It’s the casual mobile gaming sensation that has been downloaded over 3 billion times and has created a multi-media franchise which includes movies, tv shows, and theme park attractions. For many, it was their first gaming experience on the emerging smartphone market. For others, it was their first game, full stop. Although it’s both loved and loathed by the gaming community, the influence of Angry Birds on the industry throughout the 2010s cannot be overstated. And like any iconic franchise, it was inspired by flash games, mock screenshots, and the swine flu.
In early 2009, senior game designer Jaakko Iisalo approached his co-workers at Finnish development studio Rovio with a screenshot he had created. It depicted wingless and legless birds looking particularly angry, possibly because they were wingless and legless. It gave no clues as to what kind of game they would feature in, but the staff were so enamoured by the colourful characters that they decided to attach them to a project, regardless.
An idea was then hatched to create a physics-based puzzle game similar to the popular online flash games of the time. Given they couldn’t fly, the birds would be rocketed out of a slingshot towards structures with the intent of wrecking them to the ground. Occupying these structures were green pigs looking to steal and feast upon the birds’ eggs. Pigs were chosen as the enemy because it was 2009 and the swine flu pandemic had reached its most alarming spread.
This story is from the Issue 124 - February 2020 edition of GameOn Magazine.
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This story is from the Issue 124 - February 2020 edition of GameOn Magazine.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
MythForce
MythForce seems like the videogame version of all those cartoons you loved as a kid, like He-Man or She-Ra. The game even has its own animated intro and theme song! I was so excited to start playing once I saw this. It was apparent that a lot of time and love went into this intro, so they must have put this much work in, but can it live up?
Gunbrella
Sometimes, a game title tells you everything you need to know about that game in just a word; Gunbrella is an amazing example of this. If you’ve ever had thoughts of becoming a lethal Mary Poppins, this is the game for you. The developers at Doinksoft have you playing as a quiet woodsman, decked out in a brown bowler hat and a long white scarf whose life has taken a tragic turn. At the beginning of the game, we see him out gathering mushrooms. In the distance, we see a wooden cabin covered in flames, this is our woodsman’s home. He runs there as fast as he can, and runs into the burning building. Alas, it’s too late to save his wife. She has been killed.
Astrea: Six Sided Oracles
Astrea: Six Sided Oracles is a deck-building roguelike with noticeable inspiration from Slay The Spire. Despite this inspiration, however, it manages to hold its own incredibly well, even going so far as potentially being one of my favourite deck-builders of all time.
Baldur's Gate 3
Through a litany of modern games mired by microtransactions and shifty live-service releases emerges a shining beacon of light: Baldur's Gate 3. Your buddies at work are talking about it; your favourite Discord servers are awash with videos about it; heck, even Grandma and her bridge club are wittering away about it (probably). The game has quickly become a cultural phenomenon and with my playtime knocking the three-digit mark, I finally feel ready to evaluate my adventure through Faerûn — so let’s dive in.
The Crew Motorfest
The Crew is a series I’m very familiar with; since its inception back in 2014 I’ve spent countless hours driving across the scaled down versions of mainland America. For the third entry into Ubisoft’s open-world racer series, The Crew Motorfest takes players to Hawaii, focusing instead on a much denser, detailed environment rather than the scaled down ‘Murica. Whilst not as drastic a tonal shift as The Crew 2 was from its predecessor, can Motorfest provide an enjoyable cruise through one of the world's most beautiful locations?
Fae Farm
Fae Farm is a new cosy farming simulator title by Phoenix Labs set in the enchanted lands of Azoria — a world full of magical issues that begs for your help!
Tevi
TEVI is a bullet-hell metroidvania, developed by Crespirit and was an utter joy to play. Full of fascinating systems, fluid combat, and some fantastic world-building, TEVI is a very interesting title.
Farmer's Father: Save The Innocence
I had the opportunity to preview the survival videogame Farmer's Father: Save the Innocence. Prequel to the farming simulator Farmer's Life, you play as the former protagonist’s father as he, his wife, and baby child try to survive 1945 East Europe. The game begins with the Axis forces marching on your front door, forcing the three of you to flee your burning home to the safety of a nearby bunker. Once safely inside, you sleep the night off, now alone during the middle of winter. In the bunker you’ll find: a rifle with 10 rounds of ammunition, a bunk bed, a single lamp resting on a table, a working fireplace/oven, and a chest where you put all of the provisions and items.
Moonlight Peaks
It's no secret that I am absolutely obsessed with spooky themes (what with my name being Spooky_0ne everywhere I sign up!), so when I found out there was a life sim game coming out with vampires, witches, potions, nightshades, etc.... Well, I kind of lost my mind from excitement! Thankfully, the team over at Little Chicken gave me the fantastic opportunity to interview them.
So I Tried... Persona 5 Royal
Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never tried before. Will I find something new to love? Will I make my “did not finish” list one entry longer? I’ll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for a spooky visual novel that is said to be one of the best narrative games you can play: Persona 5 Royal.
