Angry Birds may have been replaced in the hearts of mobile users across the world by other digital avians, but Rovio’s game is still popular, and hell, there are all these contracts that have been signed. So, yes, Angry Birds Transformers is officially a thing.
Divided into Autobirds and Deceptihogs, this will be a marketing blitzkrieg according to The Verge. In addition to the mobile game you’d expect, there will also be Telepods, Hasbro’s answer to Skylanders, featuring redone versions of the Transformers us nerds in our thirties love and the birds those damn kids love so much. There will probably be other merch as well; this is Rovio and Hasbro, no way they let this go without at least attempting a plushie or two.
We’re of two minds about this. On the one hand, these two things go together about as well as chocolate and sardines, to the point where I actually spent five minutes doing a reverse image search on the official art to make sure somebody hadn’t misinterpreted a joke on DeviantArt. On the other, the same is true of Angry Birds Star Wars as a concept, but the game was actually quite good. Rovio completely remade the mechanics of the game both to suit the concept and to essentially alter the strategy. It seems likely Rovio will do the same with the mechanics here, so the game itself might actually be worth playing.
That said, if there’s a cutesy remake of the single greatest song the 1980s ever produced, we’re leaving. Stan Bush is sacrosanct, Rovio.