Angry Birds coming to a console near you

Unless you’ve been living on Mars for the last couple of years, you’ll have noticed that Angry Birds – the simple yet strangely addictive app game – has become something of a phenomenon.

Even if you have been living on Mars, there’s a good chance you’ll have heard of it – Angry Birds Space was released earlier this year.

I know this might not be a very popular opinion, but I sometimes wonder how such a simple and really rather repetitive game has become so popular.

Something about the Birds has appealed to people the world over, and I don’t know what it is. Rovio, the Finnish developer behind the game, probably doesn’t know either.

Not that they’d have given it much thought, they’re too busy milking this avian cash cow for all it’s worth. Not content with mobile gaming anymore, Rovio is now bringing Angry Birds to the big screen.

By big screen, I mean a fully-fledged console – although a film is rumoured to be in the works. Being developed by Activision, the console game will see the Birds come to PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS.

The game, called Angry Birds Trilogy, is set to be released later this year, and will see the original Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons and Angry Birds Rio all given a console makeover.

“There are new cinematics, extras and other entertaining content. In addition all of the existing material has been up-rezzed and re-treated for the high-resolution and big screen,” said Rovio's Petri Järvilehto.

“The backgrounds have been animated, we've added lighting modes, reactive backgrounds, the list goes on and on.”

It seems like the Birds can do no wrong at the moment, so a console version is probably a good idea for anyone with a financial stake in the game.

Having said that, I’m not sure how well it will translate on to the likes of the Xbox 360, especially with the inevitably higher price tag. And besides, who wants to throw birds at wooden structures when you can be fighting for your country in an intergalactic war of the future?