Angry Birds coming to NHL stadiums across the country

The Angry Birds phenomenon just keeps on growing. Rovio Entertainment today announced a new partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL) for the "HockeyBird" mascot, who will appear at stadiums across the country this year as part of the NHL Stadium Series tour.

Not only will the HockeyBird mascot greet fans at stadiums in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Vancouver, but Rovio will launch new interactive Angry Birds games on jumbo screens. The two games are called Slingshot and Slapshot, both of which use "state-of-the-art voice activated technology."

"Using super scientific algorithms--that's math you can't do by counting your fingers, toes or bird claws--NHL HockeyBird performs based on the cheering and applause of the fans," Rovio said. "The more noise you make, the more power he gathers. The more power he gathers, the better he performs!"

Angry Birds began as a simple mobile game but has since exploded into a bonafide media empire, thanks to Rovio employing a Disney-like branding effort for the preservation and acceleration of the franchise. The game, known to 90 percent of Americans, has seen 2 billion installs and is played by 200 million people per month, the same number of people who use Twitter on a monthly basis.

An Angry Birds movie will launch in 2016, with some serious Hollywood talent attached. The most recent entry in the Angry Birds series is Angry Birds Go!, a Mario Kart-style racing game available now for iOS and Android devices.