After soft-launching in a few countries south of the equator, Rovio’s newest kart racer, Angry Birds Go! is now available worldwide. The app is completely free to download and will be available for iOS, Android, Windows 8 Phone, and Blackberry 10. As of yet, we have no heard any official statement from Rovio whether it will be released for PC or Mac.
Note, Angry Birds Go is over 90 MBs and requires a healthy amount of RAM. On iOS, it’s a universal app requiring iOS 6.0 or later, and compatible with iPhone 4+, iPod Touch 5g+, and all iPads. Also, the app comes equipped with Rovio Accounts, allowing you to sync your data to the Cloud and continue playing on another device!
Oh, and there’s more Angry Birds news from today alone. Stay tuned…
Table of Contents:
You start the game with Red as the only available racer and Seedway as the only track. You must purchase (or TELEPOD-in) a Seedway-permissible cart to start racing.
Carts have four categories: Top Speed, Acceleration, Handling, and Strength. Use Bird Coins to improve these aspects of your cart, which will likewise increase the “CC” of your engine. (CC stands for Cubic Centimeters, which is commonly used to measure the size of an engine.)
Important Note: Once you increase all four cart attributes to their max, your cart automatically upgrades to allow for even more power! The third time you fully upgrade, the cart will be maxed to the limit.
To control your cart, you can either use “touch” controls (pressing the left or right side of the screen will turn) or “tilt” controls (physically tilting the device laterally). There is no gas or break control, though drifting too hard or taking damage will slow you down.
Your drivers can only race five times before needing a rest. To recharge fully takes a few hours, which can be a bit annoying when you only have one or two drivers. As your team fills up, playing time increases.
Coins are the most common in-game currency. Coins are earned by completing (preferably winning) most races and collecting them in-game. You’ll spend coins to buy new carts, upgrade your cart’s attributes, etc.
Gems are a bit more rare, but by no means impossible to find. Gems are earned by completing challenges (mentioned below), beating Champions, or occasionally collected in-game. You’ll spend gems to buy some carts or skip challenges, or you can buy coins using gems if you’re feeling desperate for an upgrade.
Cash is king. You can’t earn cash besides in your real (non-Angry Birds) life. But you can spend cash to buy gems or carts. Yes, the app has IAPs. (Nervous parent worried about Junior running up your bill? Restrict IAPs!)
There are five types of play in each Champion’s bracket.
Versus: A simple one-on-one sprint. These are good ways to earn coins when needing to upgrade your cart to attempt other races. There is no “minimum CC” to compete, but rather three separate levels of difficulty.
Race Mode: A Grand Prix event in which you compete against 7 other drivers. You must place in the Top 3 to pass. There is a “minimum CC” requirement for each race, and a total of 5 races per bracket. (Once you pass all 5, “Race Challenges” become available, which can help earn both coins and gems fast.)
Time Boom: You alone race the clock, but the track is littered with ice, wood, and stone. Ice will provide the least resistance, wood will hurt your cart a little, and stone is very harmful. Avoid them all if you can to beat the fuse! Again, there is a “minimum CC” requirement, a total of 5 time booms per bracket, and then “Time Challenges” become available.
Fruit Splat: You compete against one or two piggies. The goal is to break enough fruit to clear away the bar at the top of the screen. It’s easiest to do this when you’re in first place, but clearing the bar is all that’s necessary to pass. Once the bar is filled, the remaining fruit will turn to coins! Again, there is a “minimum CC” requirement, a total of 5 fruit splats per bracket, and then “Splat Challenges” become available.
Champion Chase: As you progress, you must beat each additional character three times to unlock access to them. They won’t go down without a fight, so be prepared to retry a few times! There are high “minimum CC” requirements for these races.
There are 12 total characters to play as or compete against, each with its own special ability. We list the ability that you can use when playing as that characters, but note that each has an additional defensive attack during Champion Chase mode.
