Lost in Angry Birds Space

Rovio has just released Angry Birds Space and I'm kind of surprised by how much I love it. I think this silly little game about destroying pigs is the most important mobile game so far and it paints a rosy future for Rovio.

When I first downloaded the Angry Birds Space HD for my new iPad, I wasn't really expecting that much. Sure, Angry Birds is a worldwide phenomenon but I grew tired of the game itself a long time ago. The latest version completely changed my mind.

Rovio has done an amazing job of building upon everything people know and love about Angry Birds but adding a needed level of complexity. It worked with NASA on building the gravity and physics engine for this game and it really ups the difficulty level without pushing away new users.

Angry Birds Space also adds new birds, new fun sounds, stellar animations, boss battles and it looks spectacular on the new iPad. Basically, this is an app that's been well-produced by a company that knows what it's doing and its confidence comes through in spades. Rovio likes to say that it wants to be bigger than Disney and after playing its latest opus, I started to believe that it's not such a crazy goal.

I've been big on Rovio for a while and I've been following the company closely (I even took a tour of its home nest in Finland), so that's why I was happy to see Angry Birds Space deliver the goods. Rovio has done a great job of expanding the ways it makes money off this franchise - look at how much merchandise is out there - but it wouldn't have mattered if they didn't continue to deliver great games.

I sincerely appreciate Rovio's ambition, as it reportedly turned down a $2 billion dollar acquisition offer from Zynga. Walking away from that kind of cash takes a large heaping of coincidence and just a dash of craziness. Rovio is not just a newcomer though, as it had developed 52 mobile games before it broke through with Angry Birds.

Still, trying to be larger than Disney is a long way off for the fowl-flinging creator and I'm confident that Rovio can make incredible Angry Birds games for the rest of time but that may not be enough. Disney has rode Mickey Mouse all the way to the bank but it has also developed many other characters and businesses.

Rovio is still a one-franchise wonder, even if it is a great franchise to have.

It's clear that Rovio will be a force to be reckoned with moving forward thanks to Angry Birds but we're still waiting to see what else it has in that nest.