Get ready to see pigs fly!
The long-rumoured P.O.V. Sequel & Spin-Off to Angry Birds finally came out in September 2012 for iOS and Android devices (but not some phones since it's too complicated for them).
No, it's not about flinging pigs from slingshots, mind you.*
In the Excuse Plotnote , an innocent freckled pig named Ross inadvertently shreds the pigs' map of the location to the birds' eggs, and is sent by King Pig to retrieve all the pieces. This leads to a Puzzle Game in which you have to guide your pig across a screen full of obstacles after building a vehicle appropriate to the screen's specific challenges. Like Angry Birds, there are three stars available for each screen, but while one is always achieved simply by winning, the other two are achievements based on beating the screen with specific challenges:
- Collecting star-decorated boxes.
- Winning within a time limit.
- Winning the screen with no damage to your vehicle.
- Winning the screen without using a specific component.
- Carrying King Pig with you.
The first update added a third episode called "Flight in the Night", where Ross actually is carrying a stolen egg across the screen. The second update features the Angry Birds themselvesNote, who would fling themselves at you when you wake them up by making too much noises. They eventually become a recurring obstacle in future episodes such as "Tusk Till' Dawn" & "The Road to El Porkado", even when your pig didn't steal their eggs at all.
On April 2014, the game received an Animated Adaptation called Piggy Tales, which focused on the Minion Pigs as they do their trademark antics in their daily lives. In 2016, the game's main protagonist appeared in The Angry Birds Movie, identified as Ross.
In 2023, the game eventually received a sequel, Bad Piggies 2, which follows Ross aspiring the other minion pigs to be a great engineer like him.
This game provides examples of:
- Adventurer Archaeologist: Ross takes on this role in "The Road to El Porkado" episode, complete with an Indiana Jones hat.
- All Just a Dream: The "Tusk Till' Dawn" Halloween level ends with Ross waking up from the nightmare he's been through.
- The Alleged Car: What you have to build on most screens. In later levels, you even get to build the alleged plane.
- Allegedly Free Game: The first update introduced Field of Dreams, a new sandbox screen that you have to pay to access.
- All for Nothing: The pigs' double effort to retrieved the map of the eggs' location is rendered completely pointless when they find out that the telescope they're using is painted with fake eggs by the Blues, much to King Pig's anger. Additionally, when they finally manage to steal one egg and get away with it, said egg is just a white-painted rock, which is also a prank by the Blues.
- And Your Reward Is Clothes: The June 2016 update introduced a custom-skin system with dress-up costumes for both Ross and King Pig along with decorative versions of device parts. Subverted with some skins, however, where they get special abilities such as the TNT Fireworks which explode after being depleted.
- Backstory Horror: When you notice that some of the skulls have Wehrmacht helmets or red moustaches, like some pigs in Angry Birds.
- Balloonacy: Balloons show up in the second episodenote as way to lift pigs and contraptions.
- Blackout Basement: Some levels in "The Road to El Porkado" have dark areas that can only be illuminated by a light attached to your vehicle (if one is available) or by buying a Night-Vision Goggles power-up.
- Bonus Dungeon: The cave screens that are unlocked by gaining a specific number of stars in a block of normal screens, which are a bit more difficult. (In the plot, Mechanic Pig accidentally drops his cap down a hole and your pig has to retrieve it.)
- Bribing Your Way to Victory: If you're completely stuck, you can buy a mechanic pig who will come and build the ideal vehicle to win a screen. Power-ups are now available (specifically, glue that holds the vehicle together, a magnet that attracts Star Boxes and desserts, and a turbo-engine that makes your engine even faster), as well as a "Super Mechanic" that builds a vehicle that allows you to earn a level's three stars more easily. While you can use money to get more of them, you can also get them by collecting cakes while playing the game and feeding them to the King Pig.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: Pairs of glowing eyes in the dark levels indicate a spot that will drop you something (usually a star box or a random obstacle such as TNT box) if you illuminate them.
- The Cameo: Major Lazer in a pig form makes an appearance in the second cutscene of "Tusk Till' Dawn" where he stole Ross's trick-or-treat pumpkin along with some zombie pigs on his side. Nonetheless, he's also the one who made the remix song of "Shuffle & Spawn" which used in this Halloween episode.
- Catapult to Glory: Some screens can be won simply by sitting Ross on a box of explosives and hitting the detonate button.
- Challenge Run: Certain screens require you to complete them without using a specific part in order to get one of the stars.
- Companion Cube:
- The birds' egg in the fourth episode of the game
- The Trick-or-Treat basket in the first half of the Halloween Episode.
- Later levels in "The Road to El Porkado" have a huge stone pig-god sculpture, which you can use to smash things, hold down switches, and collect star boxes & desserts but not required to bring it to the finish line.
- Cool Car / Cool Plane: You have to build these in many screens.
- Crossover: With the episode "Red's Mighty Feathers" in the original game, where Red defends a lone egg from pigs in various contraptions. Not to mention the actual "Bad Piggies" episode.
- Demoted to Extra: The Angry Birds, at first. They're nowhere to be seen in the first two levels, but occasionally appear sleeping in the third.
- Ascended Extra: At first the sleeping birds are just scenery, but later on you could wake them up by making too much noises, at which point they will jump into the nearby Slingshot and fling themselves at you.
- Dog Pileof Doom: At the end of the teaser trailer, Red gets bombarded by hundreds of Pigs raining from the sky.
- Easy Level Trick: There's at least two screens* where you can get three stars simply by putting your pig on a slope with no vehicle and letting him roll all the way down the screen.
- Escort Mission: In some screens you have to carry the King Pig to get one star, as well as your normal pig.
- Everything's Deader with Zombies: One of the custom-skins for Ross is a zombie pig.
- Exact Words: It's possible to win a No-Damage Run star if your vehicle reaches the finish point undamaged, even if it's flying through the air at the time and smashes to pieces when it hits.
- Follow the Money: Most screens have star-boxes you need to collect to get one or more of the stars.
- Freelook Button: And you'll need it.
- Funny Background Event: Can often happen at the ends of levels while the results screen is up, especially if TNT crates are behind the goal.
- Gotta Catch Them All:
- Some screens have skulls hidden in hard to reach places. Collecting them isn't necessary to get stars, but unlocks access to additional Sandbox levels.
- "The Road to El Porkado" replaced these with idols that you could collect in the dark levels either by shining a spotlight on them with your flashlight or simply drop Ross to them.
- Grappling-Hook Pistol: The second portion of "Rise and Swine" introduces this as a gadget.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: The names of sets of levels are usually some kind of pun on pigs.
- Jail Bake: One of the useless things that King Pig may belch out when you feed him cake is a file.
- Large and in Charge: King Pig being so much bigger than the regular pigs becomes a game dynamic, as it can make building and piloting a device even more challenging.
- Level Ate: "Tusk 'Till Dawn" has settings made out of food, in the middle of creepy atmosphere.
- Level Goal: Each set of levels has a checkered flag as the goal, usually with the chapter's MacGuffin floating inside of it.
- Lost City: The setting of "The Road to El Porkado".
- Luck-Based Mission: The physics engine is not 100% deterministic, so sometimes whether you win a screen or not depends on which way the pig bounces.
- MacGuffin Escort Mission: In the "Flight In The Night" episode, you have to escort a stolen egg. "Tusk 'Till Dawn" instead requires you to escort a jack-o-lantern.
- Made of Iron: Ross, the King Pig, and the egg can take a hell of a lot of punishment as opposed to Angry Birds, where rolling slightly off-place can kill them and still win the screen, as long as they get to the finish marker. It's Justified however due to different gameplay.
- No-Damage Run: Some screens require you to complete them with no damage to your vehicle to get a star.
- Noob Bridge: A number, for instance that you can stack balloons vertically and still have them all attached to your vehicle.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Required to solve certain levels. No one ever said your vehicle had to have wheels. Or be positioned right-side up. A few levels even apply this trope literally by requiring you to place Ross outside of the vehicle.
- Parasol Parachute: Used as parachutes, and also some vehicles use motorised parasols to pull themselves across the screen.
- Player Versus Player: The "Cake Race" mode introduced in the winter 2016 update, where the player must get a high score by collecting all the cakes in a course before time runs out.
- Power-Up Magnet: You can buy a literal one to attract Star Boxes and desserts.
- Rocket Jump: With actual rockets, and boxes of explosives.
- Sandbox Mode: The appropriately-named "Sandbox" levels do have some star boxes to collect, but are mostly designed to let you build crazy vehicles and practice driving/flying them around.
- Shout-Out:
- The Halloween 2013 update gives the pig an assortment of Halloween masks, including references to The Silence of the Lambs and Friday the 13th. Also, the Halloween level is called "Tusk Till' Dawn".
- The sixth episode is called "The Road to El Porkado".
- One of the One-Star custom-skins for TNT crates is a NITRO Crate.
- The robot pig's design appears to take an inspiration from Bender from Futurama.
- Star-Shaped Coupon: The star boxes.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Later screens in the third level feature birds that can be disturbed from their sleep and consequently fling themselves at you from a nearby slingshot.
- Sub System Damage: Should any critical parts of your vehicle break off, you cannot use them again. For example, losing one of the fans on your contraption makes said fan useless.
- Time Trial: The "Road Hogs" mode is a series of levels dedicated to this trope.
- Timed Mission: Some screens require you to complete the run within a time limit to get a star.
- Video Game Caring Potential: You can make special efforts to give Ross a smooth ride, and some screens will reward you for doing so. On the other hand...
- Video Game Cruelty Potential:
- Some screens require you to blow him the hell up.
- There's a huge amount of slapstick fun to be had when some crazy contraption fails spectacularly.
- Violation of Common Sense: Some of the easiest victories involve machines that would make little to no sense if it weren't the pigs driving them. For example: packing TNT, complete with manual detonator, on board for extra propulsion.
- Wacky Racing: The concept of the Road Hogs mode, as well as Cake Race.
- Wall Crawl: The "Rise & Swine" level introduces vehicles with sucker-wheels that can do this.
- Villain Episode: You play as the pigs who try to steal the birds' eggs.
- Uniformity Exception: Ross, the player character of the game, can be told from the other pigs solely by the fact that he's the only pig with freckles on him.
- Wreaking Havok: The game is basically one big physics puzzle.
- Written Sound Effect: Every time one of your contraption parts break off, words such "KRAK!" & "SNAP!" would pop up. Also "BANG!" whenever your spring-loaded boxing gloves hits something.
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- After the pigs finally get away from the birds in "Flight in the Night", the egg that they stole turns out to be a rock that the Blues painted white to mess with them.
- Not to mention that in the earlier episode, "When Pigs Fly", the Blues also faked the eggs' location by painting them on the pigs' telescopes that they using the whole time, making their efforts to retrieve all the map pieces (Twice!) completely pointless.
- Youthful Freckles: Used to make Ross seem more sympathetic.
