The news that everyone has been waiting for is here at last: You can now play Angry Birds on your Mac. Rovio released the Mac version of what may be the world’s most popular game through Apple’s Mac App Store, which went online early Thursday morning.
The game is a recreation of the original Angry Birds title for iPhone, but it’s been updated with new graphics to take advantage of a desktop Mac’s far higher resolution. In addition Rovio said in the product description that, “the Mac version will feature unique enhancements not available in the mobile version.”
If you’re wondering how a game designed from the ground up works with a mouse (no keyboard necessary), the mouse cursor merely becomes a cartoon finger — left-click and hold to grab a bird, move your mouse where you want it, and release the mouse button to fire your bird.
Other changes include the presence of the pause and start-over controls being omnipresent on the screen, as you can see in the upper left corner of the screenshot below (in iOS, one must tap the screen to get said controls).
Speaking of that screenshot, it was taken on a Mac Pro with a 27” Cinema Display (2550 x 1440 resolution) to give you an idea of how the company is using the increased resolution for desktop screens.
The game is currently priced at US$4.99, and the description says that price is 50% off as a temporary promotion. To install it, you’ll need to visit the new Mac App Store, which requires Mac OS X 10.6.6.
Angry Birds for Mac