Angry Birds has become a hit—there is no argument about that. Between the myriad of games, the plush toys and now an in-app payment system, there is plenty of evidence.
Back in the fall, Rovio produced a Halloween game, which they have now renamed to ‘Seasons.’ We reported a little while back that Angry Birds Seasons was going to be a free upgrade for current ‘Angry Birds: Halloween’ owners, which is a nice present. The new portion of ‘Seasons’ includes a Christmas-based theme.
These levels can be a bit trickier to complete. This factor is not a bad thing, since it makes the prospect of the game more challenging. Keeping with the theme of Christmas, Rovio has chosen to create an Advent calendar of the new expansion. This means that the levels are only unlocked as each day arrives. This might be a problem for those of you who are truly addicted to Angry Birds.
There is one issue with this advent-type approach, and it’s rather big. If you’re using an iPod touch or WiFi iPad, you MUST be connected to WiFi in order to be able to open up the new levels. This can be a significant problem, as demonstrated by the reviews for the game. As of this writing, there were 37 reviews, and 16 of these (or 43%) were two stars or below. This shows a significant percentage of people who are not in-favor of the requirement for WiFi to play the new levels. Along with these 16, there were 4 more that were only 3 stars, again due to the WiFi requirement
If you do attempt to play without a Wifi connection, you will receive the following error.
There has been no word from Rovio regarding this requirement. While I appreciate the sentiment of the season with the Advent calendar setup, this does pose an issue for anybody who does not regularly connect their device to WiFi.
Another problem I had is that the game defies basic physics. In keeping with the festive theme, one of the new features is snowblocks. These are not too terribly difficult to penetrate. But, what happens when a user smashes the bottom of a tree and removes the snow blocks at the bottom? You would think that all of the snow bricks would fall. However, this is not the case, as demonstrated in the image below.
Magically these bricks can stay aloft without any supporting mechanism whatsoever. This seems to violate the basic law of gravity. Granted, I understand it’s a game, but even within their own game the sticks fall, or begin to fall if they are hit. And yet, the snow blocks don’t fall despite being heavy. Seems a bit hypocritical to me.
Overall, it’s a nice addition, with a beautifully designed theme to match the holiday season. The issues expressed are only temporary, but do add a bit of disdain for the update amongst users. While I realize that this will not affect the vast majority of users, it’s a significant burden for those who are affected. Issues like the one described above make not only for Angry Birds but also angry customers.
