By Alec Meer on January 5th, 2011 at 5:30 pm.
I know how this works. I’m going to mention Angry Birds and you’re going to say how much you despise it and how games x, y, z and xyz are much better. Fine, got it, understand, you don’t need to tell me after all. I’m going to mention it anyway, because it’s vaguely surprisingly to hear that the weirdly sterile iOS catapult game has turned up on PC.
It’s via Intel’s AppUp Center wotsit, which is basically the iPhone App Store but for PCs (it’ll work on any Windows machine but is really geared towards netbooks and lower-end hardware). And with far more frightening prices, it appears. Angry Birds, for example: free on Android, 99 cents on iPhone, $5 on PC? Pfft. This is a little like saying this nice green hat costs $7, but if you want it in orange it’s $28.
I’m not prepared to pay that, so clearly I haven’t tried the PC version of the game, but its mobile ubiquity means I’ve got a pretty damned good idea of what it’s like.
Curious to see AppUp stepping up to high profile titles, though. I remain convinced we’re due to see a whole glut of such stores – there’s Google’s take on the digital games store too, though apparently customer numbers aren’t exactly sky-high there.
Anyway, Angry Birds. It’s not to my taste – give me Crush The Castle instead any day – but there’s probably a reason it’s been such a frightening success in phoneland. If you want to lure your significant other/dubious relative into PC gaming, perhaps this could be an effective start.
It’s still the blandest game in the whole wide world, though. Oh God, I’ve joined in, haven’t I?
05/01/2011 at 17:32 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
I heard of this. Can you post a screenshot?
05/01/2011 at 17:35 man-eater chimp says:
Angry What?
05/01/2011 at 17:35 Berzee says:
http://media1.gameinformer.com/imagefeed/featured/iphone/angry-birds/ahbmain.jpg
05/01/2011 at 17:36 pakoito says:
Why Crush The Castle and not that funny Monty Python version :p
05/01/2011 at 18:50 omicron1 says:
Probably ’cause Crush the Castle did it first.
05/01/2011 at 19:07 Casimir's Blake says:
And the Python version seems to be a shoddy mess with tremendously poor visuals and audio.
05/01/2011 at 20:10 dadioflex says:
Hmmm. People LIKE Crush the Castle? Hmmm.
I like Angry Birds. That’s normal.
05/01/2011 at 22:39 Wulf says:
“I like Angry Birds. That’s normal.”
I’m so sorry! But I hear there’s an ointment for that, now.
05/01/2011 at 17:54 Tei says:
I have it on the iPad, …and… is not the most fun game on the iPad, really*…
But a lot of peple seems to like it, even government people, so probably is one of these games that will be more influencial than the whole Steam catalog.
And heres a nice video:
Angry Bird pact theaty
*one of the most fun is fruit ninja.
05/01/2011 at 17:55 Demiath says:
Angry Birds on a computer? Given the intrinsic nature of PC gamers, shouldn’t that be Grumpy Birds?
05/01/2011 at 22:47 Wulf says:
I prefer curmudgeonly.
05/01/2011 at 22:48 Kadayi says:
True enough, but what about irascible? Or slightly peeved?
05/01/2011 at 23:21 Starky says:
No, no… for PC I demand
ANGRY INTERNET BIRDS!
In which angry birds throw insults, threats and ultimatums at a Developer/Publisher castle.
Then ultimately fail to do any damage what so ever and just slink away in a huff.
05/01/2011 at 17:56 Down Rodeo says:
The thing about crush the castle is that it’s a little slow on phones, you have to be really careful about where you press on the screen (for example selecting a different ammunition type) and, I dunno, some other phone-based issue.
Angry Birds just gets annoying for me, I always feel that even if I use the perfect “tactics”, which is to say fling the birds in the right places in the right order, there’s still a considerable element of luck. That and what ought to be several tons of wood and brickwork doesn’t crush your enemies; it has to hit them with some (often small) velocity.
05/01/2011 at 17:58 Schaulustiger says:
Angry Birds isn’t half as bad as everyone makes it sound.
The major selling point was lots of updates with new levels, bird types, etc., so you drop 99 cents once and get regular updates for free. Plus, it’s a fun, little just-a-minute-type of game.
05/01/2011 at 20:07 Jad says:
Agreed. The constant stream of updates is the impressive thing about the game, and many other iPhone games. If you have consoles on one side, with extended delays for patches and paid DLC, PC games in the middle-ish with frequent, easy patching, free content, and further along you have PC indies like Minecraft with strong connection to a community and very frequent updates, at the end of that spectrum you’ll find stuff like Angry Birds, with a seemingly constant stream of updates and new levels and tweaks. It’s a pretty interesting and wild game platform, those iDevices.
05/01/2011 at 17:59 Halibut Barn says:
I kind of like it as an occasional mindless time-killer, but I’m baffled by the scoring system. I can pull off an amazing kill-everything-in-one throw, but only get one star for it? And it feels like pure random luck to do so in the first place, so there’s no real feeling of accomplishment or that you really need to bother trying too hard.
05/01/2011 at 18:07 Decimae says:
Ah, RPS is clicking it’s own ads. Funny
05/01/2011 at 18:32 KauhuK says:
And now the adfirm freeze the RPS admoneys account because of your comment.
05/01/2011 at 18:29 Smi says:
It isn’t s bad game, in and of itself, but I can’t help but wonder at the popularity. It’s nice and free on Android though, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have got it. Seems a bit rapid at that price though…it’s too much!
05/01/2011 at 18:30 Baboonanza says:
Angry Buirds is NOTHING compared to Starcraft II!
05/01/2011 at 18:59 Devenger says:
I didn’t expect RPS to be the people telling me that Angry Birds is free on Android, but hey ho, it’s good to know. I always assumed it was just an iPhone thing. Time to fire my birds. Your birds? My birds. Your birds? My birds. etc.
05/01/2011 at 21:23 Dervish says:
You’ve got some handsome volcano rocks to make that reference.
05/01/2011 at 19:09 Casimir's Blake says:
$4.99 for Angry Birds? Yes, perhaps, but only if it is advertisement free. Android users may have had a free version, but it is lumbered with adverts.
05/01/2011 at 19:48 Delusibeta says:
To be fair, so’s the Lite iPhone version. Or so I’ve heard.
05/01/2011 at 19:27 terry says:
Angry Birds is Salman Rushdie’s favourite game. True story.
05/01/2011 at 19:50 8-bit says:
So now that its on the pc we are allowed to like it? Or is this one of those situations where a mobile game tries to gain acceptance by coming to pc and we all turn our noses up at it, like when an indie game goes to the consoles and we all have to snub it. I know its bad form to ask but I never know the proper way to react to these sorts of things.
05/01/2011 at 21:16 Casimir's Blake says:
Decide for yourself? Myself and my partner had many hours of fun taking turns at the Android version (plodding along on a Wildfire, it’s still fun somehow).
Mobile gaming and indie gaming have been mixing up for a while now, there’s lots to like about both. Don’t be put off by elitists…
05/01/2011 at 21:49 dragonhunter21 says:
Can’t believe Android got it free. Not saying it’s problematic, just weird.
*walks away playing Angry Birds on his Droid*
05/01/2011 at 23:31 Initialised says:
It’s Google’s way of saying you’re using the right platform.
06/01/2011 at 13:18 bookwormat says:
It is not free, you are paying by allowing them to show you advertisement.
And it works great for Rovio by the way: The are making a million dollars each month through advertising on the android version.
05/01/2011 at 22:12 Tei says:
I am going to rot in hell for posting this
http://io9.com/5725175/why-are-thousands-of-dead-birds-suddenly-falling-from-the-sky
05/01/2011 at 23:37 Initialised says:
I’d somehow related that to the eclipses and the LHC but Angry Birds works
05/01/2011 at 22:51 Flappybat says:
It’s simple and fairly well made but I didnt understand how it became so popular, its no better than thousands of catapult flash games that have been on the net for the last ten years.
05/01/2011 at 23:01 Navagon says:
Wait! Intel? Just what the hell would this thing do to my computer if I installed it? What’s the average ransom for getting your cores back?
05/01/2011 at 23:39 Initialised says:
Steam is the only App store the PC needs.
06/01/2011 at 00:39 Navagon says:
It has hats.
06/01/2011 at 08:39 stone says:
You? Again!? Careful, or we’ll send the Birds after ya…
06/01/2011 at 13:33 bookwormat says:
wtf?
06/01/2011 at 14:54 stone says:
@bookwork
My previous comment was originally for a spammed comment that now has been deleted. Guess the RPS-spam-O-bot should delete all related comments too..
06/01/2011 at 13:29 bookwormat says:
What are good sites that cover Android games? RPS appearently do not consider them within their realm.
06/01/2011 at 15:38 kregg says:
Angry Birds? I despite it! Games A,B, and C are much more better because X, Y, Z.
Blubububub…
10/01/2011 at 09:54 RegisteredUser says:
Quoth Intel: all ur birdz are b-long 2 us.