Are you ready to join the birds and the pigs as they head back to school! I hope so, as the birds need your help take back the playground from those not-so-menacing pigs. After a short wait we are excited to report that the Angry Birds Seasons Back to School update (v2.5.0) is now available for iOS, PC, Mac, BlackBerry Playbook, and Android via Google Play and Amazon Appstore! This update includes a bunch of stuff and lifts the veil of secrecy surrounding the brand new pink bird, which we reported about last week. We’ve outlined below what we know so far about the pink bird, her power, and this update in general:
Note for PC users: Some people have not been notified by the in-game updater. Instead, go to download.angrybirds.com and click on “Download Free Demo” on Seasons to get the newest .exe file. If you are worried about your progress, check out our Ultimate Backup Tutorial.
- 20 new schoolyard levels decked out with back to school gear, such as textbooks, pencils, and pigs in dunce caps. If you’re stuck be sure to check out our 3 star walkthrough videos.
- Golden Eggs! There is likely at least one Golden Egg hidden in-game, and the 3-star bonus this time around is a “Big Notebook”. Our Complete Angry Birds Seasons Golden Eggs Guide has the location of every single Golden Egg in Angry Birds Seasons, including Back to School.
- No power-ups! I know 99% of our users will be thrilled about this.
- No new achievements for iOS. This is expected, since there is really no space for Seasons achievements points.
- The numbering of the Twitter and Facebook levels has changed.
- On the main screen there is a new refresh Mighty Eagle icon (under the gear icon). I presume this is there for those who need to restore their purchase. I could be wrong though.
The Lowdown on the New Pink Bird
The pink bird first appears on level 1-5. Her power is the ability to blow bubbles, which can trap blocks and — you guessed it — pigs. Once trapped the bubbles rise slowly with their cargo and then pop moments after, letting the blocks/pigs fall back to earth. This is definitely a unique ability that will take some getting used to. It’s also important to note that, much like the sardine can, she is very bouncy, so direct hits don’t do much, if any, damage.
What follows is my opinion of the pink bird (for those who care). At first I was a little skeptical about the new pink bird, but after having played through all the levels I have to say I’m very impressed. Not only is her power very creative, it is also extremely well executed. Rovio could have opted for something easy and predictable, but alas, the pink bird and her ability are nothing of the sort. I’m not sure if the pink bird is filled with flubber or what, but unlike the rest of her flock she bounces like crazy and can only penetrate the most damaged wood. There are no other birds even remotely like this (well, I guess the red bird can’t inflict much damage either). Not only that, her bubbles don’t affect all objects equally. Heavier objects float up slower than lighter ones, and if there is too much weight above them, they don’t do much of anything. All this means that you have to plan your shots and they need to be quite strategic. To me this boils down to very fun gameplay and a welcome addition to the flock. I can’t wait to see her make her way into future levels (could be very interesting in Space!).
New Bugs
We are compiling this list to keep an organized, easy-to-reference list for users and developers alike. We are confirming platforms as the update is released.
Update: Angry Birds Seasons v2.5.1 has been released on iOS, presumably with more platforms coming soon. Repaired bugs still include their details for the sake of completeness.
Bug 45 (iOS/PC/Mac):Bug has been fixed in v2.5.1.
The Level Selection Screens for “Wreck the Halls” and “Season’s Greedings” are not displaying properly (see this image for an example). As a side effect, there are some issues with unlocking the “Big Cookie” and “Big Present” Golden Eggs. This is a bit less common on Mac/PC.- Bug 46 (iOS/Android/PC/Mac): Seasons Golden Egg 16 (in Easter Eggs) is now a broken Rube Goldberg machine (see the walkthrough page for more).
- Bug 47 (iOS/Android/PC/Mac): The Golden Eggs in Moon(cake) Festival have been flip-flopped (see this comment thread for more). As a side effect, the “Golden Mooncake” and “Big Mooncake” unlock backwards (i.e., collecting all 8 slices unlocks the Big instead of the Golden; 3-starring unlocks the Golden instead of the Big).
- Bug 48 (iOS/Android/PC/Mac): The “New Year Egg” from Wreck the Halls cannot be unlocked in v2.5.0.
- (iOS/Android/PC/Mac): Piglantis 2-9 minimum 3-star score has changed. It was 100,000 in the original release and was changed to 102,000 in v2.5.0. This is likely unintentional, but we are checking with Rovio.
Below are some helpful links:
- Back to School 3-star walkthrough videos
- Check out our Complete Angry Birds Seasons Golden Eggs Guide
- Enter your Back to School scores on the Seasons and Seasons Golden Eggs leaderboard
Hooray!! This update looks awesome! Can’t wait to play! :D
I can’t also wait. I hope we can play on other platforms soon :)
Can’t wait to see her in action. Altho I’m still working on the Surf &Turf update. This was the update that brought us Android users the Mighty Eagle & I actually got carried away trying to get all the feathers instead of three stars. Oops.
I was disappointed by the lack of black bird and orange bird in this update. My favorite two birds only got one level. Though, on the bright side, the pink bird is TONS of fun!
Also, the golden egg level seems to be rather glitchy. I play on an iPhone 3GS, so that may be the reason. But it really made that level difficult.
I do 3-stars before moving to the next level, so I am only on 11 so far, but I have the same glitchy activity with my 3GS as well. Sometimes it just slows down for no particular reason.
Also, are you confirming a golden egg, or are you talking about the 3-star bonus level?
Can’t wait for the Google Play update! It looks so awesome! The new Ping Bird has a cool power! Bubbles! Can’t wait to try it! :)
I wonder if the Android users will be able to purchase the Mighty Eagle in this update, like we were able to in the last update of ABO?
What? NO power ups, how can that be, I thought they were universally loved by everyone and everything? (said incredibly sarcasticly!)
I got ME for free. Yay!
can you play ME on all episodes or just on “back to school”?
You can use the ME on every episode!
All episode
I was curious about this so I just downloaded the new update and it’s true. Rovio made a mistake in this update. It gave the ME for free because I didn’t purchase it last time. I only intend to play ABo and ABSp as I don’t have time to play ABSe and ABR but ABSe became a free app for a week recently and I downloaded it for fun. Or Rovio decided to give away the ME for free ?
Maybe they are giving away ME for free to make up for the uproar over Power Ups.
I am playing on an iPad and it appears the MEs are free in the new Back to School level.
Hooray! I hope this update come out quickly for other platforms!
Yay! Can’t wait for it to come out on PC!
I noticed something else through this update:
levels 1-16, 1-17 & 1-18 of H&K, GGGL and EE are now 2-1, 2-2 & 2-3
levels 2-16, 2-17 & 2-18 of MF are now 3-1, 3-2 & 3-3
some new links are up in SP, HoW, WtH and YotD on the golden egg(s) last page (did not pay attention to this before thus I wonder if it’s really new)
WHat mean new link? link to other social site?
Waiting for PC update.
sorry; links to youtube videos
The youtube videos are not new in this version.
It appears that the former Facebook levels in those episodes have been given more standard level designations. Possibly as a way to avoid potenial confusion in future updates. It’s definitely a “housekeeping” move on Rovio’s part, as the levels themselves don’t seem to have changed.
We are debating in what to do about this.
in wreck the halls levels 5 until 25 were black/unclickable after the update, my progress is luckily not gone. the levels did appear one by one after playing the previous level. very annyoing.. :/
Yes, I noticed that as well. just replaying the last level will reveal the missing ones.
OMG! It is not such a rare moment that SOMETHING concerning access to levels isn’t screwed up on each Season’s release. It’s now to the point where before I play any new Season, I have to double-check EVERY previous season to see if all the Golden Eggs are there, access to levels is there, etc… This is absolutely ridiculous.
Really? I’ve not had any such problem with Seasons whether it was my Android based Xoom, or my iPad.
Yeah, it practically did it for every season listed under 2011. There was Golden Eggs levels access that disappear, Level access that disappeared, Facebook levels that disappeared, scores for Golden Eggs disappeared…
The same thing happened again with the first season of 2012, but when Christmas came about, it seemed to be fixed…that lasted for about 4 seasons…now it looks to like the same things has inflicted us again.
so we have to play levels 4 to 24 right??
It seems that each player have a different set of “missing” levels. Just replay the last available level (Mighty Eagle will speed up the process) to unlock the next one. It will reappear with your previous score and feather if you had one.
oh thx. thats good to know cause i dont wanna waste time on wreck the halls now..
we dont even have to gain 100% in order for the next level to open
No such bug in my SD version.
Cool! I will love this on my iPod Touch and iPad! Also I will check if the threshold was changed.
Pink bird is now the most powerful bird in the games right up there with the orange puffball bird. Good update.
After downloading the update, I went back to Mooncake Festival to play, & the 1st time I used the white bird, bomb bird, & the boomerang I got the image of a finger appear prompting me to tap the screen. Strangely, didn’t appear for yellow or blue birds.
Played a few levels of this one, the pink bird is a lot of fun; she has a bit of an odd squawk.
@kare68 I agree, she is fun! I’ve had a lot of success with her!!! :D
@sunshine, I’m really enjoying experimenting with all the ways of using her, I’m having much more fun than I was with the space egg, I still struggle with that. The pink bird has much more character!
@karen68 I agree 100%. :D we will have to compare notes!!! ;)
this update is avaliable for symbian when the piglantis never update
Yet another noticed change: on level count up, when the stars appear, there is a number of puffs of smoke that “herald” the appearance of each star.
And another. The count up screens are all now dome in the new standard like ABR and ABo. The old way is gone. Strange, how I didn’t even notice at first.
awesome! its hard get the pink bird to aim just right
I hope Android has the ME.Every update for Android this summer has the ME so I hope seasons has it,will see.
A new bird! What more could we ask for!
Looks like fun! Can’t wait to give it a shot today at lunch! Charging Phone now.
Yoohooooo! It is out. Now only have to wait for red planet update!
And then the update after that, and the update after that, and the update after that! ;D
Yay, it’s finally out. :)
I noticed that when you click on the birds on the play screen they make there sounds like in the original.
Just had the stragnest thing happen, when playing 1-3 I launched the first yellow bird, and he rotated counterclockwise in midair, hitting the structure with his flat base. Seemed to do extra damage, and I ended up one birding the level. Anyone else seen this happen?
@burbman
Not me – and I played it 100 times to get three stars. Tough level. What was your score?
Score was 121k, I shot nearly straight ahead into the sweet spot just above the angled stone plank. There is probably more to get there.
@burbman..level 3 is definstely odd…it didn’t give me my left over bonus birds points ;-(..what was your score with your one birdie?
@Burbman — I you sure you aren’t still under the influence of those super-strength pain killers. When I took them, they made me totally loopy, and I had no clue until later. ; )
If course, it should be “Are you sure,” don’t think I need those pain killers to be slightly loopy. : )
what happened to the leaderboards on IOS? I gained better positions in them all…
They include golden egg and bonus scores now.
oh nice. i didnt make the link cause the scores on each chapter did not add golden eggs level but in leaderboard it did..
I don’t see the leaderboards up here yet?
Game Center.
Well looks like the next update for Seasons will be added to seasons 2013.Next is Halloween.I hope that Rovio will keep making Halloween and Christmas seasons like a tradition to the game.
we might get a Thanksgiving update if we are lucky…
I play on an Android tablet and cant wait for it to appear on Android platforms
The walkthrough pages are live, please post your strategies and three star thresholds on the appropriate level. Thanks @Birdleader ;)
I thought the gal birds power was better than i expected.
Why putting an update about the school, when it begins at september??
I’m guessing you haven’t checked some of the other pages for the Pink Bird, but I think we have already established it starts many different days. One school in my town started today, and schools in Kansas City started on Monday.
Our local schools start in a couple weeks. Or not soon enough.
not soon enough is my vote too.
This update is awesome! Great job Rovio :)
I do like the update better than I thought and it is definitely a great addition to Seasons. The Pink Bird is not amazing although I really like how her ability is way more different than all of the other birds. I do think that if you master her ability she can be really destructive but I have only been able to put her ability to good use in 1-5.
I don’t know why, but I got free mighty eagle when updated has anyone experienced this
Same I also got a free mighty eagle I dont know why but its fine with me!’
Same here
Maybe Rovio give us free Mighty Eagle or something else because I had it too