For the past week, it's amused me how negative Star Wars fans have gotten over everything that's happened. "Oh, no, Disney's gonna destroy this franchise! They've become Vader!" Calm down. Disney bought out Marvel a few years ago and do you know what happened? THE AVENGERS, that's what. Only good can come out of this.
And those skeptics who feared that Angry Birds Star Wars was nothing more than a blatant cash-in for both franchises? Again, your overreacting is out of bounds. The truth is, after playing it for several hours and practically wearing out the touch functions on my iPad (not really, but I could've sworn this would be the game to do it), this is easily one of the best Angry Birds games yet. And it's not all about being just for show.
The game takes events that unfolded in the original Star Wars game (with some minor stuff from Empire Strikes Back, for good measure) and retells it featuring costumed Angry Birds and Pigs. You've got the red bird dressing up as Luke Skywalker, complete with lightsaber; the yellow bird has turned into the fearless Han Solo, pre-carbonite; and the big red bird has become the unstoppable Chewbacca. For good measure, the pigs play dress up too, between Sand People, Stormtroopers and Darth Vader himself. And yes, they have a Pig Star.
Aside from the humorous storyline, Angry Birds Star Wars has ingeniously designed levels. No longer is it about just finding a weak spot to bring everything down, but categorically lining up your shots and using your character's abilities to your highest advantage. Yes, the Angry Birds come with extra super powers, like the red bird's ability to slash a lightsaber and Han Solo bird carrying a blaster (complete with sound effects from the '77 film). Not only are his shots destructive, but they can bounce off surfaces and keep going on their death-inducing way. This is remarkable design, and it shows that Rovio's still got it, despite their heaping success.
If a level's too hard, you can call in the Mighty Eagle, who has now taken the shape of the Millennium Falcon and wipes everything out with lasers. You'll need to pay to use him more often than needed, anywhere between $2-$20. Not the end of the world, though.
And if you do feel like pushing yourself further, you can drop an extra $2 and buy the Path of the Jedi levels, which will REALLY test your Angry Birds skills. The mere thought of a Yoda Angry Bird in existence is worth the purchase alone.
Along with captivating gameplay that'll hook you as previous Angry Birds games have, Star Wars also comes with the best presentation to date in the series. Characters have their own distinctive touches that relate to the classic movie heroes – C3PO explodes upon contact, for instance – and the levels based on Dagobah, Tattooine and the Death Star all look superb, complete with multi-scrolling visuals and neat little winks at fans.
Sound plays a big part too, between bits of John Williams' soundtrack sprinkled within the gameplay, classic sound effects from the film (how about the static from the Stormtroopher helmets?) and ideal quips for each of the birds. When you launch Han Solo, for instance, he yells, "WAHOO!" before letting loose with his blaster.
For a mere dollar (or three if you buy the HD version on iPad), Angry Birds Star Wars is one of the best mobile games you can buy this year, period. The Force is strong with this one. Shuddup, skeptics.
A major victory for the eSports world was announced earlier today as CBS Interactive has announced a partnership with both Twitch.tv and MLG to make a foray into exposing eSports to a wider audience. This deal guarantees CBS Interactive exclusive broadcast rights to any MLG events in the future. In addition, the deal with Twitch.tv allows CBSi to have exclusive advertising, promotions and sponsorships on Twitch's channels.
From the press release:
- Partnership with TwitchTV: CBS Interactive has signed an exclusive partnership with TwitchTV, the world’s leading video game broadcasting network. Each month, TwitchTV attracts 16 million people from all over the world who tune in to watch other players, commentators, and live gaming competitions and events. CBSi Games, which now has a total reach of 25 million users watching almost 50 million hours of live gaming video per month, will exclusively sell advertising, promotions and sponsorships for this community.
- Partnership with Major League Gaming (MLG): The world’s most prominent eSports league, Major League Gaming (MLG), has signed a partnership with CBS Interactive to be the exclusive online broadcaster of their Pro Circuit competitions, as well as for advertising representation. MLG is the world's largest competitive video game league with over 15 million hours of live video served to fans during the 2011 Pro Circuit season, nearly 2,500 hours of live gaming competition scheduled in 2012, and thousands of the world’s best players competing at MLG events annually.
What exactly does all of this mean? Basically, MLG has partnered with CBSi to host their tournaments on Gamespot and other CBSi owned websites, in addition to Youtube and their traditional MLG.com broadcast. All of this adds up to a whole lot more exposure, and hopefully less people heckling eSports as "not serious". The CBS/Twitch partnership will ensure that more companies are interested in supporting prospective streamers and, as a result, tournaments.
“The eSports scene is one of the hottest trends in video, and is rapidly attracting the core 18-34 male demographic in greater numbers than any other medium or category,” said Jim Lanzone, President, CBS Interactive. “With these partnerships, CBSi now represents the biggest audience in live gaming and is able to offer our advertising partners a unique mix of trusted, premium content along with the huge engagement and audience that the eSports scene is commanding right now.”
CBSi definitely seems to be on the right track, and it's not hard to see why – eSports have been on an upward trend the past few years, especially with the explosion of streaming technology available cheap, or free via Twitch.tv and their partners. On average, a person will tune into a tournament or other live gaming event for 24 minutes, as compared with the average 3 or 4 minutes for typical on demand content. Across CBSi's sites, their core demographic is 18-34 year olds, a key market in eSports. Compare this with sites like Youtube, who have a much wider demographic, and it's easy to see why MLG would want to make a move like this.
"Major League Gaming’s live audience is growing in popularity to rival some of the most popular traditional sporting events with a highly engaged fan base worldwide,” said Sundance DiGiovanni, CEO and Co-Founder, Major League Gaming. "Leveraging the reach of CBS Interactive, we will now be able to create a premiere eSports destination for current and future fans alike, while providing some of the most powerful brands an opportunity to reach this coveted, passionate audience."
One thing's for sure – MLG's about to explode even more, and I'm just glad to be there to watch it all!
Dustin Steiner is GameZone's eSports Correspondent! You can follow him on Twitter @SteinerDustin.
