Angry Birds

Angry Birds

"Angry Birds game play screen." Angry Birds Type Video Game Launch Date 2009 Status Active Product Line Angry Birds Angry Birds Seasons Angry Birds Rio Angry Birds Space Angry Birds Magic Angry Birds Star Wars Platform iOS, See Wikipedia for all listings of available platforms Website Angry Birds Official Site

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ngry Birds is a video game developed for mobile devices by Rovio Mobile. The object of the game is to use a slingshot to shoot birds at pig enemies that are on or in structures made of wood, ice, stones, and other materials. There have also been additional versions of Angry Birds that have been released since the initial version. The game was first released on Apple's App Store for iOS enabled devices. The game gained so much popularity among mobile phone users that Rovio later released a version for Android devices and Windows devices. Like many other popular video games, Angry Birds has its own set of ethical issues which include violence, battery life, and fair use and copyright infringement policies.

Gameplay

Players launch the birds in a slingshot by using their finger and dragging backwards, trying to shoot at and destroy green pig enemies. On each level, pigs are protected from the birds with wood, concrete, ice, stone, and grassy elevations in the field. The goal of the game is to eliminate all of the pigs in the level with the amount of birds given. The player uses the sling shot to arc and fling the birds from one end of the playing field to the desired target of aim to hit the pigs. They can hit the pigs directly or hit surrounding structures or objects that may fall or create chain reactions to kill the pigs. There are unique and powerful elements within the game as it progresses that help facilitate the player in destroying the pigs. These elements include explosives and rocks within the structures surrounding the pigs. These elements aid the player to use the birds to hit obstacles and use the obstacles to hit the pigs as opposed to hitting them directly with a bird. As the player advances throughout the different levels, players also get introduced to different kinds of angry birds, each with different features.

Type of Birds

• Red: The basic red bird is the only bird used in the earliest levels of the game. As the player advances, additional types of birds become available.
• Blue: When screen is tapped, turn into three, small, fast flying birds.
• Black: When screen is tapped, Explodes like a bomb
• White: When screen is tapped, can drop explosive eggs
• Yellow: When screen is tapped, speed up

The size of the pigs also varies from level to level. Small pigs are generally weak; large pigs are generally more tough to destroy. Some pigs wear helmets that act as armor, making them even more difficult to destroy.

Each level has a predetermined bird and pig count. If all of the pigs are defeated before or when all of the birds have been shot, the player advances to the next level. Points are awarded based on each pig destroyed, damage to each pig and structure, and unused birds. At the end of each level, stars are awarded depending on the score received. The maximum amount of stars for each level is three stars.

Also, levels may be played more than once.

Publicity

Image that was released by Rovio of the Finair A340 with Angry Birds decorations

Angry Bird characters have been featured in many advertisements for other products. Characters began appearing in advertisements for Microsoft's Bing search engine. Airlines have also decorated their aircraft with angry birds.

To the right is a video of angry birds airplanes in Microsoft's Flight Simulator. Angry Airbus

This plane will be part of a promotional flight to Singapore.

In attempts to expand the Angry Birds brand name, the official website offers plush birds and pigs, T-shirts, iPad cases, Christmas stockings, backpacks, and key chains. Over 10 million Angry Birds toys have been sold thus far.

In May 2011, Mattel released a Angry Birds board game, entitled "Angry Birds: Knock on Wood"

Angry Birds has even received publicity from piracy. According to Angry Birds’ Chief Executive Mikael Hed, “piracy may not be a bad thing: it can get us more business at the end of the day" . Many people are able to "jailbreak" iOS and Android mobile devices in order to download paid versions of the game for free. The extra downloads increases the game's popularity and consequently spurs more interest around the world. Mikael Hed also noted that unlicensed merchandise sold in Asia can actually draw more fans and contribute to the worldwide popularity of Angry Birds.

In September 2011, the Window of the World theme park in Changsha, China opened an unlicensed Angry Birds attraction. Visitors to the park use a large slingshot to launch stuffed versions of the bird characters at green balloons representing the pigs. Upon learning of the attraction, Rovio Mobile was reported to consider working with the theme park to officially license the idea.

Film

On December 11, 2012, the third anniversary of Angry Birds, Rovio announced that plans for producing and financing a full length feature film surrounding the characters and other properties of the game. The movie is slated to be released by Summer 2016. John Cohen, producer of the hit animated movie of 2010, "Despicable Me", will be a producer of the movie. This will be Rovio's first venture into the film industry, as the Angry Birds brand is expanded into other sources of entertainment besides just mobile devices.

Special Editions

Angry Birds Seasons

Updates: Halloween-includes halloween-themed music and graphics (October 2010) Seasons- introduced 25 Christmas-themed levels for each day leading to Christmas (December 2010) Valentines Day (February 2011) St. Patrick's Day (March 2011) Easter (April 2011) Summer Pignic (June 2011) Mooncake Festival (September 2011) HamO'Ween (October 2011) Wreck the Halls (December 2011)

Angry Birds Rio

Angry Birds Rio

This version was launched in March 2011. It is a version based on the 20th Century Fox animated film Rio. The setting is Rio de Janeiro and angry birds characters interact with characters from the film.

Angry Birds Space

Released March 22, 2012, Angry Birds Space's biggest change from previous versions includes the effect of the terrain on the birds' trajectories. Each planet contains a different gravitational field, thus changing the birds' trajectories.

Angry Birds Star Wars

On November 8, 2012, the fifth version of Angry Birds was released. Each of the birds is modeled after a different Jedi, with variations in skills from the original version. The pigs are modeled as members of the empire.

Angry Birds Magic

Angry Birds Magic

When developed, this version will be exclusively for Nokia. It will include the function that allows people to unlock levels upon contact with another Nokia device that is running the game.

Angry Birds Chrome

Angry Birds has also been modified so people with the Chrome internet browser can play as well. This version is not the real version but a modified version that is free to play on Chrome.

Other Related Games

On September 27, 2012, the creators of Angry Birds released Bad Piggies.. This game mimics Angry Birds, but is from the perspective of the pigs and gives the pigs, who were the victims in Angry Birds, a chance to "fight back" against the Angry Birds. Instead of the original Angry Birds where the birds are launched at the pigs, this game is based around creating flying machines to create a safe destination for the pigs. Levels allow the user to create contraptions using a variety of different elements and tools in order to transfer the piggies to safety. The game has over 100 million downloads and has a 4 star rating on the App Store and a 4.5 star rating on the Android Store.

Ethical Concerns

Violence

While Angry Birds is not an extremely violent video game, there are some ethical concerns with young children playing the game. The game itself contains no blood, guts, and gore, but there is the use of slingshots and the killing of pigs which may lead some people to argue that Angry Birds promotes violence against animals. Commonsense Media (a website for evaluating games for parents to reference when questioning the content of the games their children are playing) states that Angry Birds is appropriate for those 8 years old and older. However, kids and parents on the site rated Angry Birds as being appropriate for those children who are 6 and older. The violence score of the game was 2/5 and the privacy and security score was 3/5. There are also no explicit language or sexual references in the game.

Battery Life for Advertisements

An advertisement during a game of the free version

Angry Birds is at the center of a report claiming that the application take nearly twice as much battery as necessary. This is due to the fact that Rovio has two versions of the Angry Birds game, a free version and a $.99 premium version. The free version includes ads which use 70 percent of the application's power to access and upload information and download advertisements. The Angry Birds app is a common example of this problem simply because the game is so popular and so many users opt to use the free version. Other apps in the Android Market are facing the same fundamental problem that hasn't yet been solved: paid apps get better battery life but simply don't make much money in Google Play, while free-to-play apps that contain constant advertisements appear to be much more profitable, but ultimately provide a much worse experience to the end user.

Video Game Addiction

Another ethical concern with Angry Birds is that it can be an extremely addicting game, which can result in being extremely time consuming and distracting from other tasks at hand. Some reasons why Angry Birds is such an addicting game include its simplicity, success rate, progression, satisfaction, and competition. Angry Birds is a rather simple and easy to learn game, making it addicting to keep on playing the game over and over again. It also begins with a high success rate before progressing to lower and lower success rates which makes the game even more addicting. There is also a clear sense of progression in Angry Birds, making the game addicting as players want to continue moving on to higher and higher levels within the game. Many players also like to move on from a level only after achieving three stars on the level, meaning that players might play the same level over and over again before finally achieving the coveted three star completion status. There is a relative sense of satisfaction when playing Angry Birds and completing levels, consequently raising endorphin levels and making the player even more addicted. Finally, Angry Birds also causes video game addiction with the level of constant competition in the game as players try to earn the highest scores possible on each level.

Privacy Concerns

Angry Birds, along with other similar apps, has been known for tracking the locations of its users and for making personalized advertisements based on user data and information This can be concerning to many users who simply and innocently download the game in order to play and do not want their personal information to be collected and tracked via the application.

External Links

• Rovio's Official Website
• Angry Birds Chrome

See Also

Game Addiction

References

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