Rovio announced today that its popular Angry Birds Star Wars game has been released as a Facebook app. The new app has been “upgraded” to take advantage of Facebook’s social networking capabilities. The game now features social leaderboards, tournaments, and new power-ups.
“It’s all the fun of Angry Birds Star Wars taken to the next level,” said Petri Järvilehto, executive vice president of Games at Rovio. “You get the great Angry Birds Star Wars gameplay for free, plus you can compete against your friends to see who is the ultimate bird-flinger and Jedi Master.”
The game still features all of the same Star Wars-inspired birds and levels, though only the Tatooine levels are unlocked at this time. The Death Star levels are labeled as “coming soon” and there are no signs of the Hoth levels to be found.
Weekly tournaments will be staged with five new levels released every week. Tournament winners can receive in-game rewards, such as the new power-ups.
The new power-ups are the blaster droid, saber sling, and thermal detonator. The blaster droid sends a small blaster orb sailing along with a bird. The saber sling greatly increases the distance birds can be flung. The thermal detonator is self-explanatory. In addition to the power-ups, a new “Clone Bird” ability gives players the chance to duplicate a bird of their choice.