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Rovio Celebrates ‘Angry Birds’ 10th Anniversary with a “Bring the Anger” Campaign and Anger-Fueled Rage Rider Scooters

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There are a handful of names that you’d immediately associate with mobile gaming. Games like Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, and of course Angry Birds are all pretty much synonymous with mobile gaming due to their massive popularity. And it goes beyond just having millions and even billions of players. This is stuff that has broken through into the mainstream so hard that it becomes part of popular culture. These games I mention aren’t the ONLY examples of this, but I’d argue that Angry Birds is the biggest example of what I’m talking about. For an entire generation of gamers, the cast of Angry Birds is their Marios, Luigis, Links and Zeldas. Coming up on December 11th, the original Angry Birds game will be celebrating its 10th anniversary. In that decade, the Angry Birds franchise has gone pretty much anywhere you could imagine. Toys, cartoons, movies, and all sorts of licensed merchandise. Oh the merchandise! Has a product ever existed that hasn’t featured the Angry Birds logo?

Well, up until today, I might have said there’s never been an Angry Birds-branded electric scooter. But you know what? Now there is! Part of Rovio’s 10th anniversary celebration of Angry Birds is a campaign they’re calling “Bring the Anger" which is designed to urge people to turn their anger into something positive. In this case the Angry Birds electric scooter, which is dubbed the Rage Rider, is literally powered by screaming. No, this is not a joke! There’s a microphone attached to the handlebars of the scooter, and the louder you yell into it the faster the scooter goes. That sounds kind of… dangerous, but in reality the scooter has a normal throttle and brake equipped and the microphone-powered acceleration is just in addition to its regular controls. And the whole thing is just kind of absurd and hilarious. Check out a video of the Rage Rider in action.

I still sort of can’t believe this is a real thing, but it is because Rovio actually sent us one of these Rage Rider scooters. And I can totally confirm that yelling makes it go. Yelling makes it go! What a time to be alive. The Rage Rider is produced by San Francisco-based Spin, which is owned by Ford, and they currently provide electric scooters for app-based use in cities and universities all over. As mentioned in the video there were only 100 Rage Riders produced and they’re not available for the public to purchase, but the people Rovio has sent these scooters out to are part of what they’re calling the “Squawk Squad" and so you should see some popular Youtubers and other influencer types producing videos of the Rage Riders in action starting today.

The Rage Riders are just one part of the Bring the Anger celebration though. Starting today there’s a new Bring the Anger in-game event in Angry Birds 2 and Rovio has teamed up with one of its longtime partners UNICEF Finland to allow players of this event to help contribute to UNICEF’s Education in Emergencies fund, which supports education for children in conflict zones and other emergencies across the globe. You don’t even need to bust out your own wallet to help contribute, all you need to do is play the Bring the Anger event in Angry Birds 2 and if collectively players can pop 10 billion Piggies then Rovio will make a $100,000 donation to UNICEF Finland. Now, 10 billion Piggies sounds like a lot, but Rovio says that across the entire line of Angry Birds mobile games they’ve amassed more than 4.5 BILLION players, and Angry Birds 2 has been going strong since its launch more than 4 years ago so I think that goal of 10 billion Piggies is well within reach.

Finally, Rovio is teasing “a new public event" that they’ll be unveiling in New York’s Times Square on November 21st which they say “will feature an innovative device specially designed to give locals and tourists a chance to convert their anger into something good… and rest assured, it can take a venting, but the outcome will be worthwhile!" I have no idea what that could be, but after witnessing the yelling-powered Rage Rider scooter, I don’t think anything could surprise me at this point. We’ll keep an eye on that development, but in the meantime be sure to seek out the Squawk Squad videos of this crazy scooter by checking out the #BringTheAnger hashtag across social media, and check out the Bring the Anger event in Angry Birds 2 to enjoy some Piggy popping and help a good cause. TouchArcade has been here since the very beginnings of the Angry Birds phenomenon, and it’s rewarding to see what the brand has become and to see it still going strong an entire decade later.

Update: The folks at Spin have put together a really cool behind the scenes video on how they collaborated with Rovio to make the Rage Rider scooter, check it out below:

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