It"s one of the biggest hits in mobile gaming history and this week it reached a huge milestone. Rovio announced this week that the puzzle arcade game Angry Birds has now achieved over 500 million downloads. The original version of the game was first released back in December 2009 for Apple"s iOS platform and has since expanded to Android, Mac, PC, Windows Phone, the PSP-PS3 platforms and more.
It"s not a shock to see why. The combination of creating a addictive mix of puzzle and arcade gameplay with heavy use of physics and some cute (but angry) birds being shot into the air was a brilliant move. It didn"t hurt that you could play the game for free with some banner ads popping into view briefly (you can also purchase the game to get rid of the ads).
Angry Birds is also starting to make itself known in the mainstream. You can already buy Angry Birds stuffed animals at your local Wal Mart and Rovio has announced that more than 10 million Angry Birds toys have shipped worldwide so far. It"s also not a shock to learn that Rovio has acquired its own animation studio in order to make its own Angry Birds animated cartoons.
But it"s the game that will continue to expand to other platforms (where is our Xbox 360 version, Rovio?) and will also continue to keep people fixated on trying to complete just one more level before moving on to the next. Making a game hard to put down is the hallmark of any great game and Angry Birds has shown it is truly a great game.