4…3…2…1…liftoff

Many things have ascended beyond the stratosphere: satellites, dogs, golf clubs, music, and now Angry Birds. That’s right, as many of you may already be aware, Angry Birds are officially members of the thousand mile high club. Rovio’s latest installment to the series takes place in the deepest reaches of space, a refreshing change of pace with tons of cool designs and levels.

The first thing you’ll notice are the new appearances of the birds; they look like superheroes! With the new costumes come new abilities. Some are faster than before, some stronger, while others are used in completely different ways. The levels are a lot more challenging because there is no gravity in space. You’ve got to fling the superhero-alien birds up, down, and all around in order to pop the pigs, with or without gravity. There’s even some pretty fun retro bonus levels if you can find them. Background images are beautiful with constantly moving asteroids, comets, and other various space junk.

If you thought the original was a physicist’s dream world, wait until you see amount of detail in this version. While there is gravity, it’s only in certain areas of the levels. Imagine the time spent calculating the trajectories of every bird with weight and speed as factors plus the structure’s physics and how they fall or float in space. New appreciation should be given to those who work hard building these games.

Everything is unique and fun, but there are a couple of upsets. The Mighty Eagle is not unlimited; you have to buy a certain amount of uses or wait to receive free ones after completing some levels. Probably the most upsetting part is not being able to use all the old birds. No white, orange, and, even though nobody likes it, no green.

Maybe some changes will come in the future. Until then this game is still entertaining enough to last awhile. With the addition of Angry Birds Space, all versions could last you to the moon and back.