[Review] Angry Birds Go! for Windows Phone

Lastly I spent some free time playing on Lumia 1020 which was due to some awesome releases for Windows Phone over the weekend went very well giving me the options from Angry Birds Go!, Temple Run 2 and Subway Surfers. I thought to give my review about the playing experience in order.

Here is the first one goes down for “Angry Birds Go!”

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If you have been in touch with online our news feed, Angry Birds Go! has been updated thrice in its initial days after the first release. The bad part is it still does not support devices with 512 MB RAM. If you have got some high-end Lumia device then you have the chance to get the game. However as told earlier, the game is yet to be optimized for the devices with lower RAMs. There could be any other reason too but there is no official words about it. As we have seen the game running on all Android devices with no such RAM restrictions, we believe the game will arrive sooner or later on the budget Lumia devices as well.

This review is based on the experience I felt during my play on Nokia Lumia 1020, hence may be different from other devices due to many other factors which may include the device handling and grip in hands, the size, the thickness and most importantly the display.

The game is around 100 MB in size so you should sure use a WiFi connection to avoid any data charge while downloading unless you have unlimited data plan. After the initial download from store, additional content download was performed during the first run of the game. Well that’s the same on all platforms. the download is around 50 MB (If I remember).

Download link: Read more & Download from Windows Phone Store

Review Angry Birds Go!  Review Angry Birds Go!

On later runs the process of downloading will occur but will be passed over after verifying if the content has been downloaded already. And then there comes the splash screen.

Review Angry Birds Go!

Introduction

The genre of the game completely differs from the earlier titles of the series of Angry Birds. Angry Birds Go! provides the same characters from the previous versions with a different topic that is racing – kart racing on the tracks including soft and hard roads with providing you with access to an opening car with limited features and a bird to drive it.

The downhill racetracks are combined with different turns which are blocked leaving a single track for riding while in different levels and races the turns are unblocked making a new way for riding while blocking the other one.

The freewheeling birds and piggies go down the road while racing actually gives an idea of playing the Angry Birds with physics and gravity that the original title has brought to the smartphones.

Game Play

The game contains very straight to the point menus. A selected car menu and the next is the level menu with 5 strategic races including 1 with the boss.

Review Angry Birds Go! Review Angry Birds Go!

Boss is always one of the characters you have been familiar with in previous Angry Birds variants. You have played with them to crash the piggies. In Angry Birds Go! as soon as you beat the boss, the boss comes under your team and you get the option to switch between the birds to play with. Each beaten boss will be available in the nests in the main menu for you to switch with.

Review Angry Birds Go! Review Angry Birds Go!

Being a downhill racing, Angry Birds Go! provides the tracks downwards from the hills top. Just like in the original Angry Birds game, the race starts with the slingshot to launch the cars participating the race. Each participating car is launched by their slingshot after 3, 2, 1 counting and freewheel down from the hill top.

Review Angry Birds Go! Review Angry Birds Go!

The game is freemium with no cost for downloading and playing. You just download and start playing it with an initial bird/driver and a slow runner car. Keep playing and keep collecting coins and diamonds. It will not be far away that you will be going to need to buy or upgrade your car where you will need coins or diamonds which are not present. Then you will have to pay real money to get coins and/or diamonds.

Review Angry Birds Go! Review Angry Birds Go!

Two steering controls are the option in the racing. The tilt control and the onscreen left/right touch control. I played mostly with the onscreen touch controls and found them better to control the karts. As long as you complete the tasks your bird gains special power-ups including, king sling, boost and kart repair. Well they help you a lot in the race as I found them.

Review Angry Birds Go!

After completing a level with beating the boss you get another level with another boss to beat. The first stage of the game brought two levels and completing those two levels with unlocked the next stage with the whole new set of cars where you can’t bring up the already upgraded cars along.

Review Angry Birds Go! Review Angry Birds Go!

Well on the next stage the cars actually starts almost from the similar powered cars as you had on the previous stage after upgrading them. The coins/diamonds are what you bring up along and can spend on the new cars to upgrade them if you want.

One thing we skipped to tell above is the tiring factor of the birds/drivers that mostly occurred before reaching the next stage. The fact is you only can race 5 times before your bird needs to get rest for as along as up to 30 minutes. That disturbs most of the time until when you beat bosses and have them in your team. But once your team adds up with more birds to choose as a driver, you can switch to another bird when one needs rest. But the limit remains same for each bird before when your bird needs to rest for a definitive time period.

Review Angry Birds Go!

Review Angry Birds Go!For example, supposing you have 3 birds to drive with. You will have 15 races in total after when your all 3 birds would have been gone to take rest for 30 minutes each. Then you could pay with some diamonds to recharge the current driver if you have some. And if you haven’t any diamond, there comes the option to buy some diamonds with real money via in-app purchases from the Windows Phone store. You can also buy coins with the diamonds. However you can buy diamonds and the cars directly with your real money.

Review Angry Birds Go! Review Angry Birds Go!

The above purchasing cost PKR 10,850/- (~$100) is maximum to gain 6500 diamonds. Minimum is PKR 340/- (~$3) for 100 diamonds. Well that depends, if you want to purchase or (along with your driver birds) want to take rest you can close the game, do something else and get back to the game after a while as the birds will take exactly the said time to get recharged for full 5 more races.

In our opinion, the best is to wait while your birds take rest because longer game plays are not suited for your health. Give yourself rest too.

Verdict

Angry Birds Go! being and addition to the famed series of the title Angry Birds, at first, made me felt it to be just another variant of the series as it was with other variants but the very first day of the release on iOS really told us what it was. Racing with Birds? well it was really amazing at first on iPhone and iPad but this review was specifically for the Windows Phone and specially with the quality display of Nokia Lumia 1020, I can clearly make an option to choose playing on Nokia Lumia 1020. It was really sharp and clear display that was addictive to play such a game.

The Good Thing was the different game play of Angry Birds than we have had on earlier versions. Buying/switching new cars, upgrading the cars and changing the driver was fun playing with. In addition what we prefer to be such an element in any game is the tiring factor of the player. I liked the way, the bird driver tires after playing for a few minutes and needs rest. That element in fact gives you some minutes to actually take rest before continuing with the game play. This could be a bad factor for you if you prefer to play continuously.

The Bad Thing was the repetitive tracks with a few turn block differences. The game actually is free to download and play, even there is no visible ads. But there is a pricing strategy that involves real money to pay with, for availing coins and diamonds that you may need in the game play. The worst is that making a purchase do not verify with the account password and takes you in the store to confirm paying with the available credit cards.

Overall for being a racing game, it’s a good addition to your game list that you would want to play in your free time. Without paying the real money you can play challenges to gain more coins and diamonds. That’s a good part of the game of course.

In our opinion the In App Purchase options are not good enough to match the game play as far as it’s now. There is not a wide range tracks that you will be paying for, hence racing on each track repeatedly can give you more rewards/coins/diamonds that will also keep tiring your bird again and again. There are only two simple controls to steer the kart from which you choose one. There are no brakes at all. The game may be said as good enough graphically but as far as game play is concerned, without paying your real money you won’t be able to play the game for little longer.

If you haven’t play the game, you should actually. No mater what platform, it’s now available for  iOS, Android and Windows Phone, do give it a try and let us know with your opinion below. We won’t recommend buying anything from within the game options.

Download Angry Birds Go!

Download link: Read more & Download from Windows Phone Store