Angry Birds Star Wars II (also formatted as Angry Birds Star Wars 2) is a 2013 puzzle video game developed and published by Rovio Entertainment. The sequel to Angry Birds Star Wars (2012), it is a crossover between the Angry Birds video game series and the Star Wars prequel trilogy. It continues the gameplay of previous Angry Birds games with Star Wars theming, locations, and characters. It introduces pigs being playable in the same fashion as the birds as well as toys-to-life functionality. Angry Birds Star Wars II was released for mobile devices worldwide on September 19, 2013, and was met with a generally positive response from critics. Additional content was added throughout 2014.
Angry Birds Star Wars II is the first game in the Angry Birds series to be compatible with Telepods, a line of toys-to-life figures by Hasbro, which can be "teleported" into the game via small QR codes by placing a figure on top of a plastic base, which has a magnifying glass and in turn goes on the device's front camera.[3][5][7][9]
At the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards, Angry Birds Star WarsII received a nomination for Favorite App Game.[23] The game's critical response was also favourable. Its average from review aggregator website Metacritic was 77 out of 100, based on 24 reviews, including 5 out of 5 scores from TouchArcade and The Guardian.[14][7][2] Criticism in the review from the latter newspaper was limited to the lack of synchronicity of save data between the iPad and iPhone.[2]
Several critics considered the gameplay fun despite its faults.[8][17][19] As with its predecessor, Angry Birds Star WarsII was acclaimed for its incorporation of the Star Wars license.[17][19][2] The birds' new Jedi abilities were well-received for making the gameplay diverse and interesting.[2][15][8][18][16] Common highlights included the pod racing sequences and the Jar Jar Binks bird, the latter of whom IGN and Pocket Gamer considered the best playable character.[17][18][20][21]
The core game formula was covered to be largely unchanged,[15][8][7][2] and Common Sense Media and Destructoid suggested a gamer's potential enjoyment would be dependent on that of the rest of the Angry Birds franchise.[8][21] While CNET was still entertained despite the similarity,[15]Digital Spy and Pocket Gamer criticized Rovio for playing it safe.[22][20] When it came to the "Pork Side" levels, TouchArcade suggested the "on-tap power" was a good spin on the gameplay that fit the pigs.[7] Conversely, Destructoid and Game Informer were disappointed, as they expected the pigs to function and act much more differently from the birds.[8][17]
Several critics were let down by the challenge significantly decreasing from other Angry Birds games, a consequence of the utilization of Jedi abilities and structures with blatant weak spots.[17][19][20][22][24] The Financial Post considered using the additional characters to be "cheating".[25] Most of the levels were reportedly beaten in just over an hour.[17][26] Critics reported the game was still playable, if challenging, without the in-app-purchased and Telepod characters.[15][8][18][26] However, sources as Common Sense Media and EP Daily were still critical of this system, arguing the Telepods in particular turned Angry Birds Star WarsII into a massive toy commercial.[16][18][21]
