Hi, my name is Jussi and I play Angry Birds. There, I said it. Happy now? 🙂
Yes, I’ve been playing Angry Birds (all 6 different iPhone versions of them) on my iPhone and more recently on my iPad, since the levels are getting larger and hard to see or play on the small screen. I first started sometime in September 2010, since I remember playing the original and being positively surprised when the Halloween version (precursor to Seasons) came out and that was October 2010. However, the thing that really got me hooked was Angry Birds Rio, mainly because it was so easy that you could get 3 stars on most levels with little to no effort. Then it was just a matter of “hey, maybe I’ll try to get 3 stars on the other levels as well”, and things sort of went from there.
What’s so great about those games? After all, the concept is far from new and in fact I played Crush the Castle on my iPhone before I got Angry Birds, but Angry Birds does it better. It’s more fun to play and it’s a suitably mindless entertainment for when sitting in a bus, an airport, airplane, resting at home, etc. Just difficult enough to keep it interesting, but not too difficult to make me want to give up. (As opposed to another Rovio game, Amazing Alex, which was too frustratingly complicated that I gave up; Bad Piggies is much more fun, though, and I like to play it to some extent.)
Although the basic gameplay mechanics are about the same in all Angry Birds games, there are some differences to make all of them interesting. Obviously, Space and Star Wars have the space-themed levels which are very different from the original. In terms of enjoyment, I have to admit that I enjoy Angry Birds Star Wars the most, although the tie-in to Star Wars is a big factor in that. In terms of difficulty, Rio is the easiest, Seasons the hardest, Star Wars not too difficult, and Space and Original somewhere between Seasons and Star Wars. All are fun, though.
One day The Better Half bought a small Angry Birds plush toy, which although was sort of intended for the kids, made its way onto my bag. (I didn’t steal it from the kids, The Better Half put it there herself. Honest!) So, here’s the intrepid traveler who has been with me since beginning of 2012 and has already traveled (mainly flown, obviously) well over 100000 miles since then.
The Kids also have played the games and have liked them. On some levels, they have even gotten 3 stars. Yes, even a 2-year-old can get 3 stars, although it does require a level which can be 3-starred with 1 bird and luck. 🙂 An 18-month-old baby can learn to unlock an iPhone, find Angry Birds even if it’s on a different screen, and start the game. Another thing that especially the Younger One likes to do is watch videos from AngryBirdsNest (a fan site, well, The Best Fan Site) where they have walkthroughs for every level of every Angry Birds game and then some. On a few occasions I’ve had to resort to the Nest for figuring out how to get 3 stars, but that is quite rare. In case you’re after the Score Addict achievements on iPhone versions, the Nest has leaderboards where you can enter your scores and see on which levels you are the most behind.
But Angry Birds is much more than just the games. I guess Rovio has plans to take over the world, at least so it seems. Both here in California and in Korea I’ve seen tons of Angry Birds stuff, ranging from candy and soft drinks, to plush dolls and beyond. And I thought that it was something special when Fazer launched the Angry Birds candies in Finland last summer… Well, just goes to show how wrong I was. Those birds are everywhere, and from what I’ve seen, most of the stuff is officially licensed.
In case you don’t believe me, here’s proof (mostly from Korea and yes, these are official products)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moldytoast/8743688808/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moldytoast/8743688634/in/photostream
In closing for my Facebook friend, given that Rovio has just released Angry Birds Friends as a standalone game, maybe I’ll see some of you there. Originally Friends was a Facebook game, but now it has a standalone client for iPhone and Android, so you can compete against your Facebook friends on any of the three platforms.
Oh, and tomorrow Thursday the next update to Seasons, Abra-Ca-Bacon comes out, so I have something to do over the weekend. 🙂