The ever lovable irate avians are flying into the (augmented) real(ity) world very soon! Rovio’s biggest video game franchise, Angry Birds, is finally coming to Magic Leap One’s augmented reality platform. Smash those brinks and break those planks, because the swine menace is yet again coming for another round in Angry Birds: First Person Slingshot!
The announcement of Angry Birds FPS was made in the form of a press release and a tweet by Rovio last week. This was accompanied by a 43-second teaser video that gave a glimpse on the hyped reveal. Not too much was revealed, but the teaser did give a few highlights on the game’s mechanics, and how it would look as it gets mixed within our own realm of reality.
The massive popularity of Angry Birds over the years has led it to be released and developed on almost every single platform or console ever available. This of course, included mobile VR setups. In 2015, IMGNATION Studios unveiled Angry Birds VR at Rovio’s Rock in Rio event in Las Vegas, showing off demos of the game at several private events in the US and Brazil the following year.
At the time, it was unknown whether the demo was indeed a preview of a supposed final product, as it used a few assets and models from Angry Birds Go!, the franchise’s racing spin-off title. However as of 2018, there is no official update as to whether the title will really have a commercial release.
Angry Birds FPS, however, is decidedly slated for a commercial release. Unlike the shoot-through-rings design of Angry Birds VR, the demo seen within the franchise’s very first AR version seems to stay true to the actual gameplay and mechanics of the original game. You once again destroy a series of fortifications by slinging birds, destroying every pig that stands in your way. The perk, of course, is that the stages blend and mesh with the real world, interacting with the environment as if it is a solid, physical object.
At the time of writing, specifics about the release date are yet to be unveiled, but Rovio did assure that it will have an early fall 2018 release. The game will also be publicly demoed at Magic Leap’s first developer conference in Los Angeles on October 9th.
