Pre-order the upcoming Angry Birds augmented reality game ahead of launch

Finish developer Rovio Mobile is opening pre-orders for a new Angry Birds augmented reality game ahead of launch in the spring. Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs, the latest game in the blockbuster franchise, takes full advantage of Apple’s ARKit framework.

The game will be initially exclusive to iPhone and iPad because iOS is the world’s most popular augmented reality platform. Rovio says it’s exploring other platforms, like Android.

According to hands-on previews, this game is among the most polished augmented reality offerings on iPhone and iPad, offering detailed levels, a ton of personality, great graphics and—most importantly for an augment reality game—the smooth and accurate slingshot mechanics.

Engadget has the story:

Angry Birds has already made the leap from smartphones to augmented reality and VR. But now, Rovio is bringing some of those lessons back to the iPhone.

With Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs, you’ll be able to take down evil swine in your living room—or anywhere else you can find a flat surface.

It uses Apple’s ARKit to construct virtual stages atop the real world, while you use your phone as a slingshot to topple them with irate birds.

From the official blurb:

Join Red, Chuck, Bomb and the Blues to save the stolen eggs in Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs, a mobile augmented reality adventure. Discover the remote island where the greedy green pigs vacation in over 40 fun-filled levels, with more to come.

You can see the incredibly realistic characters, along with the entire game, overlaid onto your actual environment, bringing Angry Birds to life like never before. Make your way up to party city through the island’s jungle, desert and frosty hideout, destroying their structures in the most spectacular way to earn maximum stars and retrieve the stolen eggs.

Take the slingshot into your own hands to fire off your favorite Angry Birds at structures that seem like they are in your actual environment, whether it be your home, your office or outside at the park.

Rovio already provides Angry Birds augmented reality experiences on the Oculus Rift and Vive, but the iOS game plays more like First Person Slingshot, the Magic Leap title Rovio showed off last year. That means physically walking around structures overlaid onto objects in your own environment to find weak elements for the best accuracy.

From the linked Engadget article:

You have the freedom to walk around the stages (assuming there’s nothing obstructing you in the real world) to figure out your best angle of attack. Then you just pull back on your phone’s screen and let loose.

While you can play it in landscape mode, it works best in portrait for one-handed slinging. The game also doesn’t prevent you from leaning in real close to make sure you hit the precise block you want (aka the Duck Hunt cheat method).

You can even make the game large or small to fit your space, as well as customize the experience to your liking. Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs will officially launch as a free-to-download app later this spring with a plethora of micro-transactions.

To find out more, visit the official website.

Due to ARKit requirements, the game requires fairly modern hardware—Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs works on iPhone 6s and up, all iPad Pro models and the fifth-generation iPad and later.

You’ll be able to pre-order Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs on App Store starting later today.