Good to their word, Rovio has made their announcement about a brand new game, and our fantastic sleuths were 100% correct.
Angry Birds Star Wars II will be coming to App Stores worldwide on September 19th!!! We will try to confirm with Rovio as to what specific platforms this means, but our guess is: iOS, Android (via Google Play and Amazon), PC (via Rovio’s Shop and perhaps Windows 8), and Mac. The price will be $0.99 for the SD (mobile) version and $2.99 for the HD (tablet) version, according to sources. No rumors yet on PC/Mac prices, though $4.99 is the norm there.
As predicted, Star Wars II will be based on the prequel trilogy of the Star Wars franchise: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. According to Rovio, you will be able to play as over 30 characters. You can see a few very notable characters in the video including Yoda, Darth Maul, and others. Rovio is currently refusing to comment about Jar Jar Binks specifically. Methinks that suspicious now, betcha-betcha.
It appears that the first episode of the game will be called “Naboo Invasion”, and the second “Escape to Tatooine”. Note that there are two halves to each episode: One for the Jedi, and one for the Pork Side. In the first two episodes, there are 66 stars (22 levels) per half! (Slightly less stars are seen in the 3rd episode, but that could be subject to change.) It’s not clear exactly how this will work, but it’s perhaps the most interesting feature of this app, in my humble opinion.
There will also be collectable figures produced by Hasbro, and placing these “TELEPODS” on your phone or tablet will allow you to scan the character directly into the game. (We have seen similar technology with this before, including the King Pig Golden Egg in ABo and the Candy Feast Mini-Game in Cut The Rope, along with others.) Of course, our walkthroughs will be based on “pure” gameplay, and our leaderboards will reflect “pure” scores only. We hope that Rovio will distinguish scores obtained via this character scan, perhaps categorizing them like Power Up scores. For more information about these “TELEPODS”, see the video above for a super cool explanation, or see Geek.com’s article on the topic.
Based on the video, there will be Power Ups, along with something similar to (or precisely?) the Mighty Millennium Falcon. Unfortunately, from the video, we cannot determine whether there will be score distinction for Power Up or TELEPOD scores — though as always, this is our plea to Rovio.
Be sure to read Rovio’s official statement and check out their latest Tumblr page for updates!
Oh, and one last thing. Return of the Jedi will be making its way into (the original) Angry Birds Star Wars app soon!!!!!
Looks great! But it´s a long time to wait…
@bad-piggies-2 no it’s not too long to wait. Two months of summer will pass in no time :-) and just to mention that patience is virtue.
It’ll be September 19th before we know it! :)
I had thought about the preguels being used before…I was thinking it would have been impossible to have the prequels done on the Angry Birds Star Wars original trilogy app as there alot of characters that were shown more from the prequel trilogy
That’s awesome we are getting a prequel trilogy game…can’t wait! lol
The games just keep getting better! I loved the detail backgrounds. I noted that the waterfalls in the one level seemed to be flowing. A great background adds much to the game for me. Looking forward to the new game!
CAN’T WAIT:D:D:D
Hope they make the music different in this one.
The telepods look very interesting, but I hope you don’t need them to compete!
@mvnla2 telepods look really interesting, I think they might be somthing like aptivity toys from Mattel. I wonder if they will work on older iOS, guess they won’t. I assume that toys will be pricy and most players would like to complete all collectin. Good source of money for both companies in my opinion.
I guess it functions like the toys from Skylanders.
I agree.
I play like classic style.
It looks like Jango Fett is going to be in the game too. Also, I find the fact that Rovio refuses to talk about Jar Jar suspicious too.
Jar Jar Binks is definitely will be in this game. He is in the trailer and you can see his silhouette on the second picture. (In the fourth row, next to Chewbacca)
He’s clearly visible in the trailer in cartoon form:
http://imgur.com/GNEUtmB
If you go to the tumblr page and click on Find Out More, it says that Jar Jar Binks is included.
@amslimfordy the telepods will be working for both iOS and android????
I think they only work on iPad
That’s a good question. I thought they worked on (newer) phones, at least, but I’ll have to look into it more.
For some reason I thought I heard, or maybe read in speculation, that one could enter the game by scanning a bar or QC code, which would permit any mobile device to be used.
“Placing these figures onto your phone or tablet camera will scan your character of choice directly into the game, allowing you to select new characters on the fly.”
Source: http://www.rovio.com/en/news/blog/338/announcing-angry-birds-star-wars-ii-coming-september-19
Thanks @chriss. It should indeed owrk on any device with a front-facing camera, though that means there’s a few notable devices excluded — such as iPhone 3GS and iPad 1.
I added a link to Geek.com’s article on TELEPODS. They should work on ANY device that features a front-facing camera, such as iPhone 4+. (I’m not familiar with Android phones, but I think most newer ones have a front-facing camera.) They are using QR codes instead of NFC tags, which means a wider range of devices will be compatible.
thanks a lot…..I hope it works on my phone
I wonder of iPad 2 will work. The front facing camera on that doesn’t work for some of my apps because the cameras are too blurry.
It should work fine on iPad 2+, @lostgreybird.
Bringing telepods tool in game is the greatest move ever. Hope it would work with iO.S. 4.3.3 as I didn’t playn to buy new device until next year.
Presumably we have Return of the Jedi before then?
Cool, I can’t wait! Playing both sides sounds interesting. But I wonder what this means for the first AB:SW game after Return of the Jedi is finished. Will that be the end of the levels?
amazing graphics,but we long to get AB Star wars II.
im not a fan of ABSW but this one looks interesting…i might give it a SLINGshot :D
Looks like a lot of fun! Sure hope they split the scores into separate regular and powerup values. A bonus level where you can kill Jar-Jar is a variety of gruesome ways would be fun too.
Awesome-ness! This is looking to be a total re-vamped version and the graphics looks too good.
Also according to Peter Vesterbacka, this is a reply on Twitter to a question about the app:
“I think we might show some of the stuff at ComicCon in San Diego this week as well”
Looks awesome!! I can’t wait to join the pork side :D
Do we need the telepods to 100% complete the game?
At no point should there be a need for TELEPODS. They will serve as an optional item only, and all levels will be unlockable and 3-starrable without use of TELEPODS or Power Ups.
You have to buy these telepods? and without buying there is no possibility to choose your character? or is it like ABO when you 3 star every level there unlocks something?
@Josm TELEPODS are small toys with QR codes on the bottom and will be available for purchase in September via most major retail stores.
In terms of gameplay, I would highly suspect that you should never NEED to use them. Every level should be unlockable and 3-starrable via “pure” gameplay.
That’s the way i like it, no Telepods, no Mighty Falcon, no Power-ups, all pure gameplay
Slim, will we be allowed to post photos of the QR codes here so that not everybody has to buy the Telepods?
@chriss I don’t think we can support that.
Maybe Jar Jar will have his own separate bonus episode like Path Of The Jedi (available to purchase immediately or unlocked by earning it) or the free Bobba Fett missions, or maybe he will be the subject of the golden egg levels, possibly unlocked by finding Jar Jar in some of the levels. Who knows. Maybe he might even his own bonus racing episode, giving us a glimpse of what’s to come in Angry Birds Go. All I know is the 1) I hope the power-ups and Telepods don’t ruin the scoring, and 2) I’m a little bit excited.
I’m certainly looking forward to this release. And the prospect of a Return of the Jedi episode is pretty darn exciting!
00:48 What’s that football type thing on the other pig? Is that a powerup
Not sure what you’re seeing. On the Episode Selection Screen? The bottom-middle icon looks similar to the “Characters” button in SW1.
{link removed} Here it is see the next bird is having a blue type football on his head
Including links to files on your computer won’t show here.
With over 30 characters to play, they will likely have all sorts of abilities. Way too little known right now as to which characters will appear and what their abilities will be.
at 00:48 at the down left corner there is a exclamation marked box
Yes there is…
It is the golden droids replaced i think and is easily obtainable by using the pigs
Really interesting about how you can play as both Rebel & The Pork Side. I wonder if you able to pop the birds when you play as The Pork Side though…
@Amslimfordy: A few questions:
1. If Rovio wanted to release the prequel episodes, couldn’t they have just incorporated these into the old app? Like keeping them before Tattooine instead of releasing a new one?
2. Speaking of old app, what will happen to ABSW after RoTJ? Would the game be ever updated with new levels? (Seeing as there is no story afterwards)
These are just curious questions and by no means meant to disrespect Rovio. I am just expressing my opinion but otherwise I am always open for new levels/challenges and/or gameplay/characters.
1) Rovio stated that the existing app would have been incompatible with much of the features they plan to include in SW2. However, I can only speculate as to why. You would have to ask Rovio directly for further details.
2) Again, I don’t really have any insider knowledge. I would hope that Rovio would make an official announcement about discontinuing updates for SW1 if that were the case, but no such announcement has been made yet.
I would guess they would do it like they did with Rio. Bonus levels, deleted scenes, etc.
I do wish they would incorporate this into the original app as well, but hopefully it will be worth the extra money!
They potentially could do expanded universe levels, from the novels and comics for example, that contain the same characters. Or there is always the new film trilogy coming out in 2015.
@amslimfordy if one closely looks towards the upper right corner of the episode selection screen….we see a coin type something ….with slingshot upon it…which is 9100 or something in number…..what can be this….the system of coins as seen in angry birds friends
If I had to guess, I would speculate that it’s similar to the coin system. By beating levels (or daily reward or something similar), you may earn coins which can be used to purchase Power Ups, Falcons, etc. of your choosing.
Wohoooo Angry Birds Star Wars 2 sounds great. So we will see 2 Brand New Apps this year. Can’t wait to see it :-)
The Teaser Video is also fantastic. Like it!!
at least 2! maybe even more and lots of update on the way i think..
Yes @joey you’re right. So we have a Lot to do in future :-) Let’s kill the Green piggies :-)
Trying to figure out who is who from the silhouettes of all the characters (I think the picture they posted is of all the playable characters!)
Can safely say Jar Jar Binks is the one next to the chewbacca!
to be frank i havent seen any star war movies, but from internet sources i have found out that there are no stories beyond, “return of the jedi”. Even though i am a die hard fan of angry birds, i would never want Rovio to end the ABSW app update immediately considering that it was released recently, ie 8th november 2012. Even though Angry birds Rio is based on a single movie which is Rio-I, we are still getting updates even after two years of its release. So i am sure we all would want continuous updates popping up on ABSW-I app.
First things first, go get the movies and watch them. Watch the originals first. The new ones stink.
There are more movies coming out, starting in 2015. Movie wise the plan is to release 3 Star Wars movies every other year and release a stand alone story in the between years. Hopefully they pull from that too.
As for the original Star Wars movie trilogy there is a ton of stuff we haven’t seen in the game that was i the movies. I wouldn’t be surprised if we got later updates similar to the Jedi update.
Hi Angry Birds Nest, here is a link someone found to an Angry Birds Star Wars play set with a Telepod and figurines:
http://www.hasbro.com/starwars/en_US/shop/details.cfm?R=C257E609-5056-9047-F5BE-AC27C515F469:en_US
Hmm, it appears they are going to release Telepods with playsets as well! That’s good to know! Great Find @Brandonbagel!
Awesome announcement! I wish the toys that i can use in the Telepods will be available in other countries like Europe or Canada for example.
As always, there will have to be a free one eventually released after the real app. But there is one question on my mind, @amslimfordy , will there be any differentiation between scores if u use telepods for the levels like they do with power-ups??
@trainman2012 As we say in the post, we hope that there is a distinction between “pure” scores and those with TELEPOD and/or Power Up assistance.
Does this mean that the deal was done with Disney after the Lucas Films acquisition? If so its a good sign at other potential character games, ie marvel crossover. Marvel and Star Wars Telepods would sell like hot cakes.
it looks great !