December 11 is upon us, and true to its word Rovio has made Angry Birds Go available worldwide for the iPhone and iPad. In a huge, simultaneous cross platform launch, mobile gamers everywhere can finally get their hands on the latest title in the Angry Birds franchise. Only, this time around, things are a little different.

Welcome to downhill racing on Piggy Island! Feel the rush as you fling those freewheeling birds and piggies down the track at breakneck speed – with plenty of twists and turns in a thrilling race to the finish line! But beware! Look out for hazardous roads, mischievous opponents riding your tail and special powers to put the race leader behind the pack. Plus, go from soapbox car to supercar by upgrading your ride! Ready…Set…Angry Birds Go!

This new game still has a distinctly traditional Angry Birds feel to it, but cross that with Mario Kart and you're not a million miles away from what we're looking at. In our so far short time with it, we've found it's a colorful, fun little mobile kart racer that looks great and feels great to play. The controls are responsive and extremely simple, and there's a bundle of different types of race to get stuck into.

Angry Birds Go is a free-to-play title, but subsidized with in-app purchases. To avoid paying for things you can collect coins while playing to save having to buy them with real money, but at the same time you're trying to compromise this and winning the race. Without coins you can't upgrade, and without upgrades you can't enter some races, so it'll be interesting to see how soon we might hit a paywall.

That said, it could be another winner from Rovio, since those guys seem to strike gold any time the Angry Birds are involved. We'll have a full review once we've had time to play it some more, but you can download it from the App Store at the link below. If you take it out for a spin, let me know what you think of it!

Angry Birds Go

Angry Birds Go