A lot have already been said about Angry Birds, but only a few people know how it became a notorious casual game, allowing its developers, Rovio, to earn as much as $5 million and spawning other product lines such as shirts and mugs. Now you’ll find out. Moreover, we’re going to provide you with a short review on every Angry Birds version that is currently out in the market.
Let’s begin everything with Rovio. The first Angry Birds was released in 2009, but the company’s history started several years back, as early as 2003. It was founded by three Finnish students who decided to join a Nokia and HP competition. After the competition and the year ended, they began to build their own gaming company. Their experiences, however, were far from being rosy. The company remained small, and although they catered to huge clients like Electronic Arts (EA), their own designed games hardly took off until one of their staff presented a screenshot of an angry bird. Back then, nobody really knew what to make of it, except that they fell in love with the character. They never really thought it would hit this big, but as they say, history could only speak for itself.
Angry Birds
The first Angry Birds game was released in 2009 after painstaking changes and dealing with so many technical issues. However, when it was launched, it became an overnight sensation literally in Finland. By middle of February in 2010, it conquered the United States and the United Kingdom via Apple’s App Store.
So far, the most successful Angry Birds edition and the foundation of all the others is the Classic. By now, you already know how the game goes. But just in case you are still are not familiar with it, Angry Birds is all about a group of wingless pudgy birds protecting their eggs from pigs, which are trying to steal them. These pigs are arrogant—you can hear that from their snorts—more than enough reason for these birds to be extremely furious and do their best to get rid of them even if it means “losing their lives in the process.”
Angry Birds is a casual game, and when we say casual, it means this has a lot of competitors in the market. However, it’s able to beat all of them by making its playing mechanism unique. It injects some physics into the game, making sure you can hit as many pigs as you can in one flying angry bird by perfecting your projectile motion or trajectory. Otherwise, you’ll run out of birds before you can kill all the pigs, and eventually you’ll lose the game.
Many of its players love the fact they can really see these birds flying in their screen; it’s as if there’s some real fight between these two animals. Moreover, once you have perfected the motions, you’ll be more motivated to test your newfound skill in future levels.
Angry Birds Classic is also made more in-depth by including certain types of birds. Some of them break down into many parts in one two taps, allowing you to topple many bricks or wood in one slingshot. There are also some birds that explode.
In truth there’s nothing much to complain about Angry Birds even if we hope there was better music. Sometimes the grunts and noises of the birds can be annoying.
Category:Games
Price: $0.99
Developed By: Rovio Entertainment Limited
Requirements: Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Compatible With: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
Other OS: Android, Blackberry, Facebook
Our Rating: 
Gameplay Video
Angry Birds Seasons
You may be like some of the people we know: why would Rovio release an Angry Birds edition during Halloween or Christmas? Seriously, we still have to find other games that do that. But here’s a potential explanation: these two holidays almost always mean sales. Besides, they spell a lot of vacations, so there is a lot of time to play the game.
As its name suggests, Angry Bird Seasons, which was released in October 2010, features the various elements for both Halloween and Christmas. These include spooky skins and titles like Trick or Treat. There are also 25 various levels perhaps to commemorate the same number of days for Advent. Seasons was first developed for iOS and Android. This is also the first Angry Birds that can be downloaded in Symbian^3-based mobile devices.
Later on, Rovio decided to expand the Seasons edition by adding more holidays into the list. On Valentine’s Day, they introduced Hogs and Kisses. In April 2011, they had Easter Eggs in connection with Easter.
When it comes game play, nothing has really changed. You still get almost the same kinds of birds and pigs. However, you have to be extremely mindful with this one. Unlike the Angry Birds Classic where the level challenges progresses quite slowly, in Seasons they are quite weak. If you have not yet mastered the first one, you’ll definitely find this frustrating. Also adding to your disappointment is the fact only one level can be unlocked. If you wish to move on to another level, you definitely have to wait to succeed on the present one first. Its higher level of difficulty and lack of a method to avoid a difficult level may force you to stop the game.
Price: $0.99
Developed By: Chillingo Ltd
Requirements: Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Compatible With: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
Other OS: Android, Blackberry, Facebook
Our Rating:
Gameplay Video
Angry Birds Rio
Just like a lot of gaming enthusiasts out there, we were apprehensive when he heard Rovio partnering with Century Fox. It may not just work. Our spirits were lifted and our trust came back, however, when the movie Rio became a worldwide success—the first film to earn more than $400 million in 2011. Further, it received a lot of positive responses among critics.
We thought, “Angry Birds Rio may have a chance.” We turned out to be right. It was one of the most downloaded applications for both Android and Apple iTunes market. Moreover, over 10 million people have already played the app ever since its release.
Angry Birds Rio doesn’t veer away from the theme or premise of the movie. There are still a lot of birds in the game, but there are no more pigs. Instead, you have wild marmosets and Nigel, the smuggler in the actual movie. There’s some form of progression, with the boss fight serving as the final and the climax of the game. Earlier, you have to free the birds from their cages then defeat the marmosets in the next chapter.
There are 60 various levels, which are all well thought out, with colors literally popping out of your screen. There are also secret items you can collect all throughout the game.
Overall, it’s really a fun game. If you don’t mind losing the pigs, you’ll find this such a breath of fresh air.
Price: $0.99
Developed By: Chillingo Ltd
Requirements: Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Compatible With: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
Other OS: Android, Blackberry, Facebook
Our Rating:
Gameplay Video
They Add Some Magic
Perhaps one of the reasons why Angry Birds is such a huge and successful game is it’s able to build some harmony among its editions. For example the mechanics remain almost the same. Magic, however, stands out for another element not completely related to the game itself: marketing.
First, Angry Birds Magic comes pre-installed in Nokia C7, a device that runs on NFC-enabled Symbian. It’s safe to assume Nokia is trying to bank on the popularity of Angry Birds in boosting its sales. Currently, it doesn’t occupy the top spot among the smart phones. Moreover, it’s a way of promoting NFC (Near Field Communication), which is the next big thing in mobile technology. It gives the app the ability to seamlessly integrate multiple players into the game, adding more fun and engagement into the game. It doesn’t stop being a single-player game, but it gives you another fantastic option.
Initially, this limited the scope of Angry Birds, but most definitely, once NFC takes flight, it will be one of the first few games to take the lead.
This edition also introduced Magic Places. To understand it, you simply have to picture an Easter Egg Hunt. You collect the eggs that are found in various places. In Angry Birds Magic, you can unlock particular items or surprises once you get into pre-determined areas. The first one has already been unlocked, and it’s found in Barnes & Noble website. To unlock it, you just need a Nook Color.
It doesn’t have a GPS, but it’s able to establish a connection by the detection of Barnes & Noble’s WIFI network. Once the connection has already been established, it then unlocks the Mighty Eagle character (it’s just a logo you can see). The Mighty Eagle character stays in the Nook even after you have already disabled the connection to its WIFI network. The only downside is this process doesn’t work in other Android smart phones.
Now what does this entail? There’s a good chance Rovio is going to venture into something similar to Foursquare: location-based services. By establishing partnerships with websites that will serve as Magic Places, they’ll be able to solidify their position in the industry and hopefully increase their profits.
Angry Birds Space
There’s not a lot of in-depth information about Angry Birds Space simply because it hasn’t been launched yet. Everyone has to wait until March 22, 2012. However, Rovio assures that this is going to be their biggest launching to date—but how?
Rovio Mobile has actually changed its name to Rovio Entertainment Limited, perhaps in order to offer wide range of products and get into more niches. These include merchandise and publishing. And they’re about to test how dynamic they really are once Space is already released.
During its launch, Rovio is also unveiling its retail and other publishing products. It’s set to open a dedicated Angry Birds Store in China and has partnered with NASA and National Geographic. As early as now, it’s rolling out teasers and trailers in video channels, particularly YouTube. Incidentally, the release of Space will coincide that of the next update for Galaxy Note and the release of iPad 3. Space is expected to run in Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS.
As for its game play, its developers mentioned about new surprises and elements, though there are still features from the classic version that have been adopted. We deem it necessary in order to build harmony among the various editions. Moreover, the player’s transition from Classic or to any other previous edition to the latest one wouldn’t be so difficult. Sometimes sequels or new editions can be very overwhelming.
Again, we don’t know yet what these surprises are, but judging by the way they treated the other special editions, we can feel that it’s going to perform really well.
Conclusion
As of this date, Angry Birds is threatened by the ever-growing popularity and presence of Tiny Wings, which, in all honesty, is completely different from the former. Regardless, even if it faces some tough competition, Angry Birds will be around for a long, long time for many reasons.
First, it has already a proven game play. The millions of sales is already a testament of how much the people enjoyed the game. They love the physics element to it. They appreciate the fact it is simple to understand but not too basic they are no longer challenged.
Second, Rovio always tries to ensure to offer something new in every version or edition they release without going too far from the basic premise of the game.
Third, it widens its markets. As you can see, it is now making itself compatible even in very new technologies. NFC is very new with only limited devices, but Rovio took a chance just to diversify. They have also ventured into merchandise and, from the looks of it, location-based services.
Fourth, the company just knows to market its brand.
Which Angry Birds edition appeal to you the most? Let us hear your thoughts.
About Aurora Freegard
