Skip to main content

The Angry Birds finally get a BlackBerry, as popular game lands on the PlayBook

Angry Birds BlackBerry PlayBookIt may seem as if Angry Birds is available on just about every platform known to man, however up until today they hadn’t made it on to Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices. But before all you Curve, Bold and Torch owners go rushing off to the AppWorld, the Angry Birds have so far confined themselves to the PlayBook.

While this will upset legions of fans, those who do own the BlackBerry PlayBook will be pleased to discover it’s not just the original game that’s available, but all three titles. The first Angry Birds has all 288 levels of catapult fun, while Angry Birds Seasons contains 205 levels including the most recent Halloween update, although there’s no mention of this year’s Christmas-themed levels out now for other platforms.  Finally, there’s Angry Birds Rio, Rovio’s film tie-in which takes an ever-so slightly mixes up the standard formula.

All three games are priced at $4.99, which is more expensive than the HD versions for the Apple iPad, and considerably more than the free versions available for Android tablets. The PlayBook editions aren’t blighted by any in-game advertising though. A total of $15 may sound quite a lot for three mobile games, but with more than 600 levels to play through in total, there’s a lot of fun to be had.

The Angry Birds franchise celebrated its second birthday earlier this month, announcing the game had topped 500 million downloads, and a company valuation of more than $1 billion.

Topics
Andy Boxall
Senior Mobile Writer
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
NYT Connections: hints and answers for Thursday, April 25
New York Times Connection game logo.

Connections is the latest puzzle game from the New York Times. The game tasks you with categorizing a pool of 16 words into four secret (for now) groups by figuring out how the words relate to each other. The puzzle resets every night at midnight and each new puzzle has a varying degree of difficulty. Just like Wordle, you can keep track of your winning streak and compare your scores with friends.

Some days are trickier than others. If you're having a little trouble solving today's Connections puzzle, check out our tips and hints below. And if you still can't get it, we'll tell you today's answers at the very end.
How to play Connections
In Connections, you'll be shown a grid containing 16 words — your objective is to organize these words into four sets of four by identifying the connections that link them. These sets could encompass concepts like titles of video game franchises, book series sequels, shades of red, names of chain restaurants, etc.

Read more
NYT Mini Crossword today: puzzle answers for Thursday, April 25
NYT The Mini Crossword logo.

Love crossword puzzles but don't have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That's what The Mini is for!

A bite-sized version of the New York Times' well-known crossword puzzle, The Mini is a quick and easy way to test your crossword skills daily in a lot less time (the average puzzle takes most players just over a minute to solve). While The Mini is smaller and simpler than a normal crossword, it isn't always easy. Tripping up on one clue can be the difference between a personal best completion time and an embarrassing solve attempt.

Read more
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door remake is full of quality of life updates
Mario bumps into a Goomba in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

Next month, Nintendo will celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of its finest games. Nintendo GameCube classic Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is getting a Nintendo Switch rerelease that's somewhere between a remaster and a remake (not unlike the company's recent Super Mario RPG revisit). But a game as beloved as this presents a challenge for developers: How do you stay true to the original while still upgrading it enough to justify a full-priced double-dip rather than an HD port?

I got an answer to that question when Nintendo gave members of the press a close look at the upcoming Switch release. The good news for protective purists is that the remake doesn't seem to be changing much about the core RPG aside from a bit of dialogue translation. Instead, the new version delivers key quality of life improvements to make a cult classic a bit friendlier to newcomers. That leaves it feeling like an even lighter makeover than Super Mario RPG, but a welcome one nonetheless.
What's new?
During my hands-off demo, Nintendo would walk me through several familiar snippets of the adventure. I'd see the opening combat tutorial in Rogueport, some fights against Pale Piranhas, and Chapter 1's climactic clash with Hooktail. Naturally, the most obvious change here is the remake's newly redone visuals. The Switch version is notably more crisp than the GameCube original, thanks to the removal of messy artifacts around the edges of its paper characters. It's smoother and more vibrant overall, with some more dynamic lighting to boot.

Read more