Angry Birds Star Wars

3 cert, Rovio, iPad (also iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Windows phone) ****

Angry Birds Star Wars, to paraphrase Homer Simpson, works on so many levels. The gameplay is addictive as ever, the references are witty and cute, and it’ll drive Star Wars purists round the bend. It’s a bizarre reworking of the space opera, told with birds and pigs. Familiar music and funny sound effects echo the saga and the backgrounds refer to settings from the films.

For those who have been living in a galaxy far, far away, Angry Birds gameplay is touch-screen, and involves catapulting birds from a slingshot to the other side of the screen. The object of the game is to have the birds smash into their enemies (pigs) or into objects that can crush them. Star Wars-themed additions aside, the latest game stays mostly within this formula. The iconic app games have enchanted hundreds of millions of fans (from Justin Beiber to Salman Rushdie), and if you’ve avoided it so far, Angry Birds Star Wars is one of the better corners of the franchise, and a great place to start.