Angry Birds Star Wars

Angry Birds Star Wars was a puzzle video game developed and published by Rovio Entertainment. The game is a crossover between the Star Wars franchise and the Angry Birds series of video games, launched on November 8, 2012, first for Windows, iOS, and Android devices, later also to Mac and BlackBerry. The game is the sixth Angry Birds game in the series. The characters are copyrighted from George Lucas's double-trilogy. On July 18, 2013, Rovio announced that Angry Birds Star Wars would be heading for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, and the Nintendo 3DS on October 29, 2013, in conjunction with Activision. As of August 2013, the game has been downloaded over 100 million times on its various platforms. The game is a launch title for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

On July 15, 2013, Rovio announced a sequel titled Angry Birds Star Wars II. It is based on the Star Wars prequel trilogy and the television show Star Wars Rebels. Angry Birds Star Wars II was released on September 19, 2013. Angry Birds Star Wars was discontinued on February 3, 2020 along with Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Star Wars II, with the games also being pulled out of app stores.

Gameplay
The game combines elements of both Angry Birds and Angry Birds Space, featuring levels that take place on both standard terrain and in outer space. The game begins on Tatooine, Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker's home desert planet, moves to the Death Star I in parallel with A New Hope, travels to Hoth, then Cloud City in parallel with The Empire Strikes Back, and eventually ends up with Endor and Death Star II in parallel with Return of the Jedi. With the exclusion of Blue Bird, all the Birds are given new powers not yet seen before in a canon Angry Birds title, some of these that are upgraded as the game progresses further. Players can replay previously completed levels with the upgraded abilities.

Differences from other games are that Birds may still perform their chosen abilities a split second after colliding with an object. The Millennium Falcon is called the Mighty Falcon and used instead of the Mighty Eagle found in previous games. When a certain number of stars are earned, the player gets a reward. It can be either 5 Mighty Falcons (an item that may be used during normal levels to try to earn badges) or access to a Golden Droid level. There are additional bonus levels if the player manages to hit golden droids in selected levels. On June 13, 2013, power-ups were added.

There was a Facebook version of Angry Birds Star Wars that included weekly tournaments in addition to some story levels. It closed down on March 3, 2014.

Discontinuation
In December 2019, Rovio announced that Angry Birds Star Wars would be discontinued on February 3, 2020, alongside Angry Birds Star Wars II, Angry Birds Space, Angry Birds Rio, and other games. The game was pulled from both App Store and Google Play. In a 2021 interview, nearing the rerelease of the original Angry Birds, Rovio employee Steve Porter stated that the Rio and Star Wars games were unlikely to be rereleased due to third-party licensing.

Reception
The game has received favorable reviews on mobile with a Metacritic score of 88/100 based on 22 reviews. Mark Brown of Pocket Gamer gave the title a Gold Award, praising the game for being "faithful to the source material" and "filled with content". Justin Davis of IGN says it is a great game with Star Wars references and Force powers, and has a huge variety of perfectly tuned stages. However, the console version got negative reviews.

In a 2013 poll on the Rovio website, the game collected the most votes for favorite Angry Birds game. The Facebook version has garnered a lot of positive response as well.

At the 2013 Webby Awards, Angry Birds Star Wars was awarded as the "Best Game" from both the Judges and as the People's Choice. The game also earned a pair of nominations for Best Video Game from the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and the British Academy Children's Awards (BAFTA Kid's Vote).