Angry Birds, Clickgamer’s new physics puzzler, is available in the app store. Simple control mechanics (when they actually work), a cutesy premise, and wanton destruction of personal property combine to create a fun timewaster of a game.

Angry Birds uses a simple slingshot mechanism to fling various birds at the green piggies who have stolen the birds’ eggs. The piggies do their best to insulate themselves from the attack by hiding within poorly constructed buildings, but a few well-placed shots should bring the structure down and spell the end for the piggies. Eliminate all piggies to move on to the next level. Any unused birds will earn bonus points. As you progress through the game’s 63 levels, the birds gain special powers to explode, divide into multiple projectiles, dive bomb, or carpet bomb the buildings with exploding eggs.

The gameplay is fairly simplistic, though a lot of fun. Birds will be automatically loaded into the slingshot. Drag the bird to the left, stretching farther for more power. Drag downward to aim, keeping in mind that gravity will create a parabolic trajectory that will require pinpoint accuracy to hit your target dead on. Release to fire and watch the fun. The previous flight path will be marked for the next bird, so that you can adjust accordingly. You can also drag your finger around the screen to pan over and get a good view of your target area, as well as pinch to zoom. Unfortunately, this caused us to experience some issues with the controls, as dragging on the bird was often mistaken for panning around the screen. This was quite frustrating and we questioned whether it was worth continuing to play due to the annoyance. Hopefully, this will be addressed in an update.

The graphics had a fun, cartoonish, kid-friendly look about them, which was somewhat endearing. We almost hated to see the grinning piggies disappear in a puff of smoke or watch the feathers fly when a bird exploded. Hopefully, PETA is unaware of the gross misuse of animals found in this game (we kid, we kid). The sometimes elaborate structures will require well-aimed shots and a bit of luck to meet your goal before running out of birds. The soundtrack is upbeat, and the sound effects are fun, too, as both birds and piggies are fairly animated and make plenty of goofy noises.

We were struck by the physics involved in collapsing the buildings, as we had more difficulty than expected. Many times our birds could only chip away at certain areas and there was little occasion for strategy to play a major role. Luck was often necessary to have the pieces fall into place. We prefer to be in charge of our own fate rather than leave it up to fate. Too often, the piggies would become insulated by falling debris rather than destroyed by it. It is very unclear that will cause the piggies to pop.

Angry Birds Pros:

• 63 levels
• Fairly simplistic, but fun, gameplay
• Endearing kid-friendly graphics
• Upbeat soundtrack with various sound effects

Angry Birds Cons:

• Control issues -- dragging on the bird was often mistaken for panning around the screen
• Success seemed to rest more on chance than skill
• Frustratingly difficult levels minimizing replay desire

Replay value is moderate, as many levels were frustratingly difficult and we’re not sure we’d want to subject ourselves to them again. The addition of a level editor could make the game a whole lot more enjoyable. The ability to decide which types of birds to use instead of relying on a prescribed order would also be nice. Allowing for random order generation or picking-and-choosing could increase the likelihood that we’d keep playing. We’ve played other physics-based puzzlers that we’ve enjoyed more, but we feel that Angry Birds has a good foundation upon which to build. At $0.99, Angry Birds is worth the money even if you only enjoy a single playthrough. Hopefully, some interesting updates will be forthcoming that would improve its 4-Dimple rating.

Angry Birds gets our AppSmile 4-Dimple rating: