The prodigal child of all phone games – Angry Birds has returned. And with a Blast, literally. This time around, the birds will be seen taking on the form of a match-three puzzle based game, much like Candy Crush Saga.
After dabbling in racing and different iterations of its regular gameplay, Angry Birds are taking a new route by adopting the much-sought after and time consuming puzzle genre. The title ‘Angry Birds Blast’ will be released on December 22. The gameplay will involve matching the correct sequence of balloons that will result in them bursting and thus supposedly freeing the trapped angry birds that were mysteriously put there.
Rovio seemed to be winging it in their press release, saying that how those birds got into that position this time around was ‘anyone’s guess’. Pretty sure that we’ll get to the bottom of it when the 22nd arrives.
The game soft-launched in July in select regions for a trial period. So for those who want to install the finished product, they may do so from today. Rovio’s formula up until now was to remain unique and away from what the usual competitors are up to. They’ve avoided doing the endless run games as well as the other puzzle games that have become the norm nowadays. But seeing as even they’ve succumbed to the booming popularity of the three-match puzzle games like Candy Crush and Saga and Bejeweled, just goes to show that if you can’t beat them, join them.
Those who are impatient for the release however, can still go ahead and pre-register for the game via their website. Those who do, will get $10 worth of gold for use in the game. There will also be micro-transactions once the game is launched. It’s interesting to see how the new game will match up to the leaders in the genre who are already celebrating their success.
The Angry Bird franchise has already grown pretty big, with spin-offs and also a film, not to mention its widely popular line of soft toys. It’s the same formula essentially, with just a different franchise doing it this time around. And as long as it’s free to play, we’re sure that users will want to at least give it a shot. All we can say is that we should expect the level clearing messages to read things like ‘Eggcelent’ or ‘You cracked that one’ or ‘Passed with flying colours!’