Angry Birds

Countless Windows Phone gamers are currently pelting pigs with ball-shaped birds in the original Angry Birds (also known as Angry Birds Classic), which is free right now on both Windows Phone 7 and 8. But the release of that classic game hasn’t prompted Rovio to rest on its laurels. As it turns out, the Finnish developer has another Angry Birds sequel in the pipeline for us. Unfortunately it’s not Angry Birds Friends or Bad Piggies, but still a game Windows Phone needs: Angry Birds Rio.

What do we have to look forward to with Rovio’s latest offering and when? Read on to find out!

At long last those who own a Windows Phone 7 handset will be able to enjoy Angry Birds in a galaxy far, far away. Angry Birds Star Wars has already received an update on Windows Phone 8, but now we're seeing the roll out for version 7, opening up the Hoth system to those who enjoy firing Jedi and Wookies into the air and knocking out pigs.

There isn’t exactly an abundance of Windows Phone 8-specific Xbox Live games out there. Since the launch of Microsoft’s latest mobile OS, we’ve only had two such games to choose from: Angry Birds Space and Angry Birds Star Wars. As we reported last week, more Windows Phone 8 games are coming, but at least a few are mired in certification woes.

We have both good and bad news to share about this week’s Xbox release. The good: it’s a Windows Phone 8 game! It's not even a Nokia exclusive. Depending on who you ask, the identity of the game is the bad news. It’s Angry Birds Seasons. Yes, after all this time, we get another Angry Birds game instead of something different. But hey, history has proven that people love throwing birds at things, so let’s just be glad another mainstream game has come to our growing platform.

Over the last couple of months, Windows Phone Central has been highly skeptical and/or critical of Microsoft’s dedication towards Xbox games for Windows Phone. As the weeks without a new Xbox release (excluding Nokia exclusives) have grown, so has our certainty in an underlying problem. This culminated with a game developer stepping forward to explain Microsoft’s reticence towards approving new Xbox projects, not to mention the conspicuous snubbing of Windows Phone in the announcement of the multiplatform WSOP: Full House Pro.

One of the key differentiators for Windows Phone the past few years has been on the go access to the Xbox service and Xbox enabled games. We’ve had some popular ports like iStunt 2 (Dan's favorite) and Plants vs. Zombies. Windows Phone has also had its fair share of original and exclusive titles, fun games like Chicken Can’t Fly and Mush. Over on the Xbox website, we can see the first set of upcoming titles to be Xbox Live enabled.

When Angry Birds Star Wars appeared on Windows Phone 8 back at the beginning of November, early adopters of the new mobile OS had reason to celebrate. The latest installment in Rovio’s hugely popular franchise launched simultaneously on WP8, iOS, and Android, whereas most Windows Phone Xbox games appear months or even years after debuting on the other mobile platforms.

However, another group of Windows Phone owners wasn’t quite so happy about ABSW’s WP8 status: Windows Phone 7 users. Nokia quickly announced that ABSW would soon come to Windows Phone 7 too, but with no time table we couldn’t be sure if it was an empty promise or not. As it turns out, Angry Birds Star Wars has just appeared on Windows Phone 7 – exactly one month after Nokia promised it.

Looks like Rovio’s commitment to Windows Phone is a fact as both their new Star Wars and Space games for Windows Phone featuring perturbed fowl just got bumped to version 1.1

Unfortunately that’s about all we can tell you at this point as there were no change logs nor are there any new levels, including that yet-to-be-released Hoth round. And yes, both games are still locked to Windows Phone 8 as far as we can tell.

Yesterday, Angry Birds Space became the first Windows Phone 8 game available for purchase. While its appearance may have disappointed those Windows Phone 7 gamers who can’t upgrade to WP8 anytime soon, Space is exactly what WP8 needed to kick off its bid to seriously compete with iOS and Android. Sure, the game arrived about 7 months later than on competing platforms, but it’s timed perfectly with Microsoft’s new mobile OS launch.

Today Windows Phone Angry Birds fans discovered even better news. Angry Birds Star Wars, first announced for Windows Phone alongside every other version on October 8, has just launched for Xbox on Windows Phone 8. That’s right, day and date with the iOS and Android versions! That’s a far cry from the days when Rovio almost couldn’t be bothered to even announce a WP version, let alone support WP7 Angry Birds with the same updates as the other platforms.

With the news that Windows Phone 8 devices will officially launch this Friday, November 9^th, it probably wouldn’t hurt for Microsoft to have a WP8 game available for users to purchase. It just so happens that this week’s Xbox Live release will require Windows Phone 8. Not only that, but it’s a pretty popular title: Angry Birds Space from Rovio Entertainment.