It’s time for another new Xbox Windows Phone game this week. Sadly, Gameloft’s N.O.V.A. 3 didn’t make it out yet, but we still expect it at the end of May or early June. Instead, this week’s release is the not too surprising but still appreciated Angry Birds Rio from Rovio.
I say not surprising because two weeks ago Microsoft and Nokia both announced that Rio would be coming very soon. They weren’t lying! Meanwhile, Angry Birds Rio has also flown in on Windows Phone 7 without Xbox Live features, just as we predicted. Now then, what makes this Rio game different from the 1500 other official Angry Birds titles already available on Windows Phone? Read on to find out.
Blame it on Rio
Angry Birds Rio is both a sequel to the popular Angry Birds series as well as a tie-in to the 2011 CG animated film Rio that everyone has probably forgotten about by now. But you know, other than being yet another blasted movie about talking animals, Rio wasn’t a bad film! Certainly smarter and prettier than Ice Age, if you ask me. Other than the gross and stupid bulldog.
Anyway, Rio happens to be about birds, so the pairing with Angry Birds makes decent sense. But instead of being a Rio game that plays like Angry Birds (which would be the traditional way to adapt a film), Angry Birds Rio is basically a regular Angry Birds game with the standard Angry Birds characters that takes place in the movie's setting of Rio de Janeiro. The enemies are marmosets instead of pigs though.
The game also happens to have levels based more closely on the movie every now and then. These consist of boss battles, a first for the Angry Birds series. In these battles, you’ll fling Blu and Jewel, the movie’s lead characters, at the various filmic antagonists such as Nigel, the incredibly evil parrot and Mauro, the leader of the mercenary marmosets (a kind of monkey or something, by the way).
Find that fruit
Rio surprisingly lacks the usual Achievement for breaking some massive number of blocks or playing a silly number of hours. Players will need to unlock 500 stars and score 17,500,000 points though, which is a lot! There’s also an Achievement for finding six golden fruit. Here are links to guides for most of the golden fruit:
A fully featured flock
Now, casual Windows Phone gamers will be pleased as punch to have yet another Angry Birds game to play. Serious gamers might feel a bit less enthused, as Rovio has published a whopping five Windows Phone series entries since last November: Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Star Wars, Angry Birds Seasons, Angry Birds Classic, and now Rio. Certainly the glut of similar releases increases the possibility of series fatigue.
Still, we can’t fault Rovio for their much increased Windows Phone support! Not too long ago, many wondered if the series creator had forgotten our plucky platform. Now we have almost every game in the series available to us, and with just about all of their levels intact to boot.
Just last Friday, Rovio updated all three versions of Angry Birds Star Wars (Windows Phone 7, 8, and Windows 8) with new levels as well as fixing some bugs in Angry Birds Classic. Now Rio has launched with all seven standard level packs with 210 levels as well as 40-plus bonus levels (they’re hard to count) that you’d find on other platforms. So we’re getting good versions of these games, at least. And Bad Piggies and Angry Birds Friends can't be too far behind.
Take a trip to Rio
Have some Store links! Before you ask, no, buying the Windows Phone 7 version doesn’t get you access to the Windows Phone 8 version. As with all the Angry Birds games, both versions are separate purchases and not compatible with the other platform.
- Angry Birds Rio – Windows Phone 8 – 99 cents – 31 MB – Store Link
- Angry Birds Rio – Windows Phone 7 – 99 cents - 24 MB – Store Link
Thanks to Jey Si and Guilherme da Silva Manso for the tips!
