Miyamoto praises Angry Birds

Some gamers may shrug off Rovio's hugely popular downloadable game Angry Birds as a simple way to pass time on the train or on a car ride, but Legend of Zelda and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto is a big fan of the series.

Speaking with Hookshot Inc. in Paris this week, Miyamoto was asked about which smartphone games have caught his eye.

"There aren't many games that I've played recently that have been truly convincing to me. But that said, I have very much enjoyed Angry Birds, especially the way in which it combines traditional and new game elements in exciting ways," he said. "Angry Birds is a very simple idea but it's one of those games that I immediately appreciated when I first started playing, before wishing that I had been the one to come up with the idea first."

As for why Angry Birds is so compelling for Miyamoto, the legendary designer replied, "In particular the control scheme is excellent. When you analyze it, the controls are actually quite fuzzy in terms of the way that it works. It takes a little while to get used to the controls, I think, but once you've mastered them, you have a lot of precision. To make it the interface and controls work that well and intuitively… well, I think a lot of work went into getting that right."

Miyamoto even jabbed at Apple's hardware, claiming that if Angry Birds had been developed for the Nintendo DS, the controls would have "obviously been better, but what can you do?"

The original Angry Birds is closing in on 1 billion downloads, and a true sequel--Angry Birds Space--was released last month. For more on that title, check out GameSpot's review.