Tag: March 2011 »

Have you finally managed to conquer all of the holiday goodness that was Angry Birds: Seasons?  If you are anything like me, you have been eagerly awaiting the next proper entry in the series since completing the last festivus themed stage on Christmas morning.  While the game was a present in and of itself, I have been left with a month long void, where everyone's favorite bombadeering birds have been absent from my iPhone.  It has been a dark time, indeed.

This is why I was thrilled to hear official confirmation from Angry Birds developer Rovio, by way of IntoMobile, that a proper sequel to the original phenomenon is not only in the works, but tentatively (not to mention vaguely) scheduled to crash land onto the iOS platform sometime in March.  In another first for the series, the game will be simultaneously launching on not only iOS, but also Android and Symbian.  It is hard not to have mixed feeling about this, given that the franchise was birthed on our gaming platform of choice, but if it helps funding expansions our favorite gaming addiction, who are we to really complain?

[caption id="attachment_64030" align="alignright" width="245" caption="Now THOSE are some angry birds!"]

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Though it is encouraging to hear that the game will be getting a newly christened graphical upgrade, forty-five new stages with the promise for more via update, and several new wrinkles to the game mechanics, it was surprising to learn that the developers have pared up with 20th Century Fox to help complement the launch of their upcoming animated film, Rio.  Entitled the very original, Angry Birds Rio, the game will focus on melding the two worlds together in a way that will hopefully pass along little bit of Rovio's secret sauce onto the cinematic release.

"In Angry Birds Rio, the original Angry Birds are kidnapped and taken to the magical city of Rio, where they eventually escape their captors and set out to to save their friends, Blu and Jewel – two rare macaws and the stars of the upcoming Fox motion picture, Rio.  Angry Birds Rio will pair the physics-based gameplay of the original game with unique twists based on the highly-anticipated film." -- VIA Rovio Mobile BlogPost

I can't help but feel like this is a slight betrayal of some of Angry Bird's early "indie cred", but that said, anyone else in Rovio's position would be insane to not try to even partially cash in on the goodwill associated with the brand.  If nothing else, the immense amount of free content patched into the original game has earned them a free pass in my eyes and honestly, even if I was offended, it wouldn't stop me from gobbling this up the moment it becomes available.

We will leave you with a sneak peak of what we can all be looking forward to in March.  Please attempt to keep your gleeful squealing to a minimum.