'Angry Birds' Sequel 'Bad Piggies' Gets A Release Date

After slaughtering countless green piggies in the quest to secure the stolen eggs, the birds of Rovio's smash hit (no pun intended) "Angry Birds" will be taking a back seat to the pigs this time around with the game's sequel. "Bad Piggies" will star the villainous pigs in what Kotaku is saying will be a driving/construction hybrid title.

Apparently there isn't going to be a slingshot used in "Bad Piggies," instead tasking the player with constructing various devices to get the "bouncy" and "jovial" pigs to hard-to-reach eggs (with no birds in sight). Rovio seems to be cribbing from the PopCap playbook by releasing missives in the form of "company memos" from the King Pig, with goofy writing (complete with misspellings) stating "We haz facebook and twitter y u no like?" PopCap, of course, utilized a similar strategy when the company was purchased by EA, firing off a memo written by the zombies in their hit "Plants VS. Zombies" saying "Dear EA humanz, thank you for becoming our new Zomboss."

"Bad Piggies" has hit both Facebook and Twitter, with a recent tweet stating the game's release will be Sept. 27. Fast Company sheds a little more light on the nature of Rovio's latest, "The swine are stranded on a desert island and have to build vehicles and contraptions to make their way to the delicious eggs that they can't seem to get enough of. Though there is a three-star mechanic at work, there are no birds in sight, and the pigs are bouncy, jovial, and downright likable--a far cry from the snorting, antagonizing characters from the Angry Birds installments."

Ville Heijari, vice president of franchise development stated "It feels like when we're launching anything, some shadow of Angry Birds will be hanging over it." While this may be true, "Angry Birds" has over 200 million active monthly users, with various add-ons like "Angry Birds Seasons" and the sequel (making use of space-aged physics) "Angry Birds Space" also doing tremendous business for Rovio.

"This is a long-term commitment," says Heijari. "This is the sibling of Angry Birds, and it will get a lot of push over time." By offering players the simple pick-up-and-play style of the original "Angry Birds," Rovio can further build its empire and establish its birds as the Mario of a new gaming generation.

The brilliant tagline for the new game is "Pigs are awesome. Birds stink. Oink Oink." "Bad Piggies" will drop September 27, 2012 on iOS, Android and Mac with a PC release to follow shortly after.