game walkthroughs: New ads link Angry Birds back story to Bing.txt

So that&39;s how they find the eggs...

A new set of advertisements portrays the bad guys in one of the most popular mobile video games as using Microsofts search engine to do their dirty work.

Bing has sponsored four animated video advertisements that join the Angry Birds series existing story. The ad spots feature the pigs, the villains of the game, who make use of Bing on a smartphone to search out bird eggs and have off with them. Two of those 15-second ad spots are up this morning, with the other two to be released later on down the line.

This is not the first time Bing has been a part of the Angry Birds world, with developer Rovio having partnered with the search engine as part ofthe Valentines Day updatein its Angry Birds: Seasons game. When users would il a level, the software would offer up a way for them to do a search on Bing for a walk-through or strategy of that level.

Ina poston the Bing Blog, the company says this same functionality is coming to the original Angry Birds game as well, in a slightly expanded form:

For a limited period, Angry Birds will also feature search integration with Bing providing over a hundred clues to speed you through the levels and help squash the porcine thieves. Featuring Bing Image Search, Bing Maps, and Bing Shopping, the videos show Angry Birds ns how they can advance in the game, featuring the lovable Angry Birds characters.

Up until now, Rovio has been highly protective of the Angry Birds franchise, which has turned out to be a breakout hit for the developer as a top download on iOS andAndroid, and likelyWindows Phone 7whenit arrives therethis spring. Duringa talkat last weeks Games Developer Conference, Rovios mighty eagle Peter Vesterbacka had said that the company had declined a number of offers from top film and TV studios, saying most had been downright weird. Even so,recent partnershipsto link its upcoming sequel with the Fox film Rio, as well as this new ad campaign with Bing, are beginning to show that the company is OK with blurring the lines of fiction and reality with product placement.

As a gamer I cant help but feel a little put off by a games plot being mixed in with, admittedly clever, advertising. Though in this case, the functionality can be incredibly useful if youre repeatedly getting stuck on the same level (as has proven to be the case for some in Seasons). It also goes down a lot smoother when remembering that at the end of the day its all about flicking birds to their doom. Perhaps the next two ads will come from the birds side, and have them doing a search for the nearest wing repair shop.

Josh LowensohnJosh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and covers everything Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about new Web startups, video games, and remote-controlled robots that watch your house. When not attempting experimental pizza recipes, Josh is an avid photographer.

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