Tag: Rovio »

The birds are back (again)! Not content with simply hurtling avian critters into pork-filled structures, Rovio has changed things up significantly for their next offering. Angry Birds Go! is a fully 3D kart racer featuring a bunch of recognizable series characters, loads of special powers, and upgradable vehicles. Yes, you read that correctly; it's a kart racer.

Angry Birds Go! will be hitting the App Store on December 11 for free, and I have to admit the video makes it look pretty interesting despite the severe change in direction (and genre). What do you all think? Is it too ridiculous to fathom? Are you anxiously waiting to get behind the wheel? Did the video sway you either way? Feel free to chime in below!

Beware the pork side. Rovio's sequel to their spin-off based on one of the most popular movie franchises of all time is here!

Angry Birds Star Wars II follows (loosely) the events in the "Star Wars" prequels, and even lets players decide whether they want to be good, or play for "The Pork Side." It's more of the same great Angry BIrds physics mayhem you know and love but with two sides to play, over 30 playable characters, the ability to swap characters in the slingshot as you play (finally!), and Telepods integration.

We are just under a week to go before Angry Birds Star Wars II launches on the App Store, coming September 19th. To get everyone excited, Rovio has released a new gameplay trailer that shows all the light and dark side action that will be available in the game. Will you fight with the birds or join the pork side? Check out the trailer!

Get ready to leave your feathers in the dust!

Rovio has teamed up with Red Bull to release a new video that answers some of our questions about what type of game Angry Birds Go will be. It showcases what an Angry Birds endless runner would look like, which ultimately hit a snag and fell over. So, they went one step further to show us what it would be like with birds behind the wheel! Check out the trailer below!

I wonder how much road rage there will be in Angry Birds Go? I mean these are Angry Birds after all.

Get ready to join the pork side of the force as Angry Bird Star Wars II draws even closer by receiving an official release date of September 19th. Along with the release date comes a new trailer for the game that features the voice of Ian McDiarmid who played Emperor Palpatine in the original Star Wars films, reports Pocket Gamer.

So who's ready for "UNLIMITED POWWWWAAAHHHHHH!!" when joining the pork side of the force? Check out the trailer below!

Each and every week, we take a look at the top twenty apps as recommended on Powerslyde. Once installed on your iOS device, Powerslyde detects the apps you have installed, then recommends apps you may like and may not be aware of. Think of it as a way to get App recommendations from somewhere other than the App Store itself.

This week, five of the most recommended apps are:

Amazing Alex
Flow Free
Ruzzle
Chasing Yello
Plumber Crack

Looks like casual games made a strong showing this week, with Rovio's Amazing Alex possibly returning due to interest in the two new Rovio Stars games that have recently hit the App Store: Ice Breaker and Tiny Thief. Ruzzle made an impression on reviewer Ruari O'Gallchoir, who says, "Ruzzle has several tricks up its sleeve to differentiate itself from it’s more established competitors." Two of the five are lesser-known games that follow fairly standard formulas: Chasing Yello is an endless runner, and Flow Free is a color-matching game. As for Plumber Crack, we'll leave that one up to your imagination. If you're wondering if someone could build a game around that particular anatomical gem, it seems like they can and did.

What apps do you recommend this week? Drop us a comment below, or send us a message on Facebook or Twitter.

Rovio Entertainment announced Angry Birds Star Wars II, which will follow the story of the three prequel Star Wars movies. Things are in place to take a twist towards the dark side in the upcoming game as well as players can choose to "join the pork side" and play as one of the evil piggies.

Angry Birds Star Wars II is set to get even more interesting as Hasbro is adding an interactive capability to the gameplay and content of the game by releasing Telepods. Think Skylanders; Telepods are physical toy characters that players can place on their iPhone or iPad camera and scan it into the game. There will be over 30 physical characters at launch for players to teleport into their games, Skylanders style.

Being a fan of Skylanders myself, I'm highly interested in checking out this new Angry Birds experience, which will launch on the App Store this September, 19th.

“Angry Birds Star Wars was a blockbuster hit for us and Lucasfilm with over 100 million downloads since its release. We are thrilled to be able to introduce the exciting next chapter in the Angry Birds Star Wars saga to our fans around the world,” said Jami Laes, Executive Vice President of Games at Rovio Entertainment, in a press release. “Some of the most amazing character additions are versions of young Anakin, Mace Windu and Darth Maul. Hasbro’s TELEPODS technology also provides a great way to extend the experience beyond the app and bring a whole new dimension to the gameplay.”

Rovio posted a new blog that says they will announce a brand new Angry Birds game on Monday, July 15th. The teaser image (below) that accompanied the blog post resembles Star Wars Episode 1, the image that shows a young Anakin with the Vader shadow in the background. Rovio also mentioned that the new game will feature the biggest character line-up ever, awesome new powers, and more surprises.

Who's losing their feathers in excitement?

What can we say about Rovio that you didn't already know? Rovio are the developers of the Angry Birds phenomenon which has translated into a business that reaches well beyond just software into real world goods, movies, and even theme parks. Those damn birds are everywhere. You see them on clothes, toys, shoes, hats, even in TV commercials. The game itself was miraculous in that it hit number one a few months after release and pretty much stayed there for over a year. We took a look back when Angry Birds had been number one for 250 days back in 2011.

With the Angry Birds franchise games now downloaded over 1.7 billion times, it's all because of a little game launched on the App Store in 2009. Let's talk with Saara Bergström, VP, Marketing & Communications for Rovio about their history on the App Store.

148Apps: How has the App Store changed the way Rovio does business?

Saara Bergström, VP, Marketing & Communications for Rovio: Angry Birds was Rovio's first title that was published and marketed directly to the audience. App Store was the obvious way to go about it, which was of course a totally different process from doing business with contractors and operators. App Store was a game changer for the whole mobile industry. App Store made independent publishing mainstream for developers for the first time and apps easily available for consumers. Downloading new software became easy and commonplace. 

148Apps: At what point were you sure that the App Store would be a success?

Saara Bergström: A single point is hard if not impossible to pinpoint since there were many contributing factors to it also outside of the App Store. However, it was easy to see the growing popularity of the App Store and how the ecosystem around it started to form very quickly. App Store offered people an easy, one stop shop to get apps, and it levelled the field for independent publishers to get their material out - side-by-side with big publishers. The market has matured from those days and become more professional. The emergence and growth of the whole mobile gaming industry is partly thanks to the ecosystem Apple created with the App Store. 

148Apps: What led to Angry Birds being such a success? What made it resonate with users so soundly?

Saara Bergström: The success of Angry Birds is a combination of many factors. First of all, the characters have personality and are immediately recognizable. The whole Rovio team liked them right off the bat. Secondly, from the early days we have had a very fan-focused approach resulting in massively engaged fans which has helped us tremendously to expand our business into other areas outside of games. The third contributing factor is the polished, intuitive gameplay which we achieved through a merciless process of honing and iteration. Finally, the game offers hundreds of hours of fun for a wide demographic. 

148Apps: In the five years since launch, the App Store has gone through considerable changes. The number of users has skyrocketed along with downloads, prices for paid apps has stabilized way lower than many expected, free to play has dominated the top grossing charts. If, knowing what you know about the App Store now, you could go back and influence Rovio five years ago, what would you say?

Saara Bergström: I don't think there's that much we would change in how we have done our business in the past years. Maybe I would just say: "keep dreaming big!".

148Apps: Any predictions for what the App Store will be like five years from now?

Saara Bergström: Getting attention was and is of course one of the number one priorities for any developer. When the mobile industry is growing rapidly that challenge prevails. There will probably be new mechanisms and ways for people to find what they are looking for, and for the publishers to reach their target audience and fans.

Many thanks to Saara Bergström for her time.

Rovio Entertainment, creators of Angry Birds, has a new publishing initiative called Rovio Stars that will see its first titles Icebreaker and Tiny Thief released soon. Kalle Kaivola, Senior Vice President of Product & Publishing at Rovio Entertainment, took the time to answer some of my questions about Rovio Stars.

Why launch a publishing initiative? What advantages will Rovio Stars have over other mobile publishers out there?

Expanding into publishing games was a pretty logical step for Rovio Entertainment to take. In the course of our work we run into a lot of interesting, fun and creative game projects - things we know our fans would love. Why not help the developers of these games to give them the final polish, and let our massive, dedicated fan base know of them? Right now it’s a huge challenge to get your game known in the avalanche of games and apps that are flooding the different app stores - it’s not enough to have a good game if you can’t get the word about it out there.

Rovio Entertainment is in an unique position to do exactly that. We communicate with our fan base directly on a daily basis, and they know they can expect quality fun from us. We also have a huge amount of know-how in creating mobile content, and we have a lot to offer to the developers in terms of helping them put the finishing touches to the project. Under Rovio Stars we do a bit more than a traditional publisher does in helping with the game project, things such as lending our expertise in QA and marketing.

When looking for titles to publish, what are you looking for in these games? Rovio has been one of the chief faces of casual gaming--will Rovio Stars largely focus on casual titles as well?

We are looking for games that have engaging gameplay, memorable characters, offbeat humour, and which are fun and addicting to play. The term casual is a bit tricky in the sense that traditionally it has connotations of simplicity and a lack of challenge, but as everybody who has tried to three star their way through Angry Birds games knows, that certainly isn’t true. It’s safe to say that we won’t be publishing FPS shooters or survival horror in the future, so the Rovio Stars games will casual games in the sense of being suitable and fun for all ages, from kids to grandparents.

Why should people ultimately care about the titles that Rovio Stars will be publishing?

The sheer amount of games on the app stores is a challenge not only for the developers, but also for the gamers - how to find the great game amongst the multitudes? This is where Rovio Stars comes in. It’s the stamp of quality that tells the gamer that the game they are about to buy has the same level of polish, engaging gameplay and quality fun as Rovio’s titles.

A new Angry Birds update is on the way as Rovio posted an image on Twitter, teasing a new level pack that will be released soon, reports Pocket Gamer. The tweet reads, "This just in: Red Bird will have a special power soon. #BeakingNews #NewSquawkTimes #DailyQuail" and comes with the following image.

Hopefully we'll know more soon!

Angry Birds Star Wars enters Cloud City with 20 levels, including all-new flying steam vents. Lando Bird joins the Rebellion against the Pig Empire, giving fans the opportunity play as him and fire his weapon that shoots three lasers at once. Also, get ready to take on the evil Lard Vader in a new boss fight mode.

Now, go return to the city in the clouds and use Lando's three shot laser to defeat the Pig Empire!

Angry Birds continues to show its brand in new areas, this time as lures and fishing rods thanks to Finnish manufacturer, Rapala. Now, fishermen can use lures like Rattlin' Red Bird, DT Fat Bomb Bird, and Skitter Pop Bad Pig, while kids can use beginner Angry Birds style fishing poles and float sets, reports TUAW. Currently, the equipment is only available in Finland and Denmark but will hopefully make it to our shores soon.