Everyone's favourite 'bird-flinging' game turns 5

On the 5th anniversary of Angry Birds, Rovio is giving out rewards to users

On 10 December, 2009, Rovio took the mobile gaming world by storm with Angry Birds. By October 2010, around 10 million users had downloaded the gaming application. No one could resist flinging the ‘angry’ birds, with the help of the slingshot, at green coloured pigs. 

Seeing the popularity enjoyed by the game, Rovio later developed it for Android, Windows and Symbian powered smartphones and eventually expanded to PC and gaming consoles. 

This December, the popular franchise is turning five years old yet remains as one of the most popular mobile games. On the eve of their five-year anniversary, Rovio is giving out a ‘BirdDay’ present as they put it. From December 11 - 18, users will be able to redeem a reward worth $5 where they will be required to enter the code ‘ ANGRY-BIRD’ inside six of their top titles. These titles include the original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Epic, Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Friends, Angry Birds Transformers and Angry Birds Seasons. Apart from the reward, the original Angry Birds will come with 30 brand-new levels, some of which are fanmade.

The original game follows a flock of birds who are furious at green pigs for stealing their eggs. With the help of their slingshot, they plot revenge against the pigs and one has to use their accuracy and aim to destroy the pigs along with their makeshift homes. The game has also generated spin-offs like Bad Piggies where one has to help the pigs construct vehicles and machines in order to steal the birds' eggs. 

The game started out as a stand-alone game but later generated various series, mostly crossovers or based on a movie franchise. Angry Birds Rio is a tie-in, based on 20th Century Fox's animated film Rio while Angry Birds Star Wars is a crossover between the game franchise and the Star Wars original Trilogy. Other titles include Angry Birds Epic, Angry Bird Seasons, Angry Birds Transformers and more.

Touted as “one of the greatest runaway hits of 2010”, the original Angry Birds has always been showered with praises; whether it be for the fun gameplay that brings out the hidden sadist in you or the cutesy graphics that attract both old and young. 

What started out as a fun franchise has metamorphosed into the commonplace 'in-app purchases' based games where additional levels need to be unlocked by paying a sum of money. This has led to people losing interest and shifting their focus to other games which have free levels.

All six Angry Birds titles can be downloaded from the Google Play Store for free on Android devices. The games are big in size (about 50 mb) so we recommend using a WiFi connection to download them.