tropical background which summons up images of Brazilian carnival and exotic Amazonian rainforest. The scenery is full of fabulous fruits, gorgeously painted colourful flowers and offset by cheery blue skies through which the occasional fluffy white cloud passes.

The premise and background of the game is based on the highly-popular children’s movie Rio, in which a flightless blue macaw (the bird, Blue, is flightless through fear and lack of parental example) is flown to Rio de Janeiro to meet a female of his species. Both birds have been presumed to be the last of their species and the idea is to encourage them to breed to re-establish the species, at first in captivity and then, perhaps, in the wild. Blue is separated from his rather over-cautious owner and has many adventures with the feisty and spirited (and thoroughly able to fly!) female blue macaw.

In the game, the blue macaws are joined together by a chain, much as they are throughout part of the movie, and this makes throwing them something of a challenge as they spiral around each other and the weight of the joined birds moves differently to single birds. However, mastering the blue macaw throw is well worth it as a successful throw can wreak a lot of damage and score up lots of points for the player.

While some may sigh at the thought of another Angry Birds game, with more of the same old same old as regards gameplay, levels and points to be scored, but actually playing the game will reveal, as always, the reason for Rovio’s runaway success: addictive gameplay, the need for simple yet challenging skills in play, charming characters and, most significantly, ‘the gotta’ – the desire to win each and every level as you play through – sometimes for hours!

Pros

• New, fun tropical backgrounds
• A variation on the pigs, the marmosets are both cute and cheeky

Cons

• One Angry Birds game is much like the others
• The fact that the game is based on a children’s movie may not appeal to adult or more mature players