Angry Birds Trilogy flies to Wii and Wii U

by Stephanie Carmichael, GameZone, Posted Aug 15th 2013 10:30AM

Rovio's Angry Birds Trilogy has landed on Wii and Wii U earlier than other planned platforms.

The game includes Angry Birds,Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio and packs in the original Anger Management and Fowl-Tempered packs, which provide an additional 11 episodes. Developer Rovio previously made those available as downloadable content.

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We'd pay a pretty penny for this take on Angry Birds [Video]

You might be with us in thinking that $40 for a console collection of Angry Birds games is, well, ludicrous. But you just might want to pony up that cash for this kind of Angry Birds game. Iranian augmented reality app developer PendAR (which translates to "imagination" in Persian) has created a version of Angry Birds that's playable in your living room ... literally.

Well, as "literal" as seeing it through a screen on your living room floor can get. The technology allows for any defined surface, almost always a poster of sorts, to be used as the field of play or interaction for an app or game. In other words, it lets players get their Angry Birds on with an Angry Birds poster in full 3D.

"Just imagine, you can shoot the birds right on your desk," PendAR CEO Mojtaba Tabatabaie told GamesBeat in an interview. "We believe showing how this popular game, Angry Birds, would work with this technology shows people how much augmented reality could affect their lives in the future."

As awesome as this looks, don't get your hopes up. PendAR has no plans on releasing the game, since it has no connection with Rovio. But we think a chat is in order, like, now.

Are you impressed by this augmented reality rendition of Angry Birds? How much would you pay for it? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Angry Birds Trilogy hits consoles in HD (and 3D) for a pretty penny

Remember that game you paid a buck for and played for, oh, I don't know, 50-some hours? Well, now you can have that same game (plus two more and a few exclusive levels) for $40 on your Xbox 360 or PS3 and $30 on your 3DS. These three games would cost a collective $10 (at most) on your iPad or Android tablet. Are we missing something here?

Through Activision, Rovio has released Angry Birds Trilogy--a collection of the original game, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio--to the hottest game consoles for a pretty premium price. It promises that features like 1080p HD graphics on Xbox 360 or PS3, stereoscopic 3D visuals on 3DS and exclusive animated cuts scenes will entice you to whip out the credit card.

Oh, and don't forget about the interactive backgrounds, surround sound support, new bird biographies, concept art, character sketches and leaderboard support. And we'd be remiss not to mention that Angry Birds Trilogy supports the Kinect for Xbox 360, the Move controller for PS3 and StreetPass for the 3DS.

Are you convinced yet? Aw, who are we kidding--you're already on Amazon in another browser tab. Nothing we say about owning these games on your iPad, Android tablet, Mac or PC for less than half the cost would sway you. You vote with your dollar, after all.

Are you picking up a copy of Angry Birds Trilogy? Do you enjoy spending money? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Angry Birds Heikki revs up fans this summer, this fall ... and this winter

by Joe Osborne, Posted Jun 25th 2012 4:00PM

You wanted more Angry Birds, right? Well, how about a new themed level every few weeks? That's what players will get as the crux of Rovio's partnership with Formula 1 (F1) racer Heikki Kovalainen. Starting today, players will get to go for the gold in special levels of Angry Birds themed around (and released alongside) the rest of the upcoming races in the 2012 F1 season.

For those keeping score, that's 12 levels across the next five months, starting today with the upcoming grand prix race at Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire, England. Then, it's off to Hockenheim, Germany and so forth. With each race comes a new Angry Birds level to master, which incorporates the leader boards popularized by Angry Birds Friends on Facebook.
But replacing the power-ups Facebook bird-flingers have come to love are special Heikki-themed boosts. However, players will have to "Like" the racer's Facebook page to unlock access to the power-up. Considering it's a free bird capped in Heikki's signature helmet, you'll probably want to go do that. And just like that, the almighty Angry Birds power-pimp another property.

Click here to play Angry Birds Heikki on the Web Now >

[Via Pocket Gamer]

Are you psyched about even more Angry Birds levels to play? What do you think of this branding push? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

Tags: angry birds, angry birds heikki, angry birds heikki launch, angry birds heikki live, f1, formula 1, Heikki-Kovalainen, Heikki-Kovalainen angry birds game, Heikki-Kovalainen angry birds game live, rovio

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Angry Birds roosts on top of this week’s fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Rovio’s Angry Birds gained 500,000 daily active users this week, a 17 percent gain that kept it in the No. 1 spot amongst the fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU.

King.com took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots on the list, thanks to Bubble Witch Saga and Hoop De Loop Saga each gaining 200,000 DAU (a 3 percent gain for Bubble Witch Saga and an 18 percent gain for Hoop De Loop Saga).

Ten other games on the list saw gains above 20 percent.  Emagist’s Ninja Saga increased by 150,000 DAU (an 18 percent gain); this is the first time in over a month that the game’s seen an increase in DAU, but looking at Ninja Saga’s history shows the title has a habit of losing traffic until suddenly jumping up again. OMGPOP’s Draw My Thing is continuing to ride the Draw Something wave, gaining 52 percent with 130,000 DAU. Disney Playdom’s Marvel: Avengers Alliance also increased by 130,000 DAU for a 20 percent gain, probably helped by the new TV spot for The Avengers debuting within the game last week.

Cookapps’s Superball gained 60,000 DAU for a 24 percent gain. Etermax’s Angry Words, a Scrabble clone that’s playable on Facebook and mobile devices, gained 63 percent with 50,000 DAU. Playrix’s Township is continuing to see growth under 6waves’s publishing banner, having gone up by 50,000 DAU for a 63 percent gain. MindJolt’s Paddle Ball jumped by 43,000 DAU for a 614 percent gain, notable since the game hasn’t seen traffic like this since it launched in March 2011.

Astro Garden is also doing well under 6waves, having increased by 40,000 DAU for a 29 percent gain. Kobojo’s city-builder Atlantis Fantasy also increased by 40,000 DAU for a 29 percent gain.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at top emerging apps on Friday.

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Mario's maker digs Angry Birds, inspires Nintendo 'to try even harder'

Given what Nintendo has told us in the past, we thought we'd never see the day. Nintendo game design head honcho and mind behind Super Mario Shigeru Miyamoto admitted to Edge in an interview that he likes Angry Birds. (Gasp!) The proverbial Steve Jobs of video games told the magazine that Rovio's smash hit is actually his favorite game of the year.

"What I like about Angry Birds is that it has a traditional video game [feel] to it, but also a very creative side. And you can really feel that they're having fun developing the game," Miyamoto told Edge. "That's what I like about it." Edge points out that these sentiments are almost an about face from what Nintendo executives have said in the past.

During last year's Game Developers Conference, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata had harsh words for smartphone games, pegging them as more focused on quantity than quality. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime said to us last year that making mobile games (or on any other platform, for that matter) "really flies in the face of what we believe in." Keep in mind, however, that those are the words of Nintendo's business heads, not its design leaders.

From a game design standpoint, Miyamoto actually stands to benefit from looking at the world of mobile gaming*. "I check up on them sometimes, but I don't have a lot of time," Miyamoto admitted to Edge. "I think we also have a history of having certain fun ideas and making a game out of it, and there's lots of other people also doing this [now]. This kind of environment inspires us to try even harder, and create even more unexpected new things."

*Still, don't expect to see Nintendo's logo pop up on any screen with an Apple logo on the other side for some time.

[Via Kotaku]

[Image Credit: Pocket Gamer]

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Angry Birds and Empires & Allies this week’s gainer and loser among April’s Top 25 Facebook games

Each week, we take a look at six to seven games from the latest Top 25 Facebook Games and examine how their traffic has been doing since the list was posted, as well as how these changes might affect a title’s position on next month’s chart.

Here’s what we’ve looked at so far this month:

April 5, 2012: Pool Live Tour and Café World this week’s gainer and loser amongst April’s Top 25 Facebook games

This week, we take a look at No. 18 through No. 13 of the Top 25 Facebook Games in April.

Playtika’s Slotomania – Slot Machines is up  by 100,000 DAU to reach the 2 million mark. Casino games are increasing in popularity on Facebook, and the past few months have seen a rise of new slots titles. AppData shows Slotomania is still the most popular slots game on the social network — even though it’s one of the older ones — and it seems unlikely that it’ll start to lose traffic any time soon, but it may not move up more than a spot or two on next month’s chart because of the relatively minor traffic uptick.

Zynga’s Empires & Allies continues to lose traffic, dropping from 2.1 million DAU to 1.8 million over the past two weeks. The game was designed to appeal to mid-core strategy fans, but has had less success retaining players than Zynga’s “Ville” titles. Although Empires & Allies reached an impressive peak of 7.7 million DAU when it launched in June 2011 — thanks to cross promotion from other Zynga games like CityVille — traffic began bleeding out that August and has yet to recover. If Empires & Allies’s DAU continues to drop at this rate, it could be close to the bottom of our Top 25 for May.

Wooga’s Monster World is another title that continues to show slow-but-steady growth, up to 2.3 million DAU from 2.2 million at the start of the month. The game launched in April 2010 and consistently gained DAU since then. In March and April, Monster World showed slight declines in traffic, with the game dropping from No. 15 to No. 16, but this new increase may drive the game back up. The game has seen small bounces like this for extended periods before — last time, from November 2011 to the beginning of January 2012 — before beginning another time of growth. If that pattern holds true, Monster World will probably start to noticeably gain DAU again by the end of April or the beginning of May, but it may stay in the same spot for next month’s Top 25.

Wooga’s Bubble Island seems to be holding steady since the beginning of the month: After a slight drop, the game is back up to 2.3 million DAU.  As with other Wooga titles, Bubble Island’s traffic shows steady traffic gains ever since its January 2010 launch. The game dropped three spots to No. 15 this April because it lost 400,000 DAU, but this was following a dramatic traffic surge between January and March that saw a new DAU record of 2.8 million. This was likely due to increased Facebook advertising, and Bubble Island’s DAU gain was approximately six times higher than normal. Now that the ad push seems to be over, it looks like Bubble Island may have leveled out but probably won’t advance any higher on May’s Top 25 list because major DAU differences between games aren’t uncommon at this point on the chart.

Rovio’s Angry Birds is still attracting legions of fans on Facebook, having gained 800,000 DAU since April 1. The game launched in February and it has regularly topped our list of fastest-growing Facebook games since then. During March, Angry Birds went from 930,000 DAU to 2.6 million. Based on this month’s traffic patterns, the game looks like it might be able to double its DAU in time for May’s Top 25, but it’s a little too close to call. Angry Birds does look like it will at least make it to the No. 10 spot next month, since 3.6 million DAU was what Zynga Slingo needed to take that position for April.

Halfquest’s Arabic farm sim Happy Farm continues to creep up the Top 25 charts, moving from No. 13 in March to tying for the No. 12 spot in April. Since April 1, the game lost 100,000 DAU after nearly two weeks of no perceptible growth. Happy Farm showed consistent DAU gains since it launched in July 2011, but it lost a little traffic since its March 25 peak of 3 million DAU. The game gained 400,000 DAU in March, but April doesn’t look like it will see a repeat of this performance. Even if Happy Farm continues to lose DAU, the game may only fall one or two spots for the May Top 25, since it has over 500,000 more DAU than the next biggest games.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for next week’s continuation of our Top 25 gainers and losers, when we look at No. 12 through No. 7 on the list.

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Scam Alert: Android malware masquerades as Angry Birds Space

by Joe Osborne, Posted Apr 12th 2012 2:45PM

Tread lightly, Angry Birds fans. If you downloaded the brand spanking new Angry Birds Space from an unofficial Android market, it could very well have malware tucked inside. Sophos security blog Naked Security reports that Android malware authors have pushed a fully playable (and illegal) version of Rovio's hit sequel to unofficial Android app stores, SophosLabs has found.

The game looks and plays just like the real deal, but is actually a Trojan horse known as Andr/KongFu-L. This malware uses an exploit called GingerBreak to gain access to an Android device's root files and install malicious code. But wait, there's more: The Trojan then uses the phone's wireless connection to communicate with another website to install even more malware.

And if you downloaded this phony app, you're still not out of the woods yet. According to Naked Security, the malware then allows hackers to push certain URLs to your Android phone's browser. At that point, you're basically no longer in control of your own phone--this is serious stuff. So please, just download apps from Google Play or Amazon Appstore already? And if you are a victim of this issue, we'd say hit up Sophos. They seem to know their stuff.

Did you download this bum version of Angry Birds Space? Where do you get your Android apps and games from? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Tags: android, android malware, android+trojan+known+as+andr/kongfu-l, androidtrojanknownasandr/kongfu-l, angry birds, angry birds space, angry birds space android, angry birds space android malware, angry birds space android trojan horse, angry birds space malware, angry birds space trojan horse, malware, malware+andr/kongfu-l, malwareandr/kongfu-l, rovio, Sophos, trojan, trojan horse

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Angry Birds maker Rovio gobbles up Finnish Shattered Horizon creator

The Angry Birds nest has added some new branches and leaves to its foundation. Rovio has acquired Finnish developer of games like Shattered Horizon and Hungribles (pictured) Futuremark Games Studio, a division of software developer Futuremark. TechCrunch reports that the terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Rovio will take on the whole Futuremark team.

The deal is indicative of where Rovio looks to take Angry Birds in the future, especially considering Futuremark has experience working with zero gravity physics in games like Shattered Horizon. (Unless you've been without the Internet until this very moment, you know that the latest Angry Birds game, Angry Birds Space, is all about zero gravity.) Futuremark also has storied experience creating both hardcore and more casual games, which is important to note.

"They are an incredibly talented and experienced team, and we are thrilled to have them on board," Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said in a release. "Rovio's success is founded on the excellence of our team, and Futuremark Games Studio is going to be a superb addition."

This is Rovio's second acquisition in the past year, with the first being Kombo Animation Studio last summer. (Come to think of it, the Kombo folks probably helped with all of those trailers for Angry Birds Space.) It will be interesting to see what Rovio does with the Futuremark folks. Angry Birds Space Marines: Let's make it happen.

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Rovio's Mighty Eagle shows off Angry Birds Space in action [Video]

by Joe Osborne, Posted Mar 15th 2012 6:00PM

If Rovio's collaborations with NASA, MTV, The Daily and Samsung didn't spell it out, Angry Birds Space is the Finnish game maker's biggest game launch ever. And company CMO (or Mighty Eagle) Peter Vesterbacka wants to make that fact crystal clear. The Rovio executive gave TechCrunch a live demo of the game in action, and revealed a few more factoids about its massive product launch.

First and foremost, Rovio doesn't even see this as a game launch--the company sees Angry Birds Space almost as an entertainment brand in an of itself. And the developer looks to demonstrate that with separate animation projects, the legion of toys and even Angry Birds Space band-aids--all of which will be available at Walmart. (Seriously.) Check out the video below to get even more hyped up for the game's launch in exactly one week.

On a scale of one to 11, how excited are you for Angry Birds Space? Do you see Angry Birds creating the type of lasting momentum that say, Mickey Mouse did? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Tags: angry birds space, angry birds space android, angry birds space demo, angry birds space ipad, angry birds space iphone, angry birds space mac, angry birds space pc, angry birds space teaser, angry birds space video, mobile gaming, mobile social games, rovio

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Angry Birds continues to top the list of fastest-growing Facebook games by DAU

Rovio’s Angry Birds once again topped our list of fastest-growing games by daily active users. Over the past seven days, the strategy puzzler managed to gain 900,000 DAU; down last week from 1.1 million DAU.

Only two games on the list this week saw gains of over 100 percent: Zynga Slingo and EA Popcap’s Solitaire Blitz. The latter managed to rocket onto the chart this week with a gain of 2,300 percent, debuting in the No. 5 spot. Meanwhile, there are four other titles on the list with gains above 50 percent: Hoop De Loop Saga, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, City of the Pyramids (the Arabic version of PyramidVille) and Italian soccer game FantaBook.

Finally, Turkish games 101 YüzBir Okey Plus and Bizim Çiftlik debuted on our list. Farm sim Bizim Çiftlik may sound familiar, as it appeared multiple times on our Emerging Games lists back in November. 101 YüzBir Okey Plus, meanwhile, is based off the popular Turkish tile game Okey.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top emerging apps on Friday.

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Angry Birds wings to the top of this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games by MAU

Rovio’s Angry Birds dominates this week’s list of fastest-growing Facebook games, based on monthly active users. No surprise here, given that the game officially launched just a few weeks ago.

Six of the games on this week’s chart saw gains higher than 15 percent. Aside from Angry Birds, the most rapidly growing games include Fruit Ninja Frenzy, Izlesene, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Zynga Slingo, Hoop De Loop Saga and New In Town. The presence of a movie tie-in may seem strange, but Marvel: Avengers Alliance got a big publicity boost last week when the trailer for The Avengers  was released.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the fastest-growing games by daily active users on Wednesday and top emerging apps on Friday.

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Dailymotion, BranchOut, Angry Birds, Pinterest, Spotify, more on this week’s top 20 growing Facebook apps by MAU

Video sharing site Dailymotion’s Open Graph application topped our list of apps growing by monthly active users this week. Aside from popular games like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja Frenzy, apps on the list included BranchOut, Pinterest, Spotify, and other photo, video and Open Graph apps.

Titles on our list gained the most MAU of any apps on the platform, growing from between 400,000 and 3.7 million MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook.

Top Gainers This Week

Dailymotion is an Open Graph app for a video sharing site that grew mostly in France this week, topping our list with 3.7 million MAU. Turkish app MyVideo also made the list. Yahoo’s Open Graph news app continues to grow, as do BranchOut, Pinterest and Spotify, which all take advantage of the new Timeline features for apps.

Games on the list were led by Angry Birds, followed by Fruit Ninja Frenzy, Diamond Dash, and Bubble Witch Saga, among others. It’s interesting to note that AppData shows these games continue to grow in the U.S., but increasingly in other countries, such as the Philippines and Italy.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

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Angry Birds Space takes Rovio's babies to the final frontier March 22

Where the Angry Birds are going, they won't need slingshots. What they will need, however, are space suits (and lots of oxygen tanks). Rovio has revealed Angry Birds Space, the next major mobile game in the Finnish game developer's storied franchise. Yahoo Games scored the details on the next Angry Birds adventure, which is set to hit unspecified (e.g. iOS and Android) mobile devices on March 22.

Fine, the Angry Birds will still use slingshots, but considering they're in space, we don't quite get why. At any rate, Angry Birds Space will have players fling the wingless birds with reckless abandon in zero gravity. Playing on these new planets will lead to interesting new play hooks, like slow-motion puzzles and "lightspeed" destruction, according to Yahoo.

Here's the clincher: Rovio has signed on both NASA and National Geographic as launch partners, so you can expect those floaty space physics to be spot on. The majority of Angry Birds staples will return, like the star rating system, but brand new birds will appear alongside the original crew. This time, however, those classic birds will have some new powers to try out.

Rovio looks at Angry Birds Space to be its biggest release since it hit iPhones in 2009, but we'd go so far as to say that this game is the developer's most important release. Angry Birds has experienced staggering growth, but Rovio has also promised to bring new play concepts to the table. Rovio will also go on an all-out media frenzy to accompany Angry Birds Space, so expect to see the game everywhere you go come March 22.

[Via PocketGamer]

Are you psyched for Angry Birds Space? Were you expecting some more different to come from Rovio, or is this right up your alley? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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Tabs, Jewels of the Amazon, Walmart, Angry Birds, more on this week’s emerging Facebook apps by MAU

Page tab and other page applications were popular on our list of emerging apps by monthly active users, there were a group of games led by Jewels of the Amazon, an app from Walmart and Angry Birds, too.

The apps grew from between 130,000 and 310,000 MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook. We define emerging applications as those that ended with between 100,000 and 1 million MAU in the past week.

Top Gainers This Week

Tab apps, ranging from sweepstakes, iFrame, HTML, FBML and badges on our list grew from between 310,000 MAU to 140,000 MAU. The My Local Walmart app helps users locate their local stores via zip codes. Angry Birds Seasons is an app that allows users to send cards to their friends. Quiz app 21 Preguntas asks users to invite all their friends to the app before using it.

Games were also popular on the list, as we mentioned, ranging from Jewels of the Amazon which grew by 260,000 to Lucky Cruise with 140,000 MAU.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned next week for our look at the top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

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If Angry Birds playgrounds weren't enough, then here's a theme park

You suddenly feel the urge to book a one-way flight to Finland. Why? Well, it's a land where birds don't fly, but use an intricate system of giant slingshots to travel--it's quite fascinating. OK, we made that up, but hopefully that's what Rovio and Särkänniemi Adventure Park are getting at with Angry Birds Land. It's exactly what it sounds like: an Angry Birds theme park.

Angry Birds Land is currently under construction as an addition to Särkänniemi Adventure Park in Tampere, Finland. According to TravelBite, the Angry Birds wonderland of sorts will be crafted with the world's best amusement parks in mind. You're looking at the Disney World of Angry Birds. "Our goal is to motivate the fans, both adults and children, to exercise and enjoy the outdoors," Rovio EVP Licensing and Merchandising Harri Koponen told TravelBite.

The travel website reports that Angry Birds Land will have the usual rides and attractions--whatever that means--but also a "Magic Places" area in which the real and game worlds collide. Särkänniemi Adventure Park opens for the summer on April 28. While it's uncertain whether Angry Birds Land will be ready by then, the Finnish theme park will post sneak peeks of its progress online. (We're sure it'll be more impressive than swing sets.) So, where are you going on vacation this summer?

[Via PocketGamer]

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Angry Birds on Facebook will sling, shatter and shake things up [Video]

Rovio could have easily just slapped Angry Birds on Facebook and called it a day. (And we would all have played it in droves.) But no, if the Finnish game maker was going to bring the biggest mobile game to the largest social gaming platform, by golly it was going to do it right. When Angry Birds lands on Facebook this coming Tuesday, it will bring with it four nifty power-ups.

Players will have access to some major enhancement for their furious, flightless birds, more details for all four of which were recently released by Rovio in cute videos. First up is Sling Scope, which will grant players with pinpoint accuracy for their next shot. Next is King Sling, a power-up that will maximize birds' power and velocity, followed by Super Seeds that will give birds a growth spurt. Finally, we imagine the mysterious Birdquake will destabilize the enemy pigs' forts (as if they needed it).

Angry Birds on Facebook won't just pump up the game's various avian creatures, but provide players with more reason to come back than their perfectionist tendencies: competition. The Facebook version will challenge players with their friends' top scores through friendly leaderboards. Players will also get to earn bronze, silver or gold crowns for the overall top scores of each level, which they can brag about on Facebook. One has to wonder what this means for Angry Birds on Google+, right?

[Via All Facebook]

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Not Angry Birds, <em>Angry Brides</em>, and this game is anything but a parody

There were nearly 9,000 dowry-related deaths in India in 2010, according to India's National Crime Records Bureau. And Shaadi, a matrimonial website in the country hopes to bring more awareness to tragic numbers like through a Facebook game, Reuters reports. It's called Angry Brides, and it's clearly an Angry Birds knock-off. But no one's laughing, and really, that's not the point.

Dowries, usually in the form of valuables or straight up cash, are traditionally given by the bride's family to the groom to ensure that the bride is taken care of in her new life. While the archaic practice was outlawed in India over 50 years ago, dowry-related violent crimes are a prevalent problem in the country. Some newlywed husbands even douse their wives in kerosene and burn them to death if their demands for more dowry money aren't met.

"The Angry Brides game is our way of throwing a spotlight on the nuisance of dowry," said Shaadi SVP of online marketing Ram Bhamidi told Reuters. "According to a 2007 study ... there is a dowry-related death every four hours in India. We condemn this menace and have consistently run campaigns on social media to help create awareness of the issue."

Angry Brides is playable for free on Facebook, and allows players to assault three grooms--a pilot, a doctor and a builder--with items like stilettos, tomatoes and frying pans Angry Birds-style. The more times a groom is hit, the more is deducted from his dowry in rupees and added to the player's Anti-Dowry Fund, which they can post to their Facebook Wall.
Social games with a cause are certainly nothing new, and especially so in India. (And the Angry Birds formula seems to work quite well for those with something to say.) The Angry Brides slogan reads, "A Woman will give you Strength, Care and all the Love you need ... NOT Dowry! Join us ... Take a stand ... Make a difference!"

Click here to play Angry Brides on Facebook Now >

[Via Kotaku]

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'Twas a very merry Angry Birds Christmas, with 6.5 million downloads

You could also say that a lot of folks scored some sweet gadgets this holiday season. Finnish game maker Rovio told AllThingsD that its ubiquitous Angry Birds game had been downloaded 6.5 million times on Christmas Day. (The website points out that this is nearly the estimated amount of smartphones activated over the holiday.) Yup, Angry Birds is still cool.

"We're really excited to have such a massive number of new people get acquainted with Angry Birds over the holidays--we have exciting new releases lined up for 2012, and can't wait to introduce them to the public," Rovio's Ville Heijari told AllThingsD. The 6.5 million mark combines all paid and free downloads of the three Angry Birds games, and across all platforms, we imagine.

According to AllThingsD, this more than triples Angry Birds' downloads for Christmas 2010. Surely, that's helped by an extra Angry Birds release, but we bet there are a number of reasons why the game's downloads skyrocketed this Christmas. Between air time on several commercials, their visages on every damned t-shirt in Hot Topic and appearances at major cultural events, Angry Birds exposure hit a fever pitch in 2011.

We're also wiling to bet that this is far from the end for the irate avian creatures. More, unique Angry Birds games are reportedly in the works for 2012, and we're still a ways off from that feature film. So, don't expect these furious, flightless (sort of) foul to go away anytime soon.

[Via VentureBeat]

Are you surprised at all by the amount of Angry Birds downloads on Christmas Day? What mobile games did you download on Christmas Day? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.

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