Have you ever wanted to sling shot a bird at a pig? If you have, then Angry Birds is the game for you. It is the No. 1 paid game and app in over 50 countries and one of the most addicting games out there. Angry Birds was first released in December 2009 and for Apple’s iOS and is now designed for any type of touch screen smart phone.
The object of the game is for players to try to get back golden eggs that were stolen by a group of evil pigs while using a sling shot that launches the bird.
On each level, the pigs are enclosed by different structures made of things like stone, ice or wood. To get to the next level and retrieve the eggs, the gamer must destroy the structure and eliminate the pigs. As the levels get higher, more and different types of birds are used. For example, in the beginning levels, only the basic red bird is used but as the player advances, so does the type of bird. It could have more powers or there could be more of them. Points are awarded for each pig defeated and bonus points are awarded for any birds not used. Players can attempt the level as many times as they want to get a better score. When the game was released in 2009, it had just only one episode called “Poached Eggs,” which contained three themed groups of levels each with 21 levels. Since then, it has come out with four other episodes. The newest one was released right before Christmas to celebrate the game’s first year in the Apple Store. Angry Birds is free for most phones, but can be purchased for $.99 for the upgraded version.
In December 2010, in honor of the one-year anniversary of the release of Angry Birds, Rovio Mobile announced that the game had been downloaded 50 million times, with more than 12 million on iOS devices and 10 million on Android.