Lovable Mario, would even say “Mama Mia,” when it comes to Angry Birds, the most addictive puzzler game ever. No I don’t mean the angry birds from the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds. Mario of course is the king of cute  gaming characters, but gamer’s today are not just connected to the Wii, but and more into mobile gaming.

Case in point, have you have ever wondered why people are so glued to their iPhone, iPad or smartphone screens? It’s easy, they are playing what many are calling “one of the great runaway hits of 2010″, and “the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far”.

Give thanks to Finland-based Rovio Mobile who developed the game from an inspiration of a sketch of stylized wingless birds, the game was first released for Apple’s iOS in December 2009. Since that time,  over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from Apple’s App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, such as those using the Android operating system, among others. The game is also offered as an app for the Windows/Mac web browser, Google Chrome. This means a combined 300 million downloads and growing across all platforms and including both regular and special editions. Once downloaded you get numerous free updates that add additional game content, and the company has even released stand-alone holiday and promotional versions of the game.

To make matters worse, people are so addicted to Angry Birds it has become a problem for many companies as productivity suffers. Play it safe at work, just play it on your break ok. As a bonus you get to sharpen your eye hand coordination for a better aim.

According to the Rovio website “The survival of the Angry Birds is at stake. Dish out revenge on the green pigs who stole the Birds’ eggs. Use the unique destructive powers of the Angry Birds to lay waste to the pigs’ fortified castles. Angry Birds features hours of game play, challenging physics-based castle demolition, and lots of replay value. Each of the 120 levels requires logic, skill, and brute force to crush the enemy.”

Playing is easy, a 5 year-old can do it. Just control a flock of multi-colored birds (my daughter loves the black birds best because they are tough and they explode in a timely fashion) that are attempting to retrieve eggs that have been stolen by a group of evil green pigs. Just pull back the  slingshot (with your mouse or finger) to launch birds at pigs stationed on or within various structures, with the intent of destroying all the pigs on the playfield. (No real pigs where harmed in this game). As players advance through the game, new birds appear, some with special abilities that can be activated by the player.

Soon we will have Angry Bird  conventions, ala Star Trek and Comic-Con. The sky is the limit even in this bad economy for Angry Birds. After all, where we all need to blow off some steam in a fun way.

Web links:

http://www.rovio.com/index.php?page=angry-birds

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/angry-birds/id343200656?mt=8

http://angrybirdsonline.cc/

http://chrome.angrybirds.com/

http://www.angrybirdsnow.com/