Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

Angry Birds 2 has 10 million downloads, but its money grubbing ruffles feathers

Trevor Mogg
By

an overextended rovio looks to slim down its workforce angry birds 2
Rovio
It seems plenty of people still have the Angry Birds bug, with the game’s recently launched sequel notching up 10 million downloads in its first three days. Game maker Rovio hit Twitter to announce the news, apparent confirmation that the bird-flinging, pig-crushing game has lost none of its appeal among smartphone users looking for an easy way to kill a bit of time.

While some players have gone online to praise Angry Birds 2 for its impressive graphics and enjoyable gameplay, others voiced disappointment at how the Finnish gaming company has disrupted the pace of play in the pursuit of profit.

Recommended Videos

Unlike the original, you now have a limited number of lives for each challenge before things get sticky. To get new lives you either have to make an in-app purchase, watch a bunch of ads, or wait a full 30 minutes before you can continue. Part of the enjoyment of the original Angry Birds was that you could try over and over to complete a level with little disruption to the flow of the game – and no damage to your bank account. That’s no longer the case.

Related

Typical of many of the reviews in the iTunes store, player Ollyn84 said the game’s frustration now comes not from trying to destroy those pesky pigs but “from having finite lives and having to wait or continuously pay out to keep playing,” adding, “Long gone is the pure unadulterated fun, that ‘just one more try’ addictiveness that encapsulated Angry Birds.”

The first Angry Birds game cost $1.99 when it launched for iOS in back in 2009. Since those days, however, the trend for developers has been toward offering smartphone games for free and including in-app purchases to unlock new levels, functionality, or virtual goods. That’s all well and good, but many players of Rovio’s recently released sequel are clearly upset with the way the company has incorporated the freemium model into the game.

While those disappointed with the game’s new monetization system will likely cast aside Angry Birds 2 after a few plays, the company will be hoping enough people become suitably addicted, prompting them to view the game’s ads, or better, make some in-app purchases.

[Angry Birds 2 for iOS and Android]

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
All Baobab Tree locations in Tales of Kenzera
Zau fights a dragon in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

While it wasn't marketed as being a particularly punishing game, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is by no means easy. You will have plenty of environmental challenges that can instantly sap your life, and the enemies you face -- especially the bosses -- are no slouches. When you first begin, it will only take a couple of bad hits to send Zau to the land of the dead himself. Alongside the Trinkets you can unlock through hidden challenges around the map, there are also Baobab Trees where Zau can stop to reflect on his journey thus far, have a short dialogue with Kalunga, and get a small addition to his health bar. Like everything in the game, these trees aren't prohibitively hidden, but you could easily pass one by and have no idea where it was when trying to backtrack. These are all the Baobab Tree locations so you can max out your health bar.
All Baobab Tree locations
There are six Baobab Trees to find in Tales of Kenzera: Zau and each adds a small segment of health to your total. When you collect them all, you will roughly double your HP bar. Here are each of their locations in the rough order you should naturally find them in. Most can be picked up on your first time through that area.
Ikakaramba

This one is very hard to miss as it is directly on your critical path. If you do, you can fast travel to the nearby campfire to grab it.
The Great Cliffs

Read more
All Fallout games, ranked
The courier in his nuclear gear and holding his gun in Fallout: New Vegas key art.

Who would've thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise has taken the idea of a Mad Max-like future and not only made it into a wildly popular game franchise but also a hit TV series. The core franchise has been around since the late '90s, and yet we've had only a handful of mainline entries in the series since it was revived by Bethesda with Fallout 3. With Starfield in the rearview mirror and the next Elder Scrolls title currently being the dev team's focus, it could be close to another decade before we can set foot in the wasteland ourselves once again. What better time, then, to look back at the franchise and rank all the games from best to worst?

Fallout: New Vegas

Read more
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble is as fun to watch as it is to play
Monkeys race one another in Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble.

I couldn’t tell you what the last Super Monkey Ball game I played was, but I can still talk your ear off about the series. That’s thanks to the speedrunning community that has formed around the franchise, making it into the most exciting game to watch when it's played at a high level. After spending close to a decade watching old games turned inside and out, I’m ready to finally dig into a new entry for myself.

Thankfully, I’m getting that chance on June 25 when Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble launches on Nintendo Switch. The latest entry in Sega’s precise platforming series comes loaded with content, from an adventure mode with 200 stages to multiple 16-player multiplayer modes. That’s all exciting, but my attention was on one question when I sat down to demo all of that last week: How fun will it be to watch players master it?

Read more