Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

French developer Rovio's Angry Birds seems to be all the craze nowadays in the download/app universe. With over two-hundred million downloads of this casual game, Angry Birds is a phenomenal success. Aside from the game's wacky style and humor, the simple, easy-to-learn and play game mechanics make it an easy game to pick up and a hard one to put down. Angry Birds on the PC is not as comfortable to play as the iphone or ipad counterparts, and not being able to take Angry Birds anywhere in your pocket is a nuisance, the PC version of Rovio's epitome of casual goodness is still worth the download.

The birds in Angry Birds are infused with rage for good reason. Those green puke colored pigs have stolen their eggs. In a war for their young, the birds sacrifice their own lives by jumping into a slingshot, being flung into blocks of wood, sheets of ice, and slabs of concrete. In each stage you have a select number of birds to use to defeat your pig enemies. The pigs have no offensive attack, nor do they have any defense except for the occasional helmet, and, of course, the projectiles that surround them in the stage.

There are various types of birds in the game. The standard red birds who can break through wood and damage ice and concrete projectiles. There are tiny blue birds ,who can split into three with a click, who break ice better than the other birds. The yellow birds are the most speedy, as they can zip into wood and knock the legs out of stacked projectiles. There are also white birds who lay a bomb with a click of the mouse, and black birds who explode with a click. There are a few new birds with their own unique abilities who appear throughout the game.

Though the premise and objective in each level is extremely simple, defeating all of your swine foes can be tricky, as you often have to aim your bird at a precise angle, use the right bird for the right circumstance, and sometimes just hope that everything topples in your favor. Angry Birds is most enjoyable played in short bursts, though it can be easy to get sucked into the game for hours at a time.

Angry Birds can be downloaded for roughly five bucks online, that's a little more pricey than the versions on Apple's App Store. If you have a handheld Apple device, it is a no-brainer that you should download it for your handheld. The mouse-pad and touch pad for PCs are not as intuitive and comfortable as the ipod touch, iphone, and ipad interfaces, but the game's charm and fun are not lost in translation.