There’s no denying that Angry Birds is a worldwide phenomenon. It spans seven main games (all with tons of downloads) and has had various partnerships with the likes of Google Chrome, Microsoft Bing, Star Wars, Rio (the 2011 animated film), Wonderful Pistachios, Cheetos, Coca-Cola, and many more. Heck, this is a brand that started as an iPhone game and now has its own clothing, toys, board games, candy, TV show and more. There’s even an official theme park and feature film on the way. Basically everybody and their mother know how to fling angry birds at naughty green pigs. Seriously — my mom added Angry Birds to her rotation of Backgammon and FreeCell a year or two ago and she’s three-starred just about every level she can get her hands on.

Last year, Rovio launched the first Angry Birds spin-off, Bad Piggies. It was still a collection of physics puzzles, but the gameplay involved constructing and piloting zany vehicles in lieu of the traditional flinging gameplay. Rovio has just released their second spin-off, a kart racer called Angry Birds Go! I personally loved Bad Piggies, so I was excited to see what else Rovio and their goofy cast of creatures could do beyond their normal routine.

As it turns out, Rovio can make a pretty mean kart racer. Races start with all participants loaded into slingshots. You pull back the slingshot to launch your kart for the race. Just like Angry Birds, you can affect the distance and angle of the shot based on how you aim the slingshot. Unlike Angry Birds, there’s a timing element. The game will countdown from 3 and a perfect launch is at “Go!”.

An obvious major change for the series is the fully 3D visuals. The Angry Birds world is vibrant and really just looks awesome in 3D. It’s a great environment that fits the traditionally lighthearted kart racing genre perfectly. The game currently hosts some 12 racers (including both pigs and birds) and about that many race tracks. Rovio has done a great job making sure each track feels unique.

Rovio are masters of making mobile games and that is immediately apparent when you spend time with this game. There are little tweaks everywhere that show Angry Birds Go! has been optimized for mobile platforms. The controls are simplified, there’s just turning and triggering your special ability. Even without ways to hop, drift, brake, or accelerate, you have plenty of control over your kart. The racetracks are all short (1–2 minutes) and require only one lap to complete. That said, there are a bunch of different game modes and there’s always more to do. This combination works well for both bursts of on-the-go gaming and long game sessions on your couch.

There is an energy system in place that limits the length of a single game session. Each racer can race five times without resting. It takes a bit longer than an hour for a racer’s bar to completely recharge, or you can do recharge one instantly with a handful of premium currency (gems). That said, because each racer has its own energy, unlocking more racers lets you extend the maximum length of a single play session. Although, between you and me, you can advance your device’s clock to quickly recover all of your energy.

The racing itself is good. It’s not as good as say, Mario Kart, but I doubt anybody was expecting that. You see, instead of picking up power-ups on the track, each driver has a unique special power that they can use for free once per race. You can use it more on the same race, at the price of a few gems. This power-up system adds the strategic twist of making sure you make the most out of your single free power, but there are problems too. See, in normal kart racers, a lot of the excitement is climbing to first place, losing it, and then fighting to reclaim it. With races being so short and powers being on such short supply, there’s almost no opportunity for exciting place shuffling to take place. Generally, unless you make a big mistake, you’re going to finish the race in the same place you were in after the first 10 seconds.

Still, the core gameplay is really enjoyable and there’s plenty to keep you interested in going. You collect coins by winning races and finding them on the track. The coins can then be spent on buying new carts and upgrading the ones you already have. The coins come in fast, and you’ll only need to finish a few races to afford a new upgrade for your kart. Constantly improving your kart’s max speed, acceleration, handling, and strength is compelling enough, but once you max them all out, your kart will level up. This means a brand new appearance for your kart and its max stats will increase a bit so you can keep working on upgrading it. The game is divided into four chapters that each have 2–3 tracks. Each track has a collection of different race types to progress through. As you advance through the different modes, you earn money, upgrade your cart, and raise its cc rating. Once your cc rating is high enough, you can challenge that track’s champion. If you defeat them three times, you’ll unlock them as a racer as well as the next track. The process then repeats itself on the next track.

Speaking of the different race types, there’s Race, Time Trial, Fruit Splat, Versus, Chase the Champion, Jenga, and Mega Match. Races are standard races against six or so AI opponents. Time Trial is a solo race against the clock (with extra obstacles on the track). Fruit Splat replaces the track’s coins with various fruits that you must smash enough of before crossing the finish line. Versus and Chase the Champion pit you against a single AI opponent. Jenga is a special mode where you drive off a ramp to smash your car into blocks and pigs, sort of like a combination of original Angry Birds gameplay with the kart racing of Angry Birds Go! Admittedly, I’m hours into the game and still haven’t encountered a Mega Match. Once you’ve finished a certain race type five times on the same track, you’ll unlock extra objectives for it. These objectives are things like collecting a certain number of coins, getting a certain star rating, or crashing into a certain number of obstacles. Once you’ve completed three, you’ll move on to the next round of that race and open up three more increasingly difficult objectives. These extra objectives add a ton of replay value to the game and they’re fun to pursue, especially the ones that encourage you to play in unusual ways.

The game is free-to-play and chock full of opportunities to throw money at it. That said, for the most part, it’s all pretty innocuous and the game is totally enjoyable even if you don’t throw a cent Rovio’s way. The game ties in with physical merchandise (like Angry Birds Star Wars II). Angry Birds Go! Jenga comes with a code that unlocks the Jenga mode, or you can just drop a couple bucks to unlock it via IAP. Likewise, Telepods toys let you scan in Angry Birds Go! figures for new cars and drivers. Alternately, you can unlock the special cars via IAP or the drivers by progressing through the game. You can drop money on gems too, which are good for firing extra powers during a race, loading up on boosters, skipping objectives, buying coins, and more. Finally, you can spend $9.99 for a permanent coin doubler. I could hardly believe it when I saw that price (it’s way too high), but as can be expected from a coin doubler, it will be a huge boon to anybody who chooses to invest in it.

The single-player experience is fun enough that it’s hard to put down, but the game would benefit so much from the addition of multiplayer modes. It’s understandable that it’s not included at launch, because there would need to be some significant tweaks to make it work. Karts would need to be balanced so the winner isn’t guaranteed to be the person who’s poured the most coin into their ride. A couple more laps and a power-up system that lets you grab them Mario Kart style would seal the deal. They could even use the power-ups that are already in the game, just distribute them via boxes on the track. It’s probably wishful thinking, but man that would be one of the best local multiplayer experiences available and since it’s Angry Birds, pretty much anybody on a smartphone could easily grab it to join your play session.

It’s a next-to-meaningless word, but Angry Birds Go! is super polished. The karts are adorable, the critters are funny and each has its own set of vocal quips, the whimsical visuals are lovely, and the soundtrack is completely awesome. It’s full of Rovio’s usual charm and well worth your time. Even if you’ve grown out of the Angry Birds series, give Go! a try if a kart racer at all sounds interesting to you. It’s been fine-tuned for the mobile experience and would be an excellent addition to your device whether you like playing in three minute bursts or long sit-down play sessions. I’m not a huge fan of the energy system, but it’s not horrible either considering you get to play for free. As you progress through the game, the energy system will affect you less and less (you’ll have more racers and you’ll be racing on longer tracks). Multiplayer is a glaring omission that I would love to see added in a future update. As it stands, the single-player is full of great arcadey fun that’s almost certain to give you at least a couple hours of free enjoyment and has the potential to give you tons more.

View on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/angry-birds-go!/id642821482?mt=8