10 Awesome Gaming Franchises It Became Cool To Hate

4. Angry Birds

Angry Birds is hated for many reasons. It's success led to a huge shift in the video game industry as publishers began to focus on appealing to casual gamers. This shift has seen the integration of malicious marketing tactics such as free-to-play, games of which are designed so as to influence the player to spend more than they normally would. Angry Birds also isn't original in anyway. Its gameplay style is copied from Crush the Castle. Angry Birds is also absurdly popular to the point where a film is in the works. Has there ever been a game that became so mainstream so fast? Outside of all these points, there is no reason to hate Angry Birds. Yes, it is a clone of Crush the Castle. Nearly every game's design can be whittled down to something that has been done already. Much of the hate for Angry Birds stems from the intense popularity; of course there is going to be a lot of backlash against it. We see this happen to anything embraced by the mainstream, and this rationale is illogical. Angry Birds is a simple game that you can pick up and play for 10 minutes or so. It's easy to play and available to pretty much everyone. Taking this into consideration, it's easy to see why it made the money it did. Why is that so bad? The reaction to Angry Birds may have had a negative effect on the industry, but you can't blame the reactions publishers and developers have to a game on that game. That's a whole other topic. Simply put, Angry Birds is just a fun little game that those who may not be as hardcore about their gaming can play, and there is nothing wrong with that.