Angry Birds is a phenomenon. It might just be the first game to reach a billion players, and it’s already spun off into a merchandising empire encompassing everything from board games to theme parks. With the news that a TV series is planned however, we decided to trawl through the archives to see how that panned out for other video game icons. The verdict? Not so well.
The Telegraph reports today that an initial run of 52 episodes of an Angry Birds TV show will air in the autumn, with each episode running to about three minutes in length. Nick Dorra, Rovio’s head of animation, says a movie will follow in 2013 or 2014.
A cartoon of the adorable birds and their green enemies is the next logical step in the franchise for Rovio after the storming success of Angry Birds Space, but this video game characters as TV cartoon stars trend is not a new thing.
In fact, some of gaming’s most famous characters had their own Saturday morning cartoons back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They, um, weren’t very good.
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!
Oh dear. Amazingly, 52 episodes of this are available to watch on Netflix in the UK, right now.
Sonic The Hedgehog: The Animated Series
Sega’s answer to Mario didn’t just have one show. Oh no, no no. There was this one, the “urban and gritty” one set in a post-apocalyptic future – but not to be confused with the amazingly silly Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog which aired simulatenously. Or Sonic Underground, which bafflingly put Sonic in a band. MEGA.
The Legend Of Zelda
Yeah, um. Rovio could learn a lot from this, by not doing it.
BONUS VIDEO!
Nobody liked the live action Super Mario movie inexplicably starring Bob Hoskins, but you know what was worse? This live-action spin off TV show, King Koopa’s Kool Kartoons.
