Angry Birds use Seattle’s Space Needle to blast into orbit

Angry Birds Space debuted this week amid some unusual marketing efforts.

In Seattle, Rovio Entertainment and T-Mobile USA took over the Space Needle by creating a 300-foot-long slingshot with a 35-foot-tall Red Bird affixed to the 605-foot-tall tower. Was it worth the effort? Well, this is probably what it takes to stand out in marketing these days if you want to be heard all over the planet.

Angry Birds Space is the latest entry in the Angry Birds series, which has been downloaded more than 700 million times and is among the most popular mobile game franchises in history.

The good news is that the gameplay of Angry Birds Space is a surprisingly fresh spin on the standard bird-flinging action.