Angry Birds

About

Angry Birds is a Facebook^[1], Google Chrome^[2], and mobile phone game that has gained internet popularity for its unusual and comic gameplay. It has inspired a small fanbase that has created parodies, fan art, and other derivatives. The game has been called "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far" by MIT Entrepreneurship Review.^[3]

Origin

Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Finland-based Rovio Mobile. Inspired primarily by a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple's iOS in December 2009.
It is well know for its addictive comic game play and low cost. It has been so popular that it is being made for other systems such as the Google Chrome apps store.

Plot and Gameplay

The goal in Angry Birds is to slingshot the multiple types birds into the defenses of your enemy, the green pigs (who stole your eggs) and killing them, attempting to destroy their homes for more points.

Each different colored Angry Birds have varying abilities: the red being the standard bird, the blue for multiples, the yellow for power, the white for bombing and the black as explosives.

Reception

Angry Birds has received fairly positive reviews with 8/10 scores for the Apple iOS version from Metacritic^[4], Gamezone^[5], IGN^[6], and PC Gamer.^[7]

On June 14th, 2011, TechCrunch^[8] reported that Rovio founder Peter Vestebacka had informed them that the game had reached 250 million downloads. According to the Good App Review^[9] blog, "Angry Birds is pulling in tens of millions of dollars a year across its myriad platforms."

As of November 2nd, 2011, Angry Birds has been downloaded over 500 million times.^[13]

Angry Birds the Movie

An Angry Birds movie was originally set to be release in April of 2011, but has since been pushed back 3 years after Rovio decided to purchase its own animation studio in Finland to produce the animated film. In an interview with The Telegraph^[10], Rovio's chief marketing officer explained the motive behind expanding the Angry Birds brand:

“Making a movie is just one part of our game plan. We are here to make Angry Birds a permanent part of pop culture – like Mickey Mouse or Mario – and if making a movie helps with that then that’s great. But it’s not like making a move is our ultimate goal.”

Angry Birds Theme Park in China

On September 1st, 2011, a theme park in Changsa, China opened an attraction that allows visitors to use a real slingshot to knock piggy balloons out of an elevated fortress-like structure. According to the Chinese gaming website GameSky, Window of the World amusement park (长沙世界之窗) built the Angry Birds theme park (愤怒的小鸟) as part of the park's month-long "Stress Reducing Festival" and it is scheduled to run through the month of September.

It is unclear whether the creators of the popular mobile game at Rovio were informed about the park's attraction beforehand. However, several news articles reporting on the event suggested that the Angry Birds theme park was built without an official license from the Finnish company.

Cookbook

An Angry Birds themed cookbook was announced at the London Open Mobile Summit in June 2011^[14], to feature different egg recipes. It was made available on Amazon^[15] on November 30th, 2011. Over 40 recipes are included, ranging from scrambled eggs to burritos.^[16]

Derivatives

Fan Art

Videos

One of the earliest parodies dates back to November 21st, 2010. The parody was taken from the Israeli comedy show 'Eretz Nehederet' ( A Wonderful Country)^[12], and was meant as a humorous commentary on the failed Israeli-Palestinian peace attempts.

On June 8th, 2011, T-Mobile released an ad showing a real life Angry Birds event in Barcelona, Spain. Players were able to use a T-Mobile device to interact with the life size Angry Birds environment. By June 22nd that month, the YouTube video had received over 5.8 million views.

Image Macros

Search Interest

Search queries for "angry birds" started to pick up in March of 2010, several months after its December 2009 release and immediately after its first update called "A Mighty Hoax".^[11]

External References