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Video Game / Angry Birds

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Five angry birds! Five unique abilities! Vengeance against the pigs!

Angry Birds is an artillery simulator/Puzzle Game created by Finnish video game developer Rovio Entertainment in 2009. The premise of the game is that evil, egg-munching pigs have raided the nests of birds who will get their eggs back, whatever it takes. Said egg retrieving involves launching the birds from a slingshot at the pigs, who are protected behind elaborate obstacles of wood, ice and stone. It's a simple concept, but the execution is often anything but easy. The first game was released on December 11, 2009.

There are several different types of birds, most of which have a special ability activated by tapping the screen in mid-flight:

  • Red is a simple projectile; aim and launch. In Angry Birds 2, he gains the ability to unleash a battle cry to topple structures.
  • The Blues (Jay, Jake, and Jim) are loaded into the slingshot as a single small bird, but when launched, they can be split into three tiny birds. They are especially effective at shattering ice.
  • Chuck (yellow) doubles his speed and acts like a missile. He's best for breaking through wood.
  • Bomb (black) acts like a bomb, blowing up shortly after he lands or if you tap the screen. Before exploding, he's most effective against stone.
  • Matilda (white) drops an exploding egg and shoots up at an angle.
  • Hal (green toucan) acts like a boomerang, reversing direction and speeding up.
  • Terence (large red) is slow but, on impact, will either cause a lot of damage or move a lot of blocks.
  • Bubbles (orange) is small, but puffs up into a larger size shortly after landing or if you tap the screen, pushing everything around him out of the way. He deflates after a short while.
  • Stella (pink) releases bubbles that lift objects into the air and then drop them when the bubbles pop.
  • Silver (silver) Introduced in Angry Birds 2, does a loop and flies straight downwards after with increased strength.
  • Melody (brown) Introduced in Angry Birds 2, can, if you tap the screen, suck up objects and spit them back out.
  • The Mighty Eagle is an enormous bird who will wipe out all the pigs in a level. Unlike the other birds, it incurs a one-time activation fee. Unlike the other birds, using the Eagle is a challenge mode, as instead of points you're awarded a percentage score based on how much of the level is destroyed.
    • The "Year of the Dragon" episode of Seasons introduces the Mighty Dragon which does the same thing as the Eagle but by spinning.
    • The "Philadelphia Eagles" edition for Facebook introduces a version of the Mighty Eagle known as the "Mighty Philadelphia Eagle".
    • The "Ham Dunk" episode of Seasons introduces the Mighty Ball, which works just like the Mighty Eagle.
  • The Rio version adds Blu and Jewel as special birds in some levels, in two different versions: Chained Heat, where they fly straight forward with a large impact, and Blu alone, who flails around madly after landing or tapping.
  • Space gives the regular birds a slightly Darker and Edgier makeover (seen as they pass through the space warp in the backstory animation) and changes some of the colours. In particular, Terence becomes green, the Mighty Eagle becomes a Space Eagle that wipes out everything around the launched fish tin instead of killing every pig, and Chuck becomes purple and will travel at high speed towards whatever point you touch on the screen. The game introduces a completely new light blue bird shaped like an ice cube that freezes all items around it, making them easily smashed by the Blues. The summer 2012 update introduced bonus levels in which you fire eggs that hatch into mini-black holes, which don't do much damage themselves but which you have to use to attract pigs and scenery so that they smash into each other.
  • Both AB Star Wars and AB Transformers not only have the birds cast as characters from the franchises, they have character-appropriate abilities (lightsabers, Force pushes, blasters, electricity, Force lightning, and others for the Star Wars games and character-appropriate alt modes and, in some cases, weapons in AB Transformers).

The Puzzle Game aspect (and the game's main source of difficulty) revolves around the best use of the available birds in each level to collapse the obstacles onto the pigs, as all the pigs have to be taken out to win a level. One to three stars are awarded when you clear a level, with a minimum score needing to be reached to earn all three. Scoring per level is based on pigs killed,note  damage done to the obstacles, and the number of birds left over at the end of the level.note  Achievements can also be earned for finishing episodes, three-starring all levels in an episode, scoring a certain number of points in an episode, and other things. Each episode also includes a number of hidden Golden Eggs which, when found, open bonus levels.

The games in the series so far:

  • The original, with fifteen episodes released to date (last new levels 2017).
    • An Updated Re-release of the 2012 version of the game (called Rovio Classics: Angry Birds, later retitled Red's First Flight) was released on March 31, 2022.
  • Angry Birds Seasons (released October 2010), featuring (mostly) holiday-themed episodes. Themes include but are not limited to Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Summer. There are also episodes not centered around a day in particular (last new levels December 2016).
  • Angry Birds Friends (released February 2012 as Angry Birds Facebook and May 2013 on mobile), which connects to the Facebook version of the same name and lets you compete in a weekly tournament. Most of the original gang is present. For tournament levels, the eagle is replaced by the superhero themed Wingman who's basically Terence in a mask.
  • Angry Birds Space (released March 2012) has the birds all go into space, where they launch themselves from one planet to another to rescue their eggs from evil space pigs. The artstyle for that game is not unlike Spore or Super Mario Galaxy (last new levels 2015).
  • Angry Birds 2 (released August 2015), a true sequel to the original, with a new bird (Silver) joining the now 7-bird flock, and refreshed graphics.
  • Angry Birds Reloaded (released July 2021), a Remaster of the original game that also incorporates elements from the movies as well bringing levels from Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Friends on top of it. Exclusive to the Apple Arcade subscription service.

Spinoffs:

  • Bad Piggies (released September 2012), a Villain Episode focusing on vehicle building.
  • Angry Birds Go! (released December 2013), a kart racer.
  • Angry Birds Epic (released June 2014), a turn-based Role-Playing Game featuring the birds as party members with classes, stats, and upgradeable gear.
  • Angry Birds: Transformers (released October 2014), a rail-shooter that, like Star Wars, is a crossover with the Transformers franchise where the Angry Birds cast play the heroes ("Autobirds") and villains ("Deceptihogs").
  • Angry Birds POP! (originally called Angry Birds Stella POP!, released March 2015), a bubble-shooter Match-Three Game originally with the Stella cast. It was later retooled to feature the main cast.
  • Angry Birds Blast (released December 2016), a tap-to-match game.
  • Angry Birds Evolution (released June 2017), with pinball-like mechanics similar to Action!, but this one in the "hero-collection" style - it features over 100 new birds to collect and upgrade, with the established flock only available for recruitment in special events. The fifth game to use the movie's art style.
  • Angry Birds Match (released August 2017), another match-3 game where you complete levels to invite Hatchlings to different worlds. The sixth game to be based on the 2016 movie.
  • Angry Birds Dream Blast (released Janurary 2019), another tap-to-match game that features younger versions of the birds. The seventh game based on the movie.
  • Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (originally called Angry Birds FPS: First Person Slingshot, released February 2019 and April 2019 on mobile as Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs), an augmented reality game where you aim and slingshot the birds from a first-person view using a VR headset or a mobile device that supports AR. The eighth game based on the movie.
  • Angry Birds Journey (originally called Angry Birds Casual, released January 2022), with the difficulty being easier and with mechanics similar to the match games. The ninth game based on the movie.

Discontinued:

  • Angry Birds Rio (released March 2011), a sequel/crossover/tie-in with the movie Rio, wherein the birds are captured and shipped to South America. Ended support at the end of 2020.
  • Angry Birds Star Wars (released November 2012), a sequel/crossover with the original Star Wars film trilogy. Unlike Angry Birds Rio, which featured the normal birds alongside the cast of Rio, this game utilizes the Universal-Adaptor Cast trope, with birds and pigs alike portraying the various characters. Ended support at the end of 2020.
    • Angry Birds Star Wars II (released September 2013) revolves around the prequel trilogy, and allows you to play "light side" and "pork side" routes with corresponding characters. Ended support at the end of 2020.
  • Angry Birds Stella (released September 2014), a Girl's Night Out Episode with Stella leading a new (almost-)all-female cast. It has been removed from the App Store as of October 2016 (2 years and 1 month after its release).
  • Angry Birds Fight! (released June 2015), which pits the birds against each other in one-on-one fights as well as the pigs, using a puzzle fighting system where your offense and defense are determined by how well you do in a Match-Three Game using the birds as pieces on the game board. It incorporates the items and customizing features from Epic. Shut down in November 2017.note 
  • Angry Birds Action! (released April 2016), a pinball-like game based on the 2016 film. It has been discontinued as of October 2017.
  • Angry Birds Football (released April 2016), a football game, being the second game to have the 2016 movie's graphics. Never got past the soft-launch stage.
  • Angry Birds Ace Fighter (released May 2016), an adventure "shoot-em-up" made by a Thai independent company where you shoot pigs to earn points. Removed from the App Store in September 2016 and servers shut down the following month.
  • Angry Birds Holiday (released May 2016). Basically, the birds and pigs have set aside the tower defense and decide to relax. Third game with the art style of the 2016 film. Discontinued within the year, at the end of 2016.
  • Angry Birds Islands (released March 2017), a village-building game. Shut down just two months after soft-launch.
  • Angry Birds Dice (released February 2017), a casino-like game and the fourth AB game based on the 2016 movie. Shut down in October 2017 while still in the soft-launch stage.
  • Angry Birds POP Blast (originally called Angry Birds POP 2, released May 2019), another bubble-shooter in which you get to play as a bird and a pig in each level, and the ninth game based on the movie. It was quietly shut down less than a year after it was released.

Originally released for smartphonesnote , the game is now available for play on tablet computers, e-readers, the Google Chrome web browser, as a PlayStation Minis app note , and on Facebook. Wii, Xbox 360, and Nintendo 3DS have collections released for them on disc/cartridge. As of November 2011, Angry Birds, in all its incarnations, across all platforms, has been downloaded 500 million times. The only game with distribution figures that come close to this mark is Tetrisnote  It's even been parodied on an Israeli sketch comedy show, which used the endless conflict between the birds and the pigs as a metaphor for the Arab–Israeli Conflict.

Related is the Angry Birds Holiday Comics series and the Angry Birds Toons series. In 2014, Angry Birds Land opened in Thorpe Park, with rides and a 4D movie based around the games. The attraction was announced to be closed in 2024.

In fall 2013, the plan was set in motion for there to be a feature-length Angry Birds film titled simply enough, The Angry Birds Movie. The film was released in May of 2016 and has the voice-acting likes of Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Peter Dinklage, Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele, and Smosh. Despite mixed reviews, the film was successful enough to get a sequel, which was released in August of 2019.

On August 17, 2023, Sega purchased Rovio Entertainment for $776 million.

For a list of other Angry Birds-related media, see the franchise page.

The games provide examples of:

    open/close all folders 

    Appearing in multiple games 
  • All There in the Manual: Many of the birds' names are given in Angry Birds Trilogy, National Geographic's Angry Birds: Fed Up, Feathered, and Furious, and the production presentation for Toy Care's toothbrush line. Strangely, Terence's original name (being "Big Brother") was revealed through Chillingo promotional material.
  • Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Green pigs.
  • Art Evolution:
    • In Angry Birds Rio and the now-discontinued Angry Birds Chrome, both the birds and pigs are given less crude (albeit much less expressive) sprites. These sprites are now used in newer versions of the original game. Strangely though, these sprites were never implemented in Angry Birds Seasons, with the closest thing to that being Bomb's white dot being erased (although he did keep the original expressions).
    • Starting with Angry Birds Go!, the characters have their designs from the Angry Birds Toons series. Some of the older games like Seasons and the original also used the Toons designs, but only on menus and cutscenes.
    • Starting with Angry Birds Action!, the characters have their designs from The Angry Birds Movie. Some of the previous games like Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds Epic also used the movie designs, but only on their loading screens and some menus. So far, the only Angry Birds games released since Action! not to use the movie designs are Angry Birds Blast! and Angry Birds Reloaded (not counting the soft-launched games like Ace Fighter and Islands, which are now discontinued).
  • Artillery Game: In a loose sense of the term — the slingshot controls your launch angle and speed, each bird leaves a visible shot trail, and the goal is to eliminate your opposition (either through direct hits or, more often, collateral damage). But the pigs aren't actively aiming and shooting at the birds in return, (except in the Star Wars version) and you only have a limited number of birds to take out the pigs with.
  • Automatic Level:
    • A few of the bonus levels are like this.
    • Subverted in some bonus levels which are built around chain reactions; there's a random chance that the mechanism does partially fail, and some of these can be failed completely if you don't shoot a bird properly to trigger the chain reaction.
  • Autosave: The games automatically save your progress every time you complete a level.
  • Ax-Crazy: The birds, arguably, based on how over-the-top their protective instinct is (see No-Holds-Barred Beatdown below).
  • Balloon-Bursting Bird: Some levels have architecture held up by them...pop them and guess what happens.
  • Berserk Button:
  • Beware the Nice Ones: These videos show that the birds are the best egg carers in the world. Should anything threaten them, you quickly learn why they are called Angry Birds.
  • Big Bad:
    • The King Pig.
    • Nigel for Rio, presumably.
  • Big Ol' Eyebrows: All of the birds designed by the original artist Tuomas Erikoinen (with the exception of The Blues) have them. Most of the birds in general have these, too.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The mug Bomb drinks from in Bomb Bird stars in Angry Birds update has his name on it in Japanese.
  • Boss Battle:
    • In Angry Birds Rio:
      • Level 4-15 is a battle against Nigel, who appears twice more in cameos, one to send marmosets out against the birds, and the other to capture Jewel and Blu. He reappears again in level 12-15 for the climactic battle.
      • Level 8-15 is a fight against the marmoset leader Mauro, who jumps around on platforms. He shows up again in level 14-15.
    • In AB Space:
      • The final levels of the first two planets in have boss battles against the King Pig in a tank-like contraption and flying saucer, respectively.
      • The fourth planet has a boss battle against a pig so large, it generates its own gravitational field.
    • You have to fight Lard Vader in the final levels of the Death Star and Cloud City episodes in AB Star Wars, and both he and the Emperor at the end of the second Death Star level.
  • Bribing Your Way to Victory:
    • It costs 99¢ to unlock the Giant Eagle, which just kills every pig in the level.
    • In AB Space, you can earn Space Eagles for completing the first two planets; once you run out, you have to buy them. (Or you can just leave the game and come back later to "earn" one.)
    • In Angry Birds Friends (both the Facebook app and mobile app) and the original game (since the August 2012 update), you are able to purchase "power-ups" for use in-game. The power-ups include: Power Potionnote  (makes the bird grow larger), the King Sling (super-powered slingshot), Sling Scope (you can see the flight path before launch), and Birdquake (an earthquake occurs). However, you can earn bird coins each day and potentially avoid having to spend real money (though the option is there).
    • In AB Star Wars, you can either pay $1.99 to upgrade Luke's lightsaber to the green version (slightly longer and more powerful), or you can finish the entire 40-level Dagobah-themed "Path of the Jedi" episode.
    • In AB: Transformers you can buy bonus crystals, which are used to free captured Transformers and end the countdown clocks on upgrades and Eggbot attacks.
  • Catapult to Glory: The entire game mechanic, Played for Laughs.
  • Chained Heat:
    • In AB Rio, you can launch Blu and Jewel, chained together, as one projectile.
    • In AB Star Wars II, this is Ep. 1 Anakin's special ability. Tap the screen and he launches his pod racer engine and is pulled along behind it, making for a two-impact attack.
  • Color-Coded Characters: Back when the birds' names weren't revealed yet, they were referred to by their feather colors or attributes:
    • Red Bird for Red
    • Blue Bird for The Blues
    • Yellow Bird for Chuck
    • Black Bird for Bomb (also known as the Bomb Bird)
    • White Bird for Matilda
    • Boomerang Bird for Hal (others referred to him as Green Bird)
    • Big Red Bird for Terence (was officially known as "Big Brother" or "Big Brother Bird" before the name change)
    • Orange Bird for Bubbles
    • Pink Bird for Stella
  • Cool Helmet:
    • Helmet Pigs are pigs wearing old-school military helmets, making them that much tougher.
    • In "Mine and Dine," some pigs wear miners' helmets. To this day scientists are still trying to figure out why.
    • In AB Star Wars, the pigs are playing (among their many roles) stormtroopers and Imperial officers, so their respective helmets pop up frequently. Of course, there's also Darth Vader.
    • A Bird's helmet in AB: Epic designates their character class.
  • Crossover
    • The "Red's Mighty Feathers" episode in the original game is one with Bad Piggies, as Red tries to bust the pigs' various contraptions to keep them from making off with an egg.
    • AB Rio is one with the film, as the poachers capture the birds, who escape and set out to rescue Blu and Jewel. Subsequent levels are set in the movie's Rio de Janiero and have the birds targeting the marmosets instead of the usual pigs. Blu and Jewel are also available as ammunition in some levels. Luiz also appears in the last level of Beach Volley as a helper being able to run towards beach balls and sometimes structures.
    • And of course, the Star Wars and Transformers installments.
    • Angry Birds Epic has two with Puzzle & Dragons and Sonic Dash and the Angry Birds appeared in two events in Puzzle and Dragons.
  • Cross-Popping Veins: Red sports one in the first panel of the opening comic for the "Red's Mighty Feathers" episode.
  • Defeat Equals Explosion: Both the pigs and the birds go out in small explosions.
  • Depending on the Writer: In some games, ice is called glass.
  • Destructive Saviour: All the birds exemplify this trope.
  • Determinator:
    • No matter how many times the pigs get beaten by the birds, they never stop stealing eggs.
    • In addition, no matter how many times the pigs stole the eggs, the birds never give up getting them back.
  • Deus ex Machina:
    • The Eagle/Space Eagle of course! But you have to pay for it.
    • The Dragon in "Year of the Dragon".
    • Wingman in the tournament. At least you can get him for free with enough bird coins.
    • The Millenium Falcon in Star Wars.
  • Disaster Dominoes: Several levels can only be solved by causing collapses at strategic points that trigger additional collapses. On the other hand, hit the wrong spot and some of the pigs will be too well protected by fallen rubble.
  • Disproportionate Retribution:
    • The trailers often show how disproportionate the birds are to insects who merely touch, much less tip over, their eggs.
    • If you think more about the level design, you'll realise the birds are destroying a jarring number of civilian buildings, including carousels (with small pigs clearly representing kids), buses, airplanes, schools, fishing events, and giant plates of food. When counting pig casualties, you may start wondering why those birds aren't labeled as terrorists.
  • Distressed Birds:
    • Hal and Bubbles first appeared being these.
    • The original five birds joined this trope just for the fourth episode of the original game.
  • Dreamworks Face: Red's been known to have this expression on occasion. Stella does it on her app icon as well.
  • Evil Egg Eater: The entire premise is based around the greedy Pigs trying to take the Birds' eggs.
  • Evil Laugh:
    • If you fail a level, the remaining pigs do this as the last bird disappears and the "Level Failed" screen comes up. Even the pigs' grunting while you're playing a level sounds like laughter at times.
    • Nigel does this in Rio if you flub a shot, and in the "level failed" screen. If you fail a level populated with only marmosets, you get a dancing marmoset thumbing his nose at you and screeching, which sounds like laughter.
    • An animated pig in an air bubble does this on the "level failed" screen in AB Space.
    • Lard Vader laughs at you on the "level failed" screen in AB Star Wars. In AB Star Wars 2, it's Lard Sidious.
  • Evolving Title Screen: Most of the games add special icons that fly through the title screen for each episode you complete or three-star. The original game (after the 1.5.0 update which changed the title screen from the initial sunny backdrop) and Seasons would change the background of the title screen to that of whatever level you played last, with Seasons additionally having a unique remix of the Angry Birds theme for each episode.
  • Food as Bribe:
    • In the game's fluff, the other birds are terrified of the Mighty Eagle and offer it a can of fish as payment for fighting the pigs. In-game, when you use the Eagle, a can of fish appears by the slingshot (replacing any birds that haven't been launched) which you launch at the pigs; the Eagle comes zooming in and lands on or near the can. See the trailer here.
    • The Mighty Dragon from Seasons is a bit more jovial, but still has to be convinced to help via a fresh golden fish.
  • Four-Temperament Ensemble: Red is phlegmatic, Chuck is sanguine, Bomb is choleric, and Matilda is melancholic.
  • Friendly Fireproof: Subverted. The birds can't hurt each other, either through impacts or special attacks. However, a bird that's stunned or jumping into the slingshot will knock out a launched bird, so carefully timing launches and waiting until the bird(s) poof out from where you want to aim are generally good ideas.
  • Furry Ear Dissonance: The pigs have round ears, unlike triangular ones which real pigs have. Notably, the original in-game design for the minion pig (and all of its variations) had a slightly more triangular right ear.
  • Game-Breaking Bug:
    • In at least one level, a bird could get stuck and refuse to disappear. [1]
    • Be careful if you're running an old version on XP, because an update glitch can not only crash the game but curse it unto the seventh generation, to the point where uninstalling and reinstalling will not let you run the game.
  • Genre Shift: Originally, the franchise was based around video games. Over time, the various animated series became a more integral part of the franchise, and eventually surpassed the video games in relevance; this video released in February 2022 confirms that video games are now secondary to animation in terms of relevance.
  • Gluttonous Pig:
    • If the pigs just gave up on eating the eggs and ran for it, they'd save themselves a world of hurt.
    • In the spin-off 2011 Christmas comic, the King Pig thinks that the meaning of Christmas is for him to eat all day long.
  • Granola Girl: Matilda. Exaggerated in the movie/
  • Gravity Sucks:
    • This is a game mechanic in both Space and Star Wars, as all the planets in Space and some areas in Star Wars have a gravitational "bubble" that not only pulls the birds toward them, but can also pull floating pigs to the ground to be eliminated if they're pushed inside it. It also affects how everything falls once a bird hits something, as objects will scoot/roll around the planet in the direction they fall until their momentum runs out.
    • Chuck's ability zigzags the trope in Space. Gravity affects him as long as he's just flying or after he hits something, but his speed boost makes him immune to gravity. Boba and Jango Fett's abilities in the Star Wars games also do the same.
  • Hair-Trigger Explosive: If a bird, rock, piece of wood (anything, really) hits a box of TNT, it will blow up (even if there's no source of fire).
  • Harmless Villain: The Bad Piggies. Even when they're under attack, all they do is stand around. Some are even floating aimlessly in Angry Birds Space, and many times, the pigs are sleeping as long as there's not a bird near them. They have no means of fighting back or harming the birds.
    • Not-So-Harmless Villain: In the "Egg Defender" mode in "Red's Mighty Feathers", they'll actively try to steal the last egg using various vehicles while you have to stop them using an unlimited number of empowered Red Birds. If they managed to grab the egg before you force them out of their vehicle, they can run away with the egg.
  • Heroic Comedic Sociopath: The birds.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: The bread and butter of the gameplay as birds must use brute force, along with their special powers to go with that, to wreak havoc.
  • Holler Button: Red and Terence, instead of having abilities (although Terence's ability is just being really fat and destructive), give out a battle cry when you tap the screen. Red is given an actual ability in Star Wars, Star Wars 2, Transformers, and 2 though.
  • Iconic Sequel Character: Terence wasn't one of the original five birds (being introduced in a 2010 update), but he's come to be very popular among the fans.
  • Interactive Start Up: In the original game and Seasons, the title screen is filled with the birds launching from left to right. You can click on the nearest bird to you, causing them to sound their battle cry.
  • Kid Appeal Characters: Bubbles, Stella, and The Blues (although they, or rather one of them as they used to be one character, looked less kid-ish in older media) are respectively Types I, II, and III.
  • King Mook: The King Pig, who can take a lot more damage than a normal pig and also wears a crown.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: The birds' motto.
  • Level Ate:
    • The Birdday Party levels in the original game feature background landscapes that look like food, and cakes are included in the actual levels.
    • The Utopia levels in Space feature planets and obstacles made up of doughnuts, ice cream cones, popcorn, etc.
    • The Tusk 'til Dawn levels from Bad Piggies. It is essentially Birdday Party, but darker, and it takes place during Halloween.
  • Lighter and Softer: Stella and POP! Not that any of the games are particularly dark and edgy (although the original game's tone was cruder in comparison to the newer media around 2012, using "carnage" in version 1.0's three star completion message, the original term for the pigs being destroyed or "popped" being known as "killing", and having zanier bird designs than ones created after Terence), but the girls' games have a lighter tone yet (they're cheerful and laughing rather than vengeful, even after getting launched from the slingshot and hitting structures.)
  • Mama Bear / Papa Wolf: The birds can count for either if you want to assign them genders.
  • Merchandise-Driven: Any game in the series to feature Telepods, which are toys with mini QR codes that unlock things in the apps: Star Wars II, Go!, Stella, and Transformers.
  • Near-Villain Victory: In the original game’s fourth episode, "The Big Setup", the pigs don’t just capture the eggs but also cage up the birds to stop them from interfering. Had Terence not shown up and seen what they were doing, that would have been it for the birds.
  • No Campaign for the Wicked: Averted:
    • The Pigs get their own chance to shine in Bad Piggies.
    • In AB Star Wars II, you can play the Pork Side route, which shows the films' events from the bad guys' perspective and lets you play using the evil characters. The option is available in the first route but has to be unlocked for subsequent routes.
  • Not Quite Dead: The King Pig. No matter how many times he gets killed in the game, he (or is that another King Pig?) is rough and ready for another round.
  • Object-Shaped Landmass: The central mountain on Piggy Island is shaped like a pig's nose with two waterfalls on what would be its "nostrils," making the place slightly resemble a pig's head.
  • Oh, Crap!: In Space and Star Wars, the pigs look scared when a bird or debris gets close to them. One of the possible scoring achievements in Space is to scare at least 6 pigs with one bird.
  • One-Hit Kill:
    • In many stages across the franchise, you will only get three stars in a level if you complete it with the first bird.
    • Bomb's shockwave ability in "Short Fuse" is guaranteed to kill a pig if they get electrocuted by it.
  • Our Product Sucks: The trailer for Rovio Classics: Angry Birds features several tweets from fans, one in particular by "Angry Birds Network" criticizing how games like Angry Birds Journey basically retcons the series.
  • Pre-Rendered Graphics: Trilogy replaces the still-frame cutscenes with 2D animated cutscenes.
  • Protection Mission: The "Red's Mighty Feathers" episode has a unique "Egg Defender" mode. Here, you have infinite empowered Reds and must defend a single egg which the pigs will attempt to snatch away by using various vehicles with different methods of defense. If the block they're in is destroyed or if the vehicle is totaled, they'll bail the vehicle and will try to escape on foot. Popping all of the pigs is not required to beat the level, but if they're holding on to the egg while escaping, you must pop them to reclaim the egg or it's game over.
  • Put the "Laughter" in "Slaughter": Not only do the birds laugh and cheer when you complete a level, several of the birds sound like they're laughing when you draw back on the slingshot, and yell delightfully as they're launched (with a noticeable example being The Blues and Matilda's old battle cries).
  • Rearrange the Song:
    • All of the theme tunes for the various episodes of Seasons are holiday-appropriate reworkings of the original's theme (for example, Christmas carols for the Christmas episodes, a creepy organ for Angry Birds Halloween's theme, an early-sixties rock'n'roll pastiche for "Back to School").
    • "Rio" used a samba rearrangement of the theme.
    • "Space" has a bombastic John Williams-style arrangement for the main theme, and SF atmospheric background sounds.
    • "Star Wars" and "Star Wars 2" use a reworking of the traditional Star Wars theme that follows the Angry Birds theme's meter.
    • The "Red's Mighty Feathers" updates used a remix of the original theme that was previously used in Angry Birds Trilogy. The "Short Fuse" update reverted back to the original theme, however.
  • Recursive Canon: The "Bomb Bird stars in Angry Birds update" ad had the titular bird play the game of Angry Birds (or, more specifically, the Angry Birds episode "Short Fuse") on a mobile device.
  • Recycled In Space:
    • The original game is Crush The Castle (which was an expanded version of "Castle Clout") with birds and pigs.
    • Three Angry Birds sequels fit this. Seasons focuses on holidays and special days, while Space and parts of both Star Wars games literally take place IN SPACE
  • Retronym: In the update that made the original game free to play, the game was renamed Angry Birds Classic. This wasn't the first time that the original was referred to as that though, as Angry Birds Trilogy refers to it as said title.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The game's main gimmick.
  • Rube Goldberg Machine: Some of the golden egg levels are this, if not self-playing levels.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: Happens often. If you make a miscalculation, the bird can go flying over the top, missing everything, or the bird can hit a structure but not cause any significant damage.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Shows Damage:
    • The pigs get black eyes, lumps, and bruises as they take glancing hits. If you fail a level, beat-up pigs show missing teeth when they grin.
    • In the game, the birds look stunned after they hit something, and the green bird's beak crumples. This was modified in the Chrome and Rio art styles however, as they appear to all have the exact same expression upon collision and aren't as bruised.
    • If the pigs are wearing helmets of any sort, they'll pick up cracks and holes as the pigs take damage.
    • Individual components of the obstacles and the pigs' machines in "Red's Mighty Feathers" show cracks before breaking completely.
    • In AB: Transformers, the Transformer picks up electrical crackles around him as he drops in health. Once he reaches one heart he starts giving off smoke and flames and the screen starts showing static and distortion.
  • Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer:
    • The Space Eagle was not shown or mentioned in the promotion for Angry Birds Space.
    • Matilda never even appears in any Angry Birds video trailer, and her only prominent appearance was in a Chinese cross promotion for Coca Cola and the summer Olympic games.
  • Sixth Ranger: Six of them.
    • In the third episode, Hal is introduced.
    • The fourth episode brings in Terence.
    • The Rio installment introduces Blu and Jewel as "guest star" birds in some levels.
    • The "Ham'o'ween" episode introduced Bubbles.
    • Angry Birds Space introduced the Ice Bird, who can freeze blocks, making them easier to destroy.
    • The "Back to School" episode features Stella's debut.
  • Smug Snake: The pigs certainly look very satisfied with themselves, particularly if you fail to complete a level. Somehow, the more damage they take, the more insufferably smug some of them look. The Chrome art style changed this so that the pigs look more brainless than smug though.
  • Space Friction: Objects you hit in Space and the Star Wars games that don't enter a gravity well will eventually slow down and stop moving.
  • Speaking Simlish: The characters speak in a vague language in the animated series before The Angry Birds Movie.
  • Spread Shot:
    • In the AB: Star Wars games:
      • Once Lando takes over for Han in the latter half of the Cloud City episode, his blaster fires a 3-bolt spread instead of 3 shots in a straight line.
      • Captain Panaka in AB Star Wars 2 shoots two 3-bolt spreads instead of just one.
      • See also the stormtroopers, who spread fire in every direction but where you aimed.
  • Stealth Pun:
  • Stuff Blowing Up:
    • Bomb's special ability is blowing up, and Matilda's is to drop an explosive egg.
    • Several levels feature TNT crates in strategic locations.
    • Fireworks in "Year of the Dragon", which take random paths once set off.
  • Super-Deformed: The art style, which is done in a deliberately cartoony manner. Both the pigs and most of the birds are spherical.
  • Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Certain birds are best used for different situations.
    • The Blues are able to easily shatter ice. However, they are useless against wood and rock.
    • Chuck easily breaks through wood, but is stopped short by rock and ice.
    • Bomb punches easily through rock, but is less effective on ice and wood.
  • Take That!: In the original game, there's a level in Mighty Hoax featuring a makeshift tank - with a Swedish flag.
  • Taking You with Me: Subverted; the game treats the birds like kamikazes, but it's pretty clear that they don't die, especially after watching the cartoons.
  • That's No Moon:
    • That's an enormous planet-sized pig in Utopia.
    • The first Star Wars game has an achievement called "That's No Moon", for unlocking the Death Star level set.
  • Tomboy and Girly Bird: Matilda and Stella, respectively.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The pigs don't fight back in any way as a game mechanic, but more properly, they seem to build the flimsiest possible fortifications and put boulders and TNT boxes all over the place, as if daring the birds to blow them up. In addition, they mistook a bubble egg as an actual egg in the Back to School (AB Seasons) trailer. Another thing is that they keep trying to steal the eggs, despite what keeps happening to them.
  • Unstoppable Rage: "Those pigs stole from the wrong birds!" - Angry Birds PSP launch trailer, 2010.
  • Updated Re-release: The 2012 build of the original game was re-released as a haphazardly copy-and-pasted version of Angry Birds Friends' Unity builds under the title Rovio Classics: Angry Birds. It features everything in the 2012 update down to the same graphics and levels (with the extremely noticeable exception being the physics), but doesn't feature in-app purchases, leaving the Mighty Eagle unlocked from the start as a trade off.
  • Useless Useful Spell: The powerups that were introduced in Angry Birds Friends. They seem quite powerful in certain situations if you need a little boost, but don't rely on them too much, because if used at most times, they are worthless.
  • Vent Physics:
    • The volcanic vents in the "Red Planet" level of Space.
    • There are large air vents in several levels of the Cloud City episode in Star Wars that alter trajectories of both birds and debris. The latter half of the episode introduces moving air vents that make things even more challenging.
  • Vocal Dissonance: "Egg Defender" mode in the original game has the pigs making the more cartoony laughing noises from Bad Piggies while they still use their more realistic oinking noises for their other sound effects.
  • The Voiceless: Before the release of The Angry Birds Movie where all characters can talk, the Angry Birds and the Bad Piggies only made their respective animal noises or spoke in some kind of island language. They somehow speak in English in tie-in books and comics.
  • Waddling Head: The Bad Piggies. They look like green pig heads (without legs), but they do leave pig hoof-prints behind, as seen in the cutscenes.
    • Watch the trailer introducing Hal: King Pig also wears sandals, despite having no visible feet.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: The King Pig, no matter how evil and obnoxious he may be, still has an air of amusing adorableness in him. Whether that works is up to you.
  • Your Eggs are Being Carried Off To Another Base

    Specific to Angry Birds Seasons 
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Introduced during "Invasion of the Egg Snatchers" is Bird Wear, items that can be worn by the flock. They are unlocked by breaking certain items for Quests.
  • Atlantis: "Piglantis".
  • Camping Episode: "Summer Camp".
  • Christmas Episode: One in each "season". So far, there's "Season's Greedings" (2010), "Wreck the Halls" (2011), "Winter Wonderham" (2012), "Arctic Eggspedition" (2013), "On Finn Ice" (2014), "Ski or Squeal" (2015), and "Ragnahog" (2016).
    • All Christmas-themed episodes operate like Advent calendars in that each level is only unlocked 24 hours after the previous one.
  • Fairy Tale Episode: "Fairy Hogmother", which consists of levels themed after fairy tales.
  • Festival Episode: "Cherry Blossom", which celebrates the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival and even takes place near Mt. Fuji.
  • Halloween Episode: "Trick or Treat" (2010), "Ham'o'ween" (2011), "Haunted Hogs" (2012), "Invasion of the Egg Snatchers" (2015), and "Hammier Things" (2016).
  • Heävy Mëtal Ümlaut: Parodied for Ragnahog, which spells seasons in the title as "seäsøns".
  • Our Dragons Are Different: The Mighty Dragon resembles a traditional Chinese dragon with a long, serpentine body and antler-like horns, though his head is shaped suspiciously like that of the Mighty Eagle.
  • Picnic Episode: "Summer Pignic".
  • Sequel Goes Foreign: "South Hamerica", "Tropigal Paradise", and "On Finn Ice".
  • Shout-Out:
  • The Show Goes Hollywood: "Piggywood Studios".
  • Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: The female birds and pigs in the Valentine's Day episode...which gets weird in retrospect now that it's been confirmed that White Bird has always been a girl but lacks these characteristics. Did Rovio forget the achievement name for unlocking her was literally named "MOTHER of all bombs"?
  • Valentine's Day Episode: "Hogs and Kisses" (2011) and "Fairy Hogmother" (2016).
  • Villain Episode: "The Pig Days", where you get to play as the pigs in some levels.
  • Off-Model: Despite being mainstays, Bubbles and Stella notably do not match the original 7 birds' designs. This is due to them being designed by Kombo Animation, which also created Angry Birds animated media until around 2013. The only differences the "classic" designs have to their proper ones is that their in-game designs have black outlines resembling the original 7 and they do not have any shading.

    Specific to Angry Birds Rio 
  • Adapted Out: Linda Gunderson (along with Blu's origins), Túlio, Fernando, the smugglers, Pedro and Nico do not appear or are even mentioned in this game.
  • The Artifact: The Rio 2-themed levels have very little to do with the movie itself, as the main goals of knocking down caged birds and/or marmosets are still there, and none of the characters introduced in that movie are involved.
    • High Dive has caged dolphins alongside caged birds.
  • Art Shift: In the Rio 2 levels, the birds have their designs from the Angry Birds Toons series.
  • Brick Joke: In the beginning of Smugglers' Den, when the birds first get abducted, their eggs are left behind. At the end of Smugglers' Plane, the pigs appear and are about to snatch the eggs when the birds crash the plane on top of them.
  • Goofy Print Underwear: The "boxers with red hearts" variety can be seen flying out of destroyed luggage.
  • Springy Spores: You can bounce birds off mushrooms in some levels.

    Specific to Angry Birds Friends 
  • Amusement Park: The "Amusement Pork" tournaments from 2016 and 2018, naturally.
  • And Then John Was a Zombie: The Halloween tournaments, particularly the 2012 and 2013 ones, had zombie pigs that pop up from the ground after a pig has been popped. The 2014 tournament had mummy pigs that functioned the same way.
  • The Bus Came Back: Stella was previously the only bird from the original game not playable in Friends, only appearing as an avatar in the web version. The "Pink Friday" tournament in November 2018 finally made Stella playable in tournament levels, and she has appeared in most tournament levels since.
  • Canon Immigrant: El Porkador from Angry Birds Toons appeared in two tournaments from 2014, the second of which he was rebuilt into a Cyborg.
  • Christmas Episode: The annual holiday tournaments, which have a different theme every year.
  • Crossover:
    • One 2015 tournament was themed after Rio, complete with reused assets from Angry Birds Rio.
    • The Love Rocks tournament from 2015 features Shakira in bird form, who replaces Chuck in the levels.
    • One 2021 tournament was a crossover with The Smurfs, of all things.
  • Halloween Episode: The annual Halloween tournaments, which also have a different theme every year.
  • Our Werebeasts Are Different: The 2015 Halloween tournament had pigs turning into "werepigs".
  • Out of Focus: The "Story" levels from the Facebook versionnote  have been ignored since 2013, as the game started focusing more on the tournaments. Somewhat justified, however, as the mobile version only has the tournaments. In January 2020, the story levels were retired from the Facebook version, as Rovio wanted to unify the mobile and web versions of the game.
  • Player Versus Player: The "Star Cup" mode, introduced in June 2017 on mobile and January 2020 on web, in which the player plays three rounds of levels with different effects (i.e. all birds in the level being swapped out for a specific bird, certain pigs being swapped out for bombs, etc), a free power up, and a different slingshot in each one.
  • Product Placement: Some of the tournaments were made to promote then-recently released games, such as Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Blast!, Angry Birds Evolution, Angry Birds Match, and Angry Birds Dream Blast. There were also a few tournaments made to promote The Angry Birds Movie.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Uniformity Exception: As mentioned above, the Wingman power-up is basically Terence in a mask.
  • Weird Moon: The first part of the 2019 Halloween tournament has a moon that's shaped like Bubbles' inflated form in the background.

    Other 
  • 100% Completion: Getting all three stars on every level in every episode released to date in Angry Birds Classic will unlock a golden King Pig face on the Golden Eggs menunote . Touching it will take you to a random level of the game, with a special random game mode in effect. Scoring Points is completely averted at this point. These game modes are:
    • Remixed Level: Material Mix Up! — Two types of materials in the pigs' structures have been swapped, affecting the level's difficulty in some way.
    • Silliness Switch: King Pig — The pigs are replaced with eggs, and the birds themselves are replaced with pigs. Each bird is reinterpretated as a pig with its special ability retained in some way.
    • Timed Mission: Bird Frenzy! — You are given a limited amount of time to complete the level with unlimited, but randomized, birds.
    • Unexpected Gameplay Change: Total Destruction! — Again, you have limited time, but this time you can simply tap anywhere to create an explosion.
  • Animated Adaptation:
    • Two or three animated shorts have aired on Nickelodeon, and are now able to be seen through the various games and on YouTube.
    • The cartoon series Angry Birds Toons premiered in March 2013 and was available on every Angry Birds game and now on YouTube.
    • Angry Birds Stella also received its own All-CGI Cartoon in 2014 that was also available on every Angry Birds game and now on YouTube.
    • The Angry Birds 4D Experience, a ten minute long 4D film, was made in 2014 and is now an attraction in the UK theme park Thorpe Park.
  • Adapted Out:
    • Following the removal of "Angry Birds Stella", "Angry Birds Stella POP" was changed to simply "Angry Birds POP", keeping Stella but replacing her friends with the mainline Angry Birds cast. Downplayed since Stella's friends still do appear in special events, though.
    • "Angry Birds Reloaded" completely replaces the original King Pig (a.k.a. King Smoothcheeks) with Leonard, as the plot is based on the movies.
  • Celebrity Edition: Angry Birds Heikki, a Formula One-themed version done in conjunction with Rovio sponsoring Heikki Kovalainen, who is also sporting an Angry Birds-themed Cool Helmet. For unknown reasons, this edition vanished in 2013.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Stella's flock appears to have become this:
    • In November 2015, Red and Chuck became permanent playable characters in Angry Birds [Stella] POP!, with Chuck replacing Dahlia in "Piggy in the Middle".
    • In September 2016, Gale was playable for a limited time before the 2.4.3 version, where she, along with Willow and Poppy, were removed and replaced with King Pig, Matilda and Bomb respectively.
    • Finally on October 17, 2016, Angry Birds Stella was removed from the App Store, abandoning Willow, Poppy, Dahlia, Luca and Gale.
    • There have been a few subversions:
      • On October 19, 2016, it was confirmed that Gale and Willow were re-appearing in Angry Birds Holiday, where Gale runs the spa and Willow runs her own crafting studio. However, in January 2017, Holiday was removed from the App Store, taking Gale and Willow away with it.
      • In Angry Birds 2, some of the player icons feature Stella characters (e.g. one February 2017 update featured them).
      • In Angry Birds POP! following its retool, they still make occasional appearances as limited-time "guest birds".
      • In Angry Birds Friends, Gale appeared as a boss in the "Pink Friday" tournament.
  • Darker and Edgier:
  • Disproportionate Retribution:
    • In this trailer, the Angry Birds beat the crap out of a butterfly simply for knocking over one of their eggs.
    • in Angry Birds Reloaded, after the initial seven episodes and following their team up for Episodes 8 through 10, the birds begin to attack the pigs over increasingly trivial conflicts... or over complete accidents neither side explicitly ignited.
  • Foreshadowing: Green pigs. Doesn't that start rumours of a space-themed game?
  • Guide Dang It!:
    • YouTube can be your best friend if you're stuck on a level. There are also multiple websites, such as AngryBirdsNest, dedicated to showing runthroughs of levels.
    • Finding the golden eggs. Here are some of the more nonsensical ways to get them:
      • In older versions, tapping the sun on the level select screen. In newer versions, selecting "Mine and Dine" and tapping the light on the pig's miner helmet.
      • Tapping the treasure chest on Level 1-8. The word "chest" will have to be typed in on the PC and Mac versions afterwards.
      • Selecting "Danger Above", then scrolling the screen all the way to the left.
      • Launching Matilda backwards, then tapping the screen so that Matilda "jumps" and hits the middle of the pause button.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: In addition to serving their role as enemies, the Pigs join the Birds for certain episodes in Reloaded, changing the roster of characters the player uses to destroy structures and swapping the enemy pigs for eagles.
  • Mobile Phone Game: It started out as this.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown:
    • In the original animated video, a mosquito decides to chow down on an egg and is beaten to a pulp by the birds. The pigs steal the eggs while they're busy with said beating.
    • In the video that introduces the Mighty Eagle, a butterfly brushes an egg and tips it off the edge of the nest. The birds watching the nest pound the poor butterfly into the ground.
  • Opening the Sandbox: In the first game, you can't play any of the other episodes until you clear the first one. This was averted in the Birdday Party update, which unlocks all episodes by default, but subverted again as of a late 2017 update, where you have to unlock episodes by collecting stars from completing levels or playing the Mighty League.
  • Pun-Based Title:
    • Most of the episode names, including such classics as "Poached Eggs," "Ham 'Em High" and "Easter Eggs."
    • The board games are subtitled "Knock on Wood" and "On Thin Ice".
  • Put on a Bus: Matilda and Hal never showed up in Space.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: During the game's development, the developers decided that the birds needed an enemy once the game had been developed enough. At the time, the "swine flu" epidemic was taking the media by storm. Now you know why the birds' enemies are pigs.
  • Real Trailer, Fake Movie: This.
  • Spin-Off: Bad Piggies, where the titular pigs build vehicles to gather the pieces of a master plan to steal the birds' eggs, and Angry Birds Go!, a go-kart racing game.
  • Toothy Bird: The birds occasionally have visible teeth, especially in the cartoons.
  • Villain Episode: Bad Piggies.
  • The Wild West: The setting for "Ham 'em High".
  • Worldbuilding: As Andrew Stalbow touched upon in the 2011 Web 2.0 Summit, the promotional materials are doing just this. For example, the Seasons comics and a product tie-in commercial establish the game as taking place on an island.

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