Angry Birds has been top of Apple’s App Store’s paid apps chart for ages, and was close to becoming a fixture, but over the last three weeks it has been toppled by a Disney app game for the Apple iPad and iPhone. This game features Swampy a rather laid-back alligator who like to laze luxuriously in his bathtub, scrubbing his back. Players have to help him dodge toxic gloop and guide water into the tub. Prizes are rubber ducks. This may not be the most enduring game around, but it is clearly aimed at children, which Angry Birds was not at first.

Angry Birds creators, Rovio, are now selling around a million cuddly toys every month and with the festive season on the horizon, will undoubtedly be selling more. Mattel have produced a board game of Angry Birds and this will also be high on the Christmas list of kids of all ages who have not yet got to grips with the online games and the apps. (There must be millions of those about as we tend to forget that not every family has access to a computer on this Earth.)

Angry Birds would overtake Super Mario and even that icon of the silver screen, Mickey Mouse, in the popularity rankings, and although that was scoffed at then, people are beginning to realize that it might have been an accurate prediction. Angry Bird’s popularity has a lot to do with the graphics; those birds may be picture postcard robin-types, but they are mean, and dangerous to know because their eggs have been stolen by the green pigs, who are cravenly hiding in different structures in the game.

Disney are clearly using the app to gauge the market for a future animated movie as if Swampy the Alligator is a success with young fans, they should, theoretically line up for tickets to see the movie on its release. Rovio are also considering a movie featuring those mean angry birds and those pigs which deserve a fate worse than death for stealing their eggs. If you still haven’t played Angry Birds, it revolves around pigs and birds who are seeking revenge on the pigs who stole their eggs, their means of ensuring survival of the species.

The graphics are extremely effective and the game makes for compulsive playing. It involves logic an physics as you have to catapult the Angry Birds at a structure the pigs have built in order to hide and protect themselves from the Angry Birds. Structures are made of different materials, wood, stone, ice etc, and different coloured birds have different properties. All these elements have to be taken into account while you play.

There are more than a hundred levels and you have to complete each successfully before ascending to the next level. You can go back through the levels to score more points or to play a game that you particularly enjoy, but it is an addictive game and you need to set aside a lot of time to play it. You can play online as well as on your mobile devices, so why not check it out when you have read this article and find out what you have been missing out on?

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