"Angry Birds makers Rovio introduce Amazing Alex"

Can Amazing Alex calm down the Angry Birds? Rovio Image

Rovio games got us all addicted to using birds as deadly missiles, and now it wants us to start using toys to create machines for household chores. Still basking in the phenomenal success of its Angry Birds franchise, Rovio has clearly decided that they need to branch out a little. The birds have already conquered the final frontier so we’re guessing that there really isn’t very much else left for them to go.

So now we have the modestly named Amazing Alex. In an enthusiastic press release full of exclamation marks Rovio says,

“Meet Amazing Alex, star of Rovio’s newest game! This whiz kid has a boundless imagination and a houseful of fun toys that can turn anything into a great adventure! From cleaning up his room to playing in his backyard, Alex creates amazing chain reactions to get the job done with the maximum amount of fun.”

The neat thing about this game however is that it gives users of not only building their own levels and solutions, but also share their levels with other players.

According to Rovio, you set Alex’s toys up to “bounce, pop, ricochet, bash, and crash into each other and create an elaborate Rube Goldberg device! With a houseful of toys to play with, there’s more than one right answer! Share your most creative solutions with your friends and see what they came up with!”

This is a great way of growing a game beyond what its developers can do, and is a good strategy to make it go viral. We’re guessing that a lot of physics geeks armed with mobile phones are going to come up with some incredibly difficult and ingenious levels that will probably spawn its very own sub culture. It also clearly seems to reward creative solutions which should go down well with users.

Amazing Alex obviously has his own Facebook page and Twitter handle, and Rovio has some cute pictures of him, including one of the Angry Birds staring curiously at a picture of him on the television. The graphics look really advanced, and the promo video below looks just like something you’d see on Cartoon Network. Rovio has not given us a release date yet, only vaguely saying that it will be out on iOS and Android in July. Which means anytime now really.

Watch the promo video: