Angry Birds

I have an I-Pad. Purchased for what I thought would surely be work-related endeavors. I have downloaded books which I intended to read. I have used it to find out the weather in locations where I am headed. I have used it to search the Internet for useless information. I have used it for navigation and maps. But I have never used it for work, yet. My latest “use” of the I-Pad came home with my husband. All the doctors at work have been sitting around, waiting to perform miracles, while playing “Angry Birds.” He downloaded the game and made the horrific mistake of showing it to me.

I grew up in the age of board games and charades, nothing electronic. When I was younger, anything electronic would have taken an entire building to house a computer with the memory of the I-Pad. My first introduction to video games was the Atari while I was in law school. I played Asteroids until my eyes fell out of my head. Then came Link (is that spelled correctly? I can’t remember) and I lost interest in video games. Those endless searching and role-playing games bored me. Give me something to explode and I was happy but don’t ask me to solve a puzzle and find the treasure. My son came along and he had to have all the video games. I lost count of the names and types of games he played. Too many. Nothing interested me about them. All I knew about them at that time was I had to fight him to make him leave that dang controller and eat dinner. Video games became a bane to my existence.

But, once again, I find myself in heaven, blowing things up and trying to take out those dastardly pigs. Angry Birds is a game invented by Rovio Mobile and it is very, very addictive. When my husband showed it to me I had to play it so he would shut up about how much fun it was (humor him so I could continue with the book I was reading). Okay, I sat down at the table and gave it a whirl. Four hours later, my son was walking into the kitchen trying to find out what was for dinner. Dinner? How about roasted pig? The game involves shooting birds out of a slingshot at various structures housing evil pigs. Sound interesting? Not really until you play it. It is like a puzzle – where do you shoot the birds (no pun intended) to bring down the pigs’ barricades and destroy them? Angles, trajectories, explosions – Angry Birds trying to win. So many levels, so little time…



At my age, I should really be sitting sedately, crocheting or knitting. Instead, I am hopelessly hooked on a game which involves violence (those pigs can get black eyes from flying debris) and mayhem (the pigs explode – no guts or blood – please, I do have some inhibitions). So, until I reach the next level there will be no dinner. And there is no controller to take from my hands…

Have any of you tried this game out on your I-Touch or I-Pad? Are there games out there you have become addicted to? My son and husband don’t want me to know if there are – they’ve missed a few meals over the Holiday Season.