by Even more so than the middling Angry Birds Star Wars II, Angry Birds Go! feels like an elaborate advertisement for other products rather than a purposeful game. The ever-in-vogue kart racer spinoff is tied into a series of marginally useful Telepods toys, and also tries to sell its soundtrack from the menu screens. But this free-to-play affair takes things much further via the introduction of sponsored boosts. Want to keep your kart from breaking down during a race? Use the State Farm Insurance power-up. Much more galling is the Goldfish-branded speed boost, which shoots a stream of virtual cheddar crackers behind your kart for the entire race. No, really.
While the advertising feels incredibly audacious, especially in a game targeted at a young audience, Angry Birds Go! doesn’t stop there. Rovio’s biggest free-to-play experience to date messily merges elements from every irksome freemium approach out there, including an energy meter that limits how much you can play at any given time, a grind-like approach that demands you play scads of similar events to make laboriously slow progress, and even paywalls that block access to the top-tier karts, which sell for as much as $50. But you can have the junkers free of charge — well, until you hit the third chapter, and have to replay past events to purchase a new vehicle to play even a single race.
It’s that middling slog-like approach that kills Go’s positive momentum more than the energy meter or ads. Each minute-or-so-long track you unlock becomes your focus for a couple dozen events at a time, with the goal of slowly earning enough coins to upgrade your ride to meet the requirements for the next event, and try to recruit a new bird or pig ally by beating him or her in a frustratingly tough series of races. The standard events — including races, beat-the-clock time trials, and fruit-smashing romps — lack challenge or particular excitement, while the boss duels often find you underpowered against an opponent that can abuse seemingly endless attacks. You can match its prowess by investing ever-limited coins on bonus power-ups, or spending quite a bit of real cash.
Between the repetitive racing structure and the severely limiting energy meter — which restricts you to five races per bird in a short span, with each meter slot taking upwards of 45 minutes to refill — Angry Birds Go! devolves into pure tedium shortly after it starts, and things only get more irritating and less satisfying the longer you devote to the game. It’s a shame, because Rovio’s knack for immaculately crafted mobile experiences isn’t completely obscured by its overreaching free-to-play design. Go! is a gorgeously presented game, and the driving mechanics are very solid, but such quality aspects are wasted here.
The bottom line. Angry Birds Go! may be the most glaring example to date of a stellar game concept thoroughly corrupted by an awful litany of freemium tactics.
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