They came from Finland. They're angry. They're armed only with slingshots, and they're prepared to use them. Nothing's going to stop these birds from getting their eggs back from those mean, green pigs.

“I've been playing Angry Birds for two hours. Help.”“This is what happens when you stay up playing Angry Birds until 2:30 in the morning, going through all the levels you've already beaten just to get all the golden eggs.” It was followed by: “Angry Birds is now at the point where it's interfering with my duties. I think I need to declare a brief moratorium.” I've gotten all of these e-mails from friends in the past few months.

Angry Birds sounds like a seriously addictive thing, but it's just a game for mobile devices. And what perhaps is the oddest point about the Angry Birds phenomenon? It's based on physics! Who would guess that physics would grip the imaginations of tens of millions of people within two years?

Angry Birds has been called “the largest mobile app success we've seen so far.” It was developed by the Finnish company Rovio Mobile. Rovio wanted to release another game and began listening to proposals. One included a picture of a silly, wingless bird, and the staff fell in love with it. Angry Birds was designed to give this lovable bird a story. And because swine flu was in the news when the game was being developed, the birds' enemies became pigs. The story goes that the pigs have stolen the birds' eggs. The birds try to get them back by hurling themselves at the pigs' buildings. Using the laws of physics, and luck, players knock down structures with different colored birds to release eggs and kill pigs.

Angry Birds was released in late 2009. It became the hit of 2010, inspiring Halloween costumes and even birthday cakes. New versions of the game have come out, inspired by changing seasons or specific places.

Now, please excuse me. I've got some pigs to kill.

牠們來自芬蘭，而且很憤怒。牠們只配有彈弓為武器，但牠們已經蓄勢待發。沒有什麼能夠阻止這些鳥兒從卑鄙的綠豬那裡把蛋搶回來。

「我玩憤怒鳥已經兩個多小時了。救命啊。」「這就是你熬夜到凌晨兩點半玩憤怒鳥的後果，連續闖過幾關，只為了得到所有的金蛋。」後面一封信是：「玩憤怒鳥現在已經影響我的工作，我要宣布暫停一陣子了。」這是過去幾個月來朋友們寄給我的電子郵件內容。

憤怒鳥聽起來是個很容易令人上癮的東西，但它只是一款手機遊戲！而憤怒鳥風潮中最怪的一點，或許是它的原理竟然來自物理學！誰猜得到物理學竟能在兩年內吸引數千萬人？

憤怒鳥被稱為「迄今最成功的手機應用程式」，它是由芬蘭邏威手機公司開發。邏威當時想開發一款新遊戲，於是開始接受提案。其中一項提案中有一張沒有翅膀、看似傻氣的小鳥照片，而工作人員都愛上牠了，想為這隻討人喜歡的鳥設定一個故事，而在發展這款遊戲時，新聞正好播報豬流感（新流感），於是豬就成了憤怒鳥的敵人。故事是這樣的：這些豬偷了憤怒鳥的蛋。憤怒鳥想要回鳥蛋，便將自己投向豬的建築。玩家利用物理學定律，再加上一點運氣，以不同顏色的憤怒鳥擊垮建築物，救出鳥蛋殺死豬。

憤怒鳥在2009年底發行，2010年大受歡迎，並成為萬聖節服裝甚至生日蛋糕的靈感來源。這款遊戲還根據季節或特定場所發行了不同的新版本。

現在，請容我離開。我得殺豬去了。