#superbowl
13-12. Punch that in, Angry Birds fans. It was hidden in the Super Bowl commercial for Rio. If you want to know how to use it and what it gets you, watch the video below. More »
Petri Järvilehto, one of the founders of Remedy Entertainment, has joined fellow Finnish developer Rovio Mobile as senior vice president of console development. Serving in this new role, Järvi- er, let's just go with Petri ... will spearhead Rovio's efforts to "take the Angry Birds success story to current and emerging console platforms." Currently, a port of the original Angry Birds smartphone game is available for PS3 as a PSN Mini, but Rovio is hinting at taking its flightless birds to new heights in future console launches.
"We want to make Angry Birds a long-lasting global gaming franchise, and we see the console platforms as a way of delivering an even more entertaining, powerful and involving experience," Rovio CEO Mikael Hed said in a press release, perhaps hinting at the dark, psychological turn the bird-launching series could take on consoles. "I think we're only in the beginning, and with consoles we have the opportunity to create a new kind of gaming experience," Petri added quite mysteriously.
To get a sense of where he's coming from -- and just how completely different it is from Angry Birds -- Petri personally led the development of Max Payne 1 & 2 and headed up the initial game design of last year's standout Xbox 360 exclusive Alan Wake. He will remain on Remedy's board of directors.
#video
If they're making an Angry Birds board game, and handheld slingshot, at some point we were bound to see Angry Birds, the backyard edition. It's at least as safe as lawn darts and just as plausible as intramural Quidditch. More »
Be honest, what's the one thing you would do if you had a giant slingshot lying around. Of course you would set up a real-life version of Angry Birds. Who wouldn't? Seriously, having a giant slingshot and not playing real-life Angry Birds would be a crime against humanity.
Just in case you didn't get the memo: developer Rovio is planning on bringing Angry Birds to every platform imaginable -- including platforms that aren't out yet. Speaking with 3DS Focus, the team confirmed plans to bring all three Angry Birds games to the 3DS as downloadable titles "later this year," including the recently-announced Angry Birds Rio. A behind-the-slingshot 3D camera would certainly make the best use of the handheld's capabilities, but that's undoubtedly a pipe dream.
In case you don't already have it on your phone, Angry Birds is also out now for PS3 and PSP.
#3ds
Rovio Mobile confirmed over its official Twitter account that all versions of Angry Birds will be brought to the Nintendo 3DS within the year. More »
If you're just hanging out playing Angry Birds in the living room while the Super Bowl is on, be sure to look up while the commercial for the animated film Rio is playing. Hidden in the ad will be a code for a downloadable Angry Birds levels (though it's not been specified if it will be compatible with all versions of the game.)
Users who find the code in the ad (which will be available on YouTube later), and then complete the level will be entered to win a trip to the March 22 premiere of Rio -- the same day the Angry Birds Rio promotional game is released. No details about the level itself have been released, but we can confirm it involves slingshotted spheroid birds launched at rickety structures.
Be sure to check out the Super Bowl trailer for the upcoming flick "Rio" to get a secret Angry Birds code. The secret code can be found in a single frame in the ad, so get out those pause buttons! More »
#video
Angry Birds Rio isn't the movie we'd been hearing about - it's a crossover with a movie, delivering another 45 levels to Angry Birders in two months, says the game's maker. The pigs don't figure to appear. More »
#iphone
Angry Birds didn't sweep the nation, it swept the whole damn world. The iOS game is popular enough to merit more than stuffed animals, a board game and an animated series. It's popular enough for a slingshot that you can shoot things with. More »
#clips
Mobile sensation Angry Birds is one of the biggest games on the planet right now. It's fun enough on a phone, but man, it's way more fun when you're pegging birds at small children instead of fat pigs. More »
#tv
Angry Birds. It's the craze that's sweeping the nation. Well, many nations. And soon, it'll be the craze that's sweeping TV sets (or computer monitors), with an Angry Birds animated series on the way. More »
This Angry Birds thing goes all the way to the White House. Former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney reveals he's dabbled in Angry Birds on the iPad. Pray he's better with a slingshot than a shotgun... More »
If ever there was proof that neither we, the wise sages of Joystiq, or you, the savvy consumers of video game-dom, can ever hope to fully understand the delicate balance of the iPhone App Store ecosystem, this is it: The holiday-themed Angry Birds Seasons Free has been knocked from its perch atop the Top Free Games category by ... Bubble Ball. Which was developed by an eighth grader.
Young Robert Nay from Utah developed the game with his mother using the Corona SDK from Ansca Mobile. Making its debut less than three weeks ago, Bubble Ball has been downloaded over 1.5 million times, sending it to the top of the iTunes App Store, and dropping Angry Birds a pitiful three spots to number four. Of course, Angry Birds classic is still the Top Paid game, so it's hard to get too choked up.
Speaking of getting paid, the Corona SDK doesn't yet support in-app purchases, so the Nays will have to be content with the knowledge that their creation is bringing joy to hundreds of thousands of bored public commuters (not to mention adding a meaty bullet point to a certain someone's college application). For comparison, take a moment to reflect on how you spent your eighth grade year and then drown your sorrows in some Bubble Ball.
#diy
LEGO artisan Tsang Yiu Keung has discovered the secret to success in Rovio's ridiculously popular Angry Birds: If throwing birds doesn't stop the pigs, throw bricks instead. More »
#clips
He doesn't talk about it much, but either Conan O'Brien is a gamer or someone on his team is. How else do you explain the subtle gaming references that keep popping up? More »
#humor
"I'm having trouble making sense of all this," writes Red, from the War of Porcine Passive Aggression. "They tell me I can come home after we get three stars on 3-18." More »
#pullquote
iPhone enthusiast and Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert displays total ignorance in the face of playing Rovio's pig-smashing hit Angry Birds on Twitter. More »
#ces
Well, how else could it work? Mattel explains the straightforward board game port of Rovio's iPhone hit Angry Birds, which is a simple pig smashing game. Angry Birds: Knock On Wood is coming soon, but playable at CES right now. More »
Here's one of CES 2011's less technical, but most awesome, revelations: Mattel is working on a board game adaptation of Rovio's mobile hit, Angry Birds. The game looks like a pretty authentic recreation of its source material; players draw "Mission Cards" depicting structures of bricks and pigs, which they then build using plastic models included in the game. Oh, and then they shoot birds at those structures using a tiny slingshot. That part is pretty integral to the whole experience, apparently.
The game will cost $14.99 when it launches worldwide this May. Even if you don't want the board game, $14.99 is a perfectly reasonable price for a tiny catapult. Just think of all the tiny things you can terrorize with a catapult of that size!
#mac
The new Mac version of Angry Birds only plays at full-screen. So forget secretly playing this game when your boss, professor or other favorite authority figure isn't watching. You can't hide it quickly. You can, however, watch our video preview. More »
Much like a gaggle of proud seamen, christening the bow of a shiny new ocean liner with a bottle of their most decadent champagne, the computer software pirating community has welcomed the Mac App Store into this world by reportedly discovering loopholes which allow them to plunder its wares for free. According to BBC News, one such loophole -- which only works on certain Apps and includes mobile darling Angry Birds -- simply requires the user to copy and paste the application's in-store purchase code. Why, that doesn't sound very difficult at all.
A group of hackers by the collective name of Hackulous also reported to BBC News that its developed a piece of software titled Kickback which can break the copy protection on any App on the store. A representative from the group told BBC, "We're not going to release Kickback until well after the store's been established," as they "don't want to devalue applications and frustrate developers."
#toys
If you treasure all that time spent building Mousetrap's contraption and its inevitable collapse midway through, then Angry Birds: Knock on Wood, a board game due later this year from Mattel, is perfect for you. Yes, it has a slingshot. More »
Say you're on a trip. Your cell phone dies. You need to play Angry Birds. Well, following today's PSN update, you'll be able to carry a backup version of Rovio's runaway hit with you at all times -- on your PSP (you take that everywhere, right?). Of course, if you're at home and get tired of squinting at a portable screen, the Minis release will run on your PS3, which should be easier on the eyes ... as long as your TV isn't a 3-inch LCD.
Final pricing for the Minis version of Angry Birds will be revealed once the next PSN update goes live later tonight, but it should be only a few bucks. If you're in China and don't want to wait for the PlayStation Store update, stop by Guangzhou province and play the most realistic (and thoroughly unlicensed) game of Angry Birds ever.
