Angry Birds Go!

Angry birds go is an enjoyable soap box cart styled racer in which you race to unlock various birds and pigs from the series each of which has their own unique special abilities that assist you in collecting coin and iap that is spend on new carts and upgrades.

Summary complete.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds-go!/id642821482?mt=8
Free, 94mb and Universal.

This game is more like a soap box derby than any other racing game that I've ever encountered on the App Store. You don't have engines, you have your sling shot at the beginning of the race and an entire down hill track that naturally causes you to find speed as you go. You gain speed as we'll through certain birds special abilities and occasional booster arrows on the track. You can lose speed by hitting things or being hit by other birds so yes it's possible to hit a jump and fall to your doom because you didn't have enough speed to cross. The good news for that is most jumps have a arrow booster in front of the jump so you just need to aim right.

All the tracks have multiple routes some of which are or are not available depending on the type of race your attempting. There are five total course types. The traditional which has you race against 5-6 other birds. The timed race where you just need to cross the finish line in a timely manner while dodging everything littering the course. The fruit bash, smash x amount of fruit before the end of the course, this type usually has opponents on the course with you who can and will attempt to grab fruit before you. A versus mode that let's you race one on one against other birds. Lastly there are the boss tracks. In order to access the boss track you need to complete one traditional, timed and fruit track first for the series your in. Boss races always require you to win three times and reward you with your opponent as a new bird for racing. All other types of track have a different reward, complete a type 5 times and you unlock challenge mode. Challenge mode simply has three goals for each tier. Complete the goals and you advance to the next tier.

Controls are very nice and come in tilt and arrow models. The arrow system is particularly nice in that the arrows are is simply on the left and right sides of the screen, tap them to turn. Every bird has a unique ability. Some are more geared towards beating other birds, some are better for the boss fights and others designed for fruit mode.

The vehicles. There are of four currently series, each of which has as many as three tournaments and each of those has its own batch of race types and a unique track. Each series also has it's own vehicles. Yes this means all the work you put in to maxing out your vehicle in the first series you don't get to bring along for the second. And above that the game dosent even award you a starter car when you unlock the new series, you have to save up for it. Each series has 2 in game currency vehicles, 2 iap currency vehicles and serveral strait up cash options. All vehicles have different traits and all are upgradable. When you max our your vehicle you upgrade the entire vehicle to its next tier, each vehicle has 3 tiers, ideally you should be moving up a tier for each tournament you advance in too. The vehicles handle well, are fun to drive and the birds very much animated on them.

There is another game play mode called jenga. This is probably the closest this game gets to the traditional angry birds game play mode, sling shot, a ramp and a wall of blocks, pigs and explosives. Your goal? Aim right, draw back just enough and knock out all the pigs. The rewards for doing so are in game currency though not much and progress towards an achievement or two.

Let's talk about the iap. This game has my favorite types as well as the types I'm not all that fond of. On the favorite side there is a 6 dollar coin doubler and a 2 dollar jenga unlock. I like these. One time purchase long term enjoyment. As for the ones I don't like their are lots of coin packs and each race series has several very expensive golf carts. Then of course there are the despicable strait up cash model cart options. And of course the real money and iap ones are better than the in game currency choices. My advice? Pick up the coin doubler and jenga unlocker, ignore every damn other iap option. Their entirely too expensive.

Will you enjoy this game? If you approach it from the "I should be able to play as long as I want until I don't feel like playing anymore or beat the game" you will despise Rovio for putting this game out in its current format for there is one other iap tempter to harass you continually. Each bird has an energy bar. Yep, each bird can be used 5 times and then takes a little over an hour to completely recharge their 5 uses. Early on this means pretty slow game play. Later on, not so much so. I've got 5 birds ATM and by the time I've spent all their charges I'm usually ready to go play something else anyways.

Take this game as I take it. Log in once or twice a day if you please, play till you bore or run out of charges and then just go okay something else. You'll enjoy it from that casual approach. The hardcore approach is best left to the big spenders.

My progress: I'm in the air series working on the second bird unlock.