why can’t the angry birds fly

Its all about the birds these days. Witness, for example, “Angry Birds” epic hold on Apples App Store charts … not to mention its hold on hearts the world over.

And now, another bird — this one far less grumpy — has knocked “Angry Birds” from its perch to become the No. 1 paid app on iTunes. The game is called “Tiny Wings” and you should get thee to the App Store and download it promptly. Playable on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, itll cost you a mere 99 cents and will be worth every feather-lovin penny.

Created by German game designer Andreas Illiger, “Tiny Wings” tasks players with helping a round little bird get some big air. You see, like the “Angry Birds,” this wee bird cant seem to fly on its own accord. Its tiny wings have left it with the flight skills of a chicken and thus it needs the touch of your finger to help it launch into the clouds.

That is, as it skims across the surface of brightly colored and terrifically hilly terrain, you touch the screen when the bird is on a downhill slide to help it gain momentum and thus launch skyward as it comes off the top of the next rise. Youll need to time your touches right to give the bird lots of sky time and also make it so he plummets earthward in time to gobble up glowy items on the ground. Check it out:

There are no pigs to contend with here, but the dark of night is always on your heels and will bring your game to a stop if it catches you.

The games graphics are “procedurally” generated, which means the colorful landscape changes randomly every time you play through. And the music in “Tiny Wings” is cotton-candy cute in all the right ways. All in all, the game offers that perfect blend of iDevice simplicity combined with the kind of hard-to-master skills to keep you coming back over and over again (think “Fruit Ninja“).

If you dont get the appeal of “Tiny Wings” on your first play through, I recommend that you give it a few more tries. Because once you get the rhythm of the thing — learn how to really launch that bird into the sky — you will be hooked.

Theres no way to know how long “Tiny Wings” will keep its newfound position on iTunes top perch. “Angry Birds” has been knocked down before but always manages to claw its way back. Still, no matter what, “Tiny Wings” makes a fine feathered friend and a nice change of pace.

Meanwhile, if youre already one of the many “Tiny Wings” fans, consider picking up the iPhone game “Solipskier.” It operates under a similar-ish principle in which you use your finger to draw the curves of the landscape beneath a skiers feet to score points and get big air.

“Solipskier” has been nominated for the Best Mobile Game award at the Independent Games Festival taking place in San Francisco this week. The winner will be announced Wednesday night.

Winda Benedetti writes about games for msnbc.com. You can follow her tweets about games and other things right here on Twitter.

That is, you touch the screen when the bird is sliding downward to give it momentum and help it launch upward as it comes off the top of the next rise, all while it skims across the surface of incredibly colorful and hilly terrain. You’ll need to time your touches precisely so that the bird has plenty of time in the sky and descends Earth in time to consume glowing objects on the ground. Check it out:

“Tiny Wings,” a game by German game designer Andreas Illiger, asks players to assist a spherical little bird in gaining some serious airtime. As you can see, similar to “Angry Birds,” this small bird is unable to fly by itself. With only the ability to fly like a chicken due to its small wings, it requires your finger to help it take off into the clouds.

Many of the characters are uninteresting and unchanging, with the exception of Josh Gad’s brilliant performance as the yellow bird from the game Chuck, who essentially acts as this movie’s version of “X-Men’s” Quicksilver (there’s even a reference to “Days of Future Past”). It’s unfortunate because the film’s cheesy humor seems to undervalue the talents of talented actors like Bill Hader, Maya Rudolph, Sean Penn, and Peter Dinklage.

The film’s juvenile humor consists of eye-rolling puns and groan-worthy wordplay (“Home Tweet Home,” “Egg-celent”), leaving little room for adult enjoyment aside from a single allusion to “The Shining” and a “50 Shades of Green” prop joke.

With roughly a dozen games, comics, and toys under their belt, Rovio doesn’t lack resources; rather, it’s how they manage to create a film that, by today’s standards, feels sloppy. The 98-minute runtime zooms appear to have forgotten that they were composing a full-length film rather than a Nickelodeon special or a straight-to-DVD picture, which is really what it should have been. The screenwriters appear to have decided halfway through that this just isn’t good at all, and they then went on to complete the film as quickly as they could. Red (Jason Sudeikis), the angstiest bird on Bird Island (a place where birds cannot fly), lives as an outcast from the rest of society in a tale that is as straightforward and predictable as any of its kind. The story has a clear arc that becomes clear after the pigs attack. The attack’s flimsy justification is more proof that the screenwriters didn’t care about originality.

Wordplay and puns are just not funny enough, and the movie’s stale message of “fitting in” is uninteresting because it is practically the same concept as the animated movies mentioned earlier. “The Angry Birds Movie” has so much potential to succeed, but it can’t seem to get off the ground.

Regarding children’s films, there are appropriate and inappropriate approaches to take. “The Angry Birds Movie” lacks the inventiveness and originality of “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Zootopia,” and “The Lego Movie,” three masterfully made movies with vast worlds that can amuse both adults and children, that have been released in just the last four years. When compared to other recent children’s movies, the film falls short despite some lovely animation and a short but funny scene in which the birds eventually use slingshots to retaliate.

FAQ

Why did birds lose the ability to fly?

Birds probably started flying as a way to escape from enemies. Scientists tell us that some ratites may have lost the power of flight because they had no enemies. Birds living on islands without predators may not have needed to fly. Over time, they developed other ways of traveling, such as running and swimming.

Are Angry Birds flightless?

In the movies, Angry Birds Dream Blast, Angry Birds Journey, & Angry Birds Summer Madness, the birds have wings and legs, yet are flightless, except for the eagles.

Why birds cannot fly?

Flightless birds have a sternum (in this picture, the lower bone in the chest). But they’re missing another bone called the keel bone, where flight muscles attach. Birds that can’t fly often also have bigger bodies and longer legs than birds that fly.

Why is Mighty Eagle the only bird that can fly?

Mighty Eagle is a legend of mythical proportions in the bird community. The birds grew up with songs and tales about his amazing adventures and heroism. Because of his giant majestic wings, he is the only bird who has ever managed to fly.