ANGRY BIRDS

Marion Pellicano Ambrose

Angry Birds; they’re everywhere!  Since the release of the app Angry Birds in December 2009, people everywhere are flinging these little birds at pigs and knocking down structures in an effort to rescue stolen eggs. Over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple's App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, such as those using the Android operating system, among others. The developer, Rovio Mobile has supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional game content, and the company has even released stand-alone holiday and promotional versions of the game.

The game has become so popular, that one of this Christmas season’s top selling toys is the Angry Birds Plush toy. You can also get Angry Bird toys for your dog. I bought the red bird frisbee for Dudley, our Corgi! I also bought a bird and some pigs to put in my husband’s stocking since he’s addicted to Angry Birds!

According to Wikipedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angry_Birds)  several updates and special editions of the game have been released.

Angry Birds Seasons:In October 2010, Rovio released a special Halloween edition of game. Angry Birds Halloween, exclusive to iOS at the time and a separate application from the main game, included new levels with Halloween-themed music and graphics. In December 2010, Rovio released Angry Birds Seasons to iOS, Android and Symbian^3 devices. Seasons introduced 25 Christmas-themed levels, one for each day leading to the holiday, similar to an Advent calendar.All versions include the previously-exclusive Halloween levels and are offered as separate, stand-alone paid applications, with the exception of the free, ad-supported Android version; Angry Birds Halloween users on iOS received the Seasons levels as a free upgrade.  The Halloween version was given the episode title "Trick or Treat," while the Christmas episode was entitled "Season's Greedings." In February 2011, Rovio released a new Valentine's Day update to Angry Birds Seasons, entitled "Hogs and Kisses," complete with new themed levels and graphics, as well as the option to send Angry Birds-themed Valentine's Day messages through Facebook. In March 2011, Rovio released a new St. Patrick's Day update, entitled "Go Green, Get Lucky," followed by an Easter update, entitled "Easter Eggs," in April 2011 and a summer update, "Summer Pignic," in June 2011. In September 2011, "Mooncake Festival" was released in conjunction with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival. In October 2011, "Ham'O'Ween" was released and introduced a new orange bird, known as the globe bird. In December 2011, "Wreck the Halls" was released with 25 Christmas-theme levels also arranged in an Advent calendar setting.

 Angry Birds Rio: Rovio launched Angry Birds Rio in March 2011. In this version, based on the 20th Century Fox animated film Rio, the Angry Birds characters appear in Rio de Janeiro and interact with characters from the film. Angry Birds Rio initially included two chapters including a warehouse chapter entitled "Smuggler's Den" and a jungle chapter entitled "Jungle Escape", but it has been updated with additional chapters and levels including a beach chapter entitled "Beach Volley", a carnival chapter entitled "Carnival Upheaval", an airfield chapter entitled "Airfield Chase", and one more chapter as Smugglers Plane. Since release, Angry Birds Rio has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

 Angry Birds Magic: A special version of the game, called Angry Birds Magic, will be developed exclusively for Nokia's NFC-enabled Symbian devices. This version of the game will include functionality that will unlock game levels upon contact with another NFC-enabled phone running the game. A free version of Angry Birds Magic will come preinstalled with all NFC Symbian devices to be sold in 2011, starting with the Nokia C7.

Angry Birds has been praised for its successful combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price. Its popularity led to versions of Angry Birds being created for personal computers and gaming consoles, a market for merchandise featuring its characters and even long-term plans for a feature film or television series. With a combined 500 million downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions, the game has been called "one of the most mainstream games out right now", "one of the great runaway hits of 2010", and "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far”

It seems that these angry little birds will continue to be flung from slingshots to destroy funny little pigs for some time to come!