Angry Birds – A simple game that caused a frenzy

I believe the peeps at Rovio are probably laughing their way to the bank at every release of Angry Birds. The game that began with the release for Apple’s mobile platform the iOS in 2009 and till date has sold about 12 million copies. Each game’s initial download costs about $0.99 which translates to almost $12 million or RM38.5 million. Since then the game has been released for other mobile operating systems such as Android, Windows Mobile and as well as desktop operating systems.

The game has taken off so much that there are plush toys that are now being irritatingly placed in the backseat of cars as well as ornaments in office cubicles. The game is also to have been confirmed to be made into a movie; however, the birds already made an appearance in the animated movie Rio. Big brands are using angry birds to promote their products and there is even a five part essay by ISKCON on yoga describing how to get rid of bad elements in the body using Angry Birds as an analogy. The essay is called: "Angry Birds™ Yoga – How to Eliminate the Green Pigs in Your Life" was written by Giridhari Dasa (ISKCON, Brazil) –Note: I am not an ISKCON fanboy…

So there you have it Rovio is minting money out of its games, copyrights and products. Read on to see what is the game all about and some basic gameplay techniques.
The game is a “physics” based game where you have an array of birds that have to destroy these green pigs. The birds come in different size and shapes and each have individual capabilities. The pigs however do not have any abilities except to sit there and wait to be slaughtered.

The story begins where the birds have their eggs stolen by the pigs and the birds get extremely pissed and fight the pigs to rescue their eggs. Sounds easy, no? Not exactly, the pigs do not exactly sit in a group protecting the eggs; instead, they are placed in “structures” ranging from wood, glass, concrete and even ice. Therefore, each bird in the game has different abilities whereby one may be good to destroy stone the other for glass, etc.

We shall look at the ability of each bird below.







The red bird: good to shake the structure of where the pigs are. Shoot the bird towards the structure to shake it and if you’re calculation is good, you might be able to make the structure fall and at the same time destroy some of the pigs.







The yellow bird/woodpecker: these birds are the best for wooden structures or any part of the structurethat has wooden material. Shoot the bird to severely damage the wood or to penetrate it to destroy the pigs that are protected by the wood. This bird comes with an extra feature whereby if you tap the screen after launching it, it will make the bird accelerate causing maximum damage.







The blue bird: this bird is the best for glass and ice structures where it will damage the ice or glass upon contact. This bird also comes with an extra feature where when tapped after launch, multiplies itself by three therefore releasing 3 birds towards the structure causing more damage and carnage :)







The bomb “shitting” bird: look, I don’t exactly know the names of the birds and naming them just as I think is most appropriate for the bird. This bird has the ability to excrete bombs in the shape of an egg when tapped. So when you launch the bird, let it go to the desired spot where you would like to drop the bomb and tap; voila, you have destroyed the structure and potentially one of those greedy pigs!







The boomerang bird: this is the bird I like the least because I think it looks dumb and also it is hard to manage. This is a special ability bird as well because when tapped, it makes and about turn and damages the structure if you tapped at the right time; otherwise it would be a wasted effort if the bird just falls to the ground.







The black bird: I love these mofos. These birds are actually bombs. In a concrete structure, they will be the best to use. Just launch the bird to a specific location and they explode or launch it near a desired location and tap and it will explode. How cool is that!!!







The Big Red bird: another one of my favourites. Don’t let the look of this bird make you judge it because it is fat. This guy can cause total damage to a structure and if it hits a pig, imagine a fat guy like me sit on a two year old!







Pig: This is your taget!

The objective of the game does not stop at destroying the evil pigs but also optionally require you to collect 3 stars by earning more points which could be done by causing more damage or to use lesser birds to complete the objective (each bird that is not used, earns you 10000 points extra). If you collect 3 stars on all the levels of an episode, you will be rewarded with new levels.
Overall, Angry Birds is an excellent game which could get you fired if your boss catches you being unproductive because you’re fascinated with killing pigs. This game could be an alternative to cow tipping; it is less dangerous, you do not harm an animal physically although the temptation is greater because our caveman gene has not left us. Not too sure if PETA, SPCA are going to be too happy though, although I am pretty sure that they themselves are having a good time with this game :)


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