The game Angry Birds, which is being hailed as the Tetris of the new millenium, has been keeping many gamers in Malta busy with its addictive play. Angry Birds is one of the first big hits of the mobile gaming platform. Launched on Apple’s iOS platform, its popularity has been such as to spread to Android, and the tablet, DS and PSP market.

Vodafone took the fun game to its stands at the Farsons Great Beer Festival to engage young and not-so-young gamers to try their luck at throwing angry birds at cunning pigs. Gamers used the Nokia E7 as a controller, with a connection to an LCD screen for better viewing. There were ten prizes to be won and the gamer with the highest score on the night won a Puma phone while the highest scorer on the final night walked away with a Nokia E7.

“The game was a massive success amongst all, even those who don’t consider themselves gamers,” said Monique Brincau, Marketing Executive at Vodafone Malta. “It was truly amazing how much this game gained popularity over such a short period of time. Its secret is that it is simple and each level can be played over little time, this is what makes it truly popular across all ages and gender. The fact that smartphones can double up as mini game consoles is simply brilliant. This game was such a massive success that we are planning to organise another Angry Bird competition in an upcoming event that is going to be held shortly!”

Angry Birds is fun and simple to learn. Using a catapult, players launch different kinds of birds to either directly hit enemy green pigs or damage their fortifications which collapse and eventually kill them. The player cannot choose what bird goes in what order making it harder to choose which part of the fortification to go for. Each fortified structure is made up of stone, ice and wood. These all have their own challenges which means trial, error and repetetive play.

The game’s design is inventive. The initial levels are basic so that players learn the birds’ abilities, while egging them onto higher levels. Setting explosions in motion that create chain reactions of action and impact which satisfy the child in all of us.

The Angry Birds game was invented by Ria Carluen and has been downloaded 50 million times since it was first released in December 2009. The game has been a hit world wide and has seen suppliers produce merchandise such as soft toys and pigs.