The Boba Bounty

Rovio released its Cloud City update today. They hype surrounding this release was well deserved, the new level came with an initial 20 levels – featuring new game features, a clever approach to Boba Fett and new secret Easter eggs planted throughout previous worlds.

When Angry Birds Star Wars debuted late last year, fans of both franchises praised the game for its inventiveness. The characters could power up as you progressed through the game, mastering the Force, and there we discovered other neat functions – like Pigs with blasters, which if attacked correctly, would turn their fatal blaster bolts on their comrades.

Cloud City executes similar friendly fire scenarios. When you attack Boba  Fett, his jet packs throttles him through the air, taking out Pig Troopers and wrecking blocks. The bounty hunter first appears in the 17th level of Cloud City.

Cloud City also features air vents, which changes the trajectory of the birds. This can be used to get extra distance in flight, flinging debris at enemies and other clever uses.  

Rovio also planted five jet packs throughout the worlds, which if collected opens up a Boba Fett’s Missions – similar to the Bonus Level or Path of the Jedi. This stage can also be gained by paying .99 cents, but it’s easy enough to collect the jet packs.

The jet packs can be found on the Death Star (2-32), Tatooine (1-23), Hoth (3-27), Cloud City (4-4) and Cloud City (4-19). The Death Star level proves the most challenging to grab, but can be done with a swing of Luke Skywalker’s Light Saber.

Once you’ve gathered all the jet packs, Boba Fett’s Missions opens up and it features eight levels. I imagine more will be added over time, most likely whenever Jabba’s Palace is introduced to the game. Also, there are no signs of Slave I in the game yet, but I’m eager to see how the ship will function when introduced.

Rovio released an exclusive trailer of the Cloud City update to Angry Birds Star Wars late last week, showing the first footage of new dynamics to the game – including the anticipated addition of Boba Fett.

The images streaming out of MTV.com and GameTrailers.com are being billed as the first public unveiling of Boba Fett, but images of the bounty hunter and Slave I, whether by accident or design, surfaced late last year through various Angry Birds Star Wars coloring books – as originally reported by The Boba Bounty.

MTV reports one of the new in-game obstacles features steam gates that have capacity to change the birds’ trajectory mid-flight. The Cloud City update will reportedly include 20 levels. Other surprises may lay in weight – since no new “good guys” have been hinted at (read Lando) through trailers or upcoming merchandise.

There’s no official date for release of Cloud City or how much of the levels include Boba Fett. We do know through promotional images, there are versions of Boba Fett with and without a blaster, and images of Slave I – which, will most likely appear at the “boss” stage of the planet stage.

Boba Fett’s jetpack should also prove interesting. While it makes the character more difficult to target, it also leads the bounty hunter into taking out his own side. This is nice, because he gives a nod to the anti-hero line Boba Fett walks in much of the Expanded Universe.

When Angry Birds Star Wars was announced, great speculation hit the Internet. Fans of both properties wondered what characters would be included, fan art circulated the blogs and the merchandise hit store shelves before the game was even released.

Angry Birds Star Wars launched Nov. 8 with two episodes open for game play – Tatooine and Death Star – each with 40 levels to attempt for three stars. These episodes represented the major two locations from A New Hope.

These episodes included the main characters from the first film: Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Chewbacca. Representing the Empire and the pigs are Imperial Troopers and Darth Vader.

The mobile app also features a Bonus episode with droids R2-D3 and C3PO, and Path of the Jedi also became available for a few extra dollars. This last episode is located in Dagobah – another major location from A New Hope.

It stands to reason the initial release of the game focuses on the first film of the original trilogy. However, teased to come next is an episode themed around Hoth – the ice planet and location of the secret Rebel base that opens up Empire Strikes Back.

If the game follows its current pattern, the following episodes will be developed around major locations from the Empire Strikes Back, including Hoth and Cloud City.  Additional levels will most likely be updated into Path of the Jedi.

I’m guessing these new episodes will introduce Boba Fett and Lando to the roster of Angry Birds Star Wars characters. I have two pieces of evidence to support this theory:

In October, I tweeted about my anticipation for the new Angry Birds game and my hope to see Boba Fett translated into the application. Within 24 hours my tweet was answered by the verified Angry Birds account:

“Well there’s a long future of opportunities ahead, so who knows,” was the reply I received, along with a winky face. I took this as a hint of Boba Fett’s inclusion and a reference to Rovio’s history of keeping its games fresh by continually adding new levels and developing new characters.

My second item of evidence is an image I posted a few days ago of Boba Fett and Slave I being included in Angry Birds Star Wars coloring book and sticker album. Whether this was an accidental inclusion or a purposeful nod – it confirms the bounty hunter is under development.

It’ll be interesting to see how fans of both franchises react to Boba Fett’s introduction. Many pieces of fan art illustrated the bounty hunter as a bird, but these images surfacing in coloring books and sticker albums obviously show Boba Fett as a pig.

Most likely, this is because he will be the “boss” at the last level of the Cloud City episode – similarly to Darth Vader being the boss at the last level of Death Star.