Angry Birds HD consumed me

Angry Birds HD gets gaming award nod; top paid iPhone apps are games
[Via Ars Technica]

The best portable gaming device is arguably the one you carry the most often, and in that regard the iPhone excels. The hardware is powerful enough to run Unreal Engine 3, iOS developers are creating experiences that are becoming cultural forces, and sales of the hardware remain strong. The power of iPhone gaming is coming into focus, as Angry Birds HD has been nominated for Game of the Year in this year’s Interactive Achievement Awards by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.

We shouldn’t be surprised. Apple has finally become a gaming powerhouse, but it didn’t happen in the way we imagined. It doesn’t matter that the iPhone isn’t designed specifically for games; what matters is that people buy games for it, and they’re doing so in huge numbers.

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Angry Birds is such an addictive game. One of the benefits of the iPad is that you can use it to fill those moments when you just need a break, a short consumption of media which can be ended when the bus stops.

Angry Birds belies this use. It expands to fill all your time, except you do not notice it passing. A normal bathroom break becomes an hour. A short break while you are waking up becomes the entire morning.

I really only slowed down once I had every update with new puzzles and had everything up to three stars .

Then I bought Angry Birds Seasons to get some more.

What I am afraid of now is that Angry Birds will release the tools to create our own puzzles and a social network to distribute them. Then all us addicts can feed ourselves and others, working to create the best puzzles and completely losing any sense of time.

If that happened, they might have to start opening up Angry Birds detox facilities.