For any of you who missed it, you have not seen the last of Angry Birds. It was announced a while back that the games were going to be coming to the 3DS, as well as consoles in the form of a collection including Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio, and Angry Birds Seasons. Now, if you think about it, buying all three Angry Birds games offered on mobile devices, including all the DLC, would run you about $10 give or take. That being said, on what grounds does Activation justify selling this collection for $29.99 on the 3DS and $39.99 on the PS3 and Xbox 360? Here’s how.
Basically, Activision is basing their price on how much “extra” content the collection will have. First off, each and every level has been remastered in stunning HD graphics. It will also have 19 original levels that have never been seen before (though it’s not much when compared to the 700+ levels that already exist). On top of all those improvements to gameplay, the collection will also have artwork, new cinematics (that replace the pretty simple animations), surround sound, Move/Kinect support, 3D support, achievements, and plenty of unlockables like never before seen artwork. Not to mention the fact that instead of having all three games across three different iPod applications (which are so hard to open separately…like seriously, thank you Activision for not making me open separate applications to play these games), you can have all those birds in one convenient place. That’s pretty much all they have on the matter.
Sorry Activision, you don’t have me sold on this one just yet. Let’s take a look at why these “extra” things don’t make the game worth any extra money. First of all, why do you need to play Angry Birds in HD? I mean, the graphics are already simple enough that even in HD, nothing is really gained. The iPod versions had no troubles graphically that I noticed, so HD isn’t really a selling point in this case. Secondly, as I stated above, including that the game will have 19 new levels doesn’t make much of a difference either. How about instead of buying this and getting 19 new levels, I just buy a full new game for $39.99? I could most likely get a fairly recent one for that much. Lastly, can we just take a second to realize that this “collection” doesn’t even have every single Angry Birds game on it? I mean, why would they not include Angry Birds Space? If they had done that, I would consider paying like…$15 for it (on a good day).
Honestly, I don’t think that there is a single thing that Activision could do that could make me buy Angry Birds for $39.99 outside of literally giving me a giant slingshot with hand grenades, and lining up the Rovio employees for me to take aim at. Of course, maybe I am being too harsh. They did get all 3 Angry Birds applications in one easy place, making it so I don’t have to open each app individually to play each title.
