Angry Birds Rio

You've heard about Angry Birds. Your mum has heard about Angry Birds.

It's being turned into a downloadable console game, somebody is developing a television programme based around its premise, and now it's taken on film branding in the form of Angry Birds Rio.

The Angry Birds brand is clearly going places, but the bird-slinging action it was built on hasn't evolved much since the original Angry Birds first crashed into the App Store.

Fortunately, solid gameplay elements outshine the lack of fresh content.

The Android Market is awash with terrible content, so it's no surprise that the Amazon Appstore used this game as its first free promotion.

What separates it from its predecessor? Well, to put it bluntly, not much.

Angry Birds Rio features the same bird types and gameplay mechanics as the original title, only this time it's been rebuilt to fit in locations and plot details from the upcoming animated film Rio.

In the first of the two worlds on offer, you're shooting at caged birds to free them from poachers. In the second world you're shooting birds at evil monkeys as you approach a boss fight with the film's main villain.

Custom set-pieces make for an interesting distraction to the normal towers and awkwardly placed blocks, and the robust physics make the game as moreish as it's ever been.

Long term value is provided by hidden pineapples and bananas hidden around the two worlds. On my first play through, I didn't discover a single pineapple – that's how well hidden they are (or unlucky I am).

The game also promises four additional chapters of 30 levels each that will be released between now and November, which should keep Angry Birds fans glued to the game for quite some time.

It is still essentially Angry Birds, but the solid basic gameplay means that fans will relish the new additions to the formula.