The world of mobile gaming has had a dramatic impact not only on the scope of the smartphone industry, but also on the world of gaming in general. Because more people are playing casual games on their smartphones, dedicated portable gaming devices like the Nintendo 3DS and the Sony PS Vita aren’t nearly as popular as they once were. Games that can be enjoyed in small, bite-sized portions have become the norm and one of the titles that really sparked this trend was the original Angry Birds from 2009.
Game developer Rovio Entertainment has since expanded the single game into a hugely successful franchise, including an upcoming feature length movie starring Jason Sudeikis, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph and Peter Dinklage. It’s clear enough that Rovio wants to extract as much out of this franchise as possible, only now releasing the officially-numbered sequel Angry Birds 2 on both Google Android and Apple iOS a few days ago.
How many titles has it taken before Angry Birds was finally followed by Angry Birds 2? To date, there have been no fewer than 9 entries in the core franchise that involve the familiar slingshot-style gameplay. In addition to the core games, five “spinoff” titles have also been released that offer different gameplay styles.
Core Titles
Angry Birds: The original
Angry Birds Seasons: Highlighting elements from the four seasons
Angry Birds Rio: A tie-in title with the Rio animated movie
Angry Birds Space: Featuring unique gravity effects in outer space
Angry Birds Star Wars: Leveraging the physics of Space with a Star Wars twist
Angry Birds Star Wars II: New levels based on the Star Wars universe
Angry Birds Friends: Compete against friends online in weekly challenges
Angry Birds Slingshot Stella: Featuring the pink bird and her friends
Angry Birds 2: The recently released official sequel
Spinoff Games
Angry Birds Go!: A racing game inspired by titles like Mario Kart
Angry Birds Fight!: A match-three puzzle combat game
Bad Piggies: A construction-style puzzle game focused on the pig villains
Angry Birds Transformers: An action shooter featuring the birds as Transformers-style characters
Angry Birds Epic RPG: A turn-based role-playing game similar to classic Final Fantasy
Some people may have become bored with the Angry Birds franchise by now, especially since many of the additional titles still feature practically the same gameplay. Even so, each title has introduced a little something new and–for better or for worse–it doesn’t look like Rovio is going to slow down any time soon.