Angry Birds (game)

Angry Birds (later remarketed as Angry Birds Classic) is a casual puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment. Inspired primarily by a, the game was first released for iOS and Maemo devices in December 11th of 2009. Since that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from the iOS App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, most notably those using the Android, Symbian, Windows Phone and BlackBerry 10 devices. The series has since expanded to include titles for dedicated video game consoles and for PCs.

In the game, players use a slingshot to launch birds at pigs stationed in or around various structures with the goal of destroying all the pigs on the playing field. As players advance through the game new types of birds become available, some with special abilities that can be activated by the player. Rovio has supported Angry Birds with numerous free updates that add additional contents into the game.

As of July of 2015, Angry Birds no longer receives PC supports from Rovio, meaning that the PC version of the game is no longer available for download online, Physical copies of the game are still in circulation and are available for purchase, but it'll no longer be getting updates that the mobile version is still receiving. But don't worry, Rovio has seemingly stopped adding updates to all versions of the game altogether as of 2017(DAMMIT!).

On the bright side, now that the game itself is no longer receiving updates, it is now possible to achieve a 100% completion for the game without worrying about anything new popping up anytime soon (That is assuming that you have a way to access the game if you haven't already), this page will contain pretty much everything there is to know about the first entry to the entire franchise.

Story
The plot for the game is as simple as a simple plot can be, a group of green pigs stole three eggs from a flock birds, the birds of course, got very angry and started to attack the pigs in a attempt to get the eggs back, the plan worked and the birds got the eggs back, but the pigs' leader is not going to give up that easily, and the pigs later came up with multiple mischievous plans, such as swaping the eggs with cardboard cutouts, snat the eggs from above and fly away using ballons, trap the birds in a cage, lasso the eggs from a distance, and even escaping via underground tunnel! But no matter how many times the pigs manages to steal the eggs, the birds will always strike back and take the eggs back to the nest, and no matter how many times the pigs gets beat up, they won't ever give up until they eat the eggs!

Game Progression
The entire selection of levels is separated into "episodes"

Main episodes

 * 1) Poached Eggs
 * 2) Mighty Hoax
 * 3) Danger Above
 * 4) The Big Setup
 * 5) Ham 'Em High
 * 6) Mine and Dine
 * 7) Birdday Party
 * 8) Bad Piggies
 * 9) Red's Mighty Feathers
 * 10) Short Fuse
 * 11) Flock Favorites
 * 12) Bird Island
 * 13) Piggy Farm
 * 14) Jurassic Pork

Bonus

 * 1) Surf and Turf
 * 2) Golden Eggs

In the early versions of the game, only the first Poached Eggs episode is available while the the rest is not, the player must pass the first 63 levels in order to unlock the other episodes. In newer versions, all episodes are open for any new player who just started the game, thus that player can play the all the episodes out of order if he/she desires (for example, anyone who is a huge fan of Red can play Red's Mighty Feathers as their first episode). In the most recent versions however, the entire game outside of Golden Eggs are now requires stars earned from completing levels, and you'll never get enough to pass through the early part of Poached Eggs even if you managed to three-stared all the previous levels, the only way to get more is by playing a recently added online feature for endless hours, a feature that we'll get into later.

The Basics
The player utilises a flock of multi-colored birds that are attempting to retrieve their eggs, which have been stolen by a group of hungry green pigs. In each stage of the gameplay, enemy pigs are sheltered by structures made of various materials such as wood, glass, and stone resembling children's toy building blocks. The objective of the game is to eliminate or "pop" all the pigs within the level using a slingshot, the player launches a limited set of birds with the goal of poping all the pigs either by striking them directly or damaging their surrounding structures, causing the blocks to collapse and squash the Them. The controls are simple: drag the bird on the slingshot, the player can set angle of the launch by selecting a point in the X-Y field behind the launch post from which the virtual slingshot will be released, the player can also set the force of the launch depending on how much the bird is pulled back. The launch process is quick and casual, with no visible trajectory data, if a bird is launched, that bird will leave a trail of smoke/cloud dots that will keep going up until the bird hits something, the player can use trail to aim more accurately with their next bird. In various stages of the game, additional objects such as TNT crates, boulders, and bounce pads are incorporated into the structures.

The Levels
Each level starts with the quantity, types, and firing order of birds predetermined. If all of the pigs are eliminated after the last bird is launched, the level is completed and the next level is unlocked. If all of the birds run out and the pigs are not killed, the level is incomplete and must be repeated. Points are scored for each pig killed as well as for the amount of damage done on/destruction of structures, and hefty bonus points are awarded for any unused birds. Upon completing each level, players receive one, two, or three stars depending on the score received, the minimum scores required for getting certain amount of stars varies from level to level.

Mighty Eagle
The game also have a "alternate game mode", in every level excluding the bonus levels, there will be a icon of a eye sitting right next to the pause menu button, by tapping on the icon in any level, all the birds in the level will vanish and the bird on the slingshot will be replaced with a rectangle tin-can with a pink fish-shaped symbol printed on, by launching the can, a giant creature appropriately named Mighty Eagle will swoop down from the sky and fly towards the spot where the can landed and destroy anything in it's path (anything except the terrain, as the eagle just will move past and ignore them) and automatically pop all the pigs in the level when it bounces off the ground and back up into the air, after the level is cleared, the one to three star scoring system is replaced with a feather shaped percentage bar, how much the bar will fill up is determined by the amount of destruction caused while using the eagle, a 100% full feather will be counted as "total destruction", this feature is only available in the mobile and console version of the game, it's a one-time in-app purchase for the mobile version while in the console version, the player can use it right away without buying it.

Power-ups
In later versions of the game, power-ups that can be used to enhance the birds to attack hard-to-reach pigs were added into the game, the types of power-ups includes:
 * A potion that increases your current bird's mass.
 * Metal slingshot that can launch your birds at a faster speed and farther distance.
 * A laser-targeting scope that shows your bird's trajectory before you fire.
 * A short earth-quake that shakes the pigs' buildings and topple them
 * A electricity-powered bomb bird that can create a shockwave that can deal massive amount of structural damage post detonation.

Birds
There are several different types of birds used in the game, distinguished by their color and shape. In the earliest levels only the basic red bird is available. As the player advances through the game, additional types of birds become available. Some birds are effective against particular materials, and some have special abilities that may be activated by the player while the bird is airborne. The full roster includes:
 * A round red bird, no special ability, good against loose structures.


 * A Small blue bird, fragments into three birds, can easily shatter glass.
 * A Yellow triangle bird, can accelerate mid-flight, super effective against wood.
 * A Black bomb bird, can explode both before or after impact, crushes through piles of stone with ease.
 * A white egg-shaped bird, drop an egg-shaped explosive projectile and bounce upward to higher elevation after dropping said projectile.
 * A green bird with a long beak that boomerangs back in reverse from it's original flight trajectory, super effective against glass AND wood.
 * A larger version of the red bird that does more damage to structures than its smaller counterpart
 * A orange bird, expands and inflates to push away anything near it and flies in random directions when it deflates.
 * A pink female bird, can trap objects in bubbles and lift them into the air and release and drop them after a few seconds.
 * The previously mentioned Mighty Eagle (read the paragraph above).

Pigs
The lime-green pigs also vary in relative to their endurance and physical stature. In addition, some pigs wear hats or armor, making them even more resistant to damage.
 * The basic pigs are varied by size, smaller pigs are weaker and can easily be vanquished while larger pigs are able to withstand more damage before getting eliminated.
 * A medium sized pig with a metallic helmet, slightly more durable than the large basic pig type.
 * A pig with orange facial hair who is slightly more durable than the helmet pig.
 * The largest and most enduring pig who have a crown on top of it to identify it as a "boss".

Golden Eggs
Players can also unlock optional bonus levels by hitting golden eggs hidden in within some of the levels, although some golden eggs are obtained through unique methods, there are even golden eggs that can only be unlocked by three-staring every single level within a episode!

Surf and Turf
A episode originated from Angry Birds Facebook, Surf and Turf is a optional bonus that's just there purely for fun, there are no golden egg levels to be unlocked from it, and three-staring all levels here are pretty much optional, but hey, the option is there if you want to waste more of your time!

The Golden King Pig
Arguably the most unique bonus feature in the entire game, the Golden King Pig is unlocked by three-staring all levels in the first seven episode! this virtual gold statue of the pig leader gives the player access to four bonus modes in any randomly selected level!
 * King Pig:  Birds turn into Pigs! and pigs into eggs for some reason. The player are given several pigs to fling from the slingshot, and the objective is to pop the eggs that are in the level. Note that different pigs have different abilities, just like the birds do. For example, Helmet Pigs act just like the Black birds. Some small pigs have jetpacks to emulate Yellow birds. The smallest pigs split/triple like Blue birds, Etc.


 * Material Mix Up:  Two materials have been swapped! The birds in the level remain the same, but two of the materials (wood, glass, and stone) have been switched, completely changing the approach to the level.
 * Bird Frenzy:  Beat the level with unlimited birds! While it sounds easy enough, it is actually a little challenging, the player is only given 40 seconds or 60 seconds depending on which level is randomly selected, the bird choice is random, and there are no way to anticipate which bird will be available next. For example, being given a bunch of blue birds to combat an all-wood level is extremely difficult.
 * Total Destruction: tap on the level to explode it! You have 10 seconds. Everywhere you tap creates a small explosion, now the player can destroy some of the most difficult and frustrating levels with ease!

Mighty League
In July of 2016, a online feature was added to the game, this online multiplayer experience is basically Angry Birds Friends copy and pasted allows the players to show off how epic their epic slingshot skills are and gain bragging rights for all the levels they beat even though they pretty much gone through all the levels using power-ups, this mode has it's own unique beginner levels with it's own unique backdrop theme, but the moment the player pass the tutorial, the game will start throw in some already existing levels at the player.

Unlike the normal gameplay, all you need to do here to pass a level is to reach a certain amount of score in that level, the target score varies from level to level, also unlike normal gameplay, the player will now have to use a ticket just to play a level, and the amount of tickets are limited, meaning that if a player ran out of ticket, that player will have to wait the next day for free tickets or buy them with real money (Surely nothing is wrong with that, right?).

This game mode introduces new type of collectible, virtuall stickers that can be unlock by doing specific tasks within the game, basically video game achievements, sure, those things won't do anything in terms of gameplay, but they sure looks cool, oh, and unlock some of them actually unlocks some new golden eggs, so that's great.

Platforms
iOS, Maemo,  MeeGo ,  HP WebOS, Android,  Symbian^3 ,  PC , Series 40, PlayStation Network,  Mac OS X ,  Windows ,  WebGL , Windows Phone 7,  Google+ ,  Chrome Web Store , BlackBerry Tablet OS, Bada,  Facebook , Nintendo 3DS, Xbox 360, Kindle Fire, Wii U.

( Strikethrough = platforms that was supporting the game.)

Reception
Angry Birds was praised by critics for its success for leveraging a combination of addictive gameplay, comical style, and low price into a viable franchise with long-term potential for profit. The game's popularity has led to the production of additional versions of Angry Birds for personal computers and gaming consoles, as well as a market for merchandise featuring its characters, a feature film and several seasons of television cartoons. With the Angry Birds series having a combined tally of over 2 billion downloads across all platforms as of January 2014, including both regular and special editions, the game was called "one of the most mainstream games out right now", "one of the great runaway hits of 2010", and "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far".

Development stage

 * The basic concept of catapulting projectiles at a enemy fortress with the goal of eliminating the enemies is directly taken from another game called Crush the Castle.
 * The game was originally going to have muti-colored blocks that can only be destroyed by matching colored birds, and the birds themselves originally didn't have any distinct abillities.
 * The early version of the game did not have the iconic slingshot, the player would have to instead swipe the birds into the unpopulated structures made of blocks, according to Jaakko Iisalo, the game testers were very confused due to the struggle to figure out the game controls or the goal.
 * Yes, you read that right, UNPOPULATED structures, the pigs were not added into the game at the time, more on that later.
 * The development team wanted a game contraption that can let players immediately figure out what they need to do to progress without a mandatory tutorial, their immediate choice was the slingshot, but they then thought that it was too obvious as a choice, so they tried out other options including a swing, but after realizing that none of the other set ups felt right, they went right back to using the slingshot.
 * The original name for the game was Catapult, this was during the time when the prototype bird-launcher was literally a catapult.
 * After realizing that the birds needed a reason for being angry other than mere buildings, Rovio knew they needed to create antagonists for the game, however, they were running out of time, so Iisalo settled with designing a pig who is also green, the complimentary color to red.
 * Due to the limited amount of time to come up with a reason behind the bird vs pig conflict, Iisalo settled with the first thing that came to his head: pigs wants food to eat so they stole the birds' eggs!
 * At the time, the "swine flu" epidemic was a popular news topic, so it made sense for green pigs to be the enemy that the players have to eliminate in order to progress.

All trailers and promos for the game

 * The original gameplay trailer
 * The original cinimatic trailer
 * Mighty Eagle teaser
 * Mine and Dine trailer
 * Power-Ups trailer
 * Red's Mighty Feathers teaser
 * Red's Mighty Feathers trailer
 * Red's Mighty Feathers update trailer
 * Short Fuse trailer
 * Black Friday/Short Fuse promo
 * Flock Favorites trailer
 * Birdday 5 teaser
 * Birdday 5 trailer
 * Mighty League promo

Other sources

 * Rovio's official web page
 * 107 Angry Birds facts