Angry Birds take a spot in the Hall of Fame next to some of video games’ heaviest hitters.
Today, Angry Birds has received the distinct honor of being inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame! One could be forgiven for doing a double take. How can a silly game about flinging birds sit shoulder to shoulder with the greatest video games of all time? If you think about it, video games with simple premises are often the best. Ever played a game about hitting a ball back and forth? Or building with blocks? Or going fast? Or jumping? Then you probably get it.
Angry Birds took the beauty of the simple premise and brought it to (then new) touchscreen devices in an intuitive way, with memorable characters, and a dash of delightful destruction. Even Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of that jumping game) has recognized and acknowledged this aspect of Angry Birds in 2012, naming Angry Birds as a game that he wished he would have created.
Along the way, Angry Birds was instrumental in ushering in a new era of video games. In the post-Angry Birds world, suddenly everyone was playing video games on devices they carried with them everywhere, and gaming was no longer reserved for those with consoles, PCs, and a lot of free time.
Cut to the present day and after millions of licensed products sold, billions of games downloaded, and (very soon) three animated feature films, this humble flock of flightless birds from a mobile game stands among the most recognized entertainment brands in the world.
If the World Video Game Hall of Fame exists to honor games that have shaped culture, expanded the audience, and changed what the medium means, Angry Birds has done all of these without breaking a sweat — though it did break quite a few wooden structures, glass panels, and stone towers along the way.