History of Gaming Archives - Intensive Gaming Diary

A Book About Rovio and Angry Birds

Posted on February 23, 2026 by Viljami

The blog post right here is about a book about Angry Birds. The name of the book is The Slingshot Formula and it has been written by Pascal Clarysse. One reason for me to start reading this book was the matter that Rovio, the developer of Angry Birds, is a Finnish gaming company which is very much my dear home country. Read along as I briefly describe how the story of Angry Birds was told in this book that I finished reading just a while ago,

The book tells us readers a story of three young men, later formed to Rovio Entertainment, that take part in a mobile game development contest back in 2003. They all study then in Helsinki University of Technology (that later in 2010 became Aalto University as many big universities were combined). They actually come up with several games. Angry Birds is actually their 52nd game when it gets released back in December of the year 2009.

Angry Birds is a game that anyone can play. It might be a casual game. The developers wanted to make the game as easy to get into as possible. Then they achieved something with the game-play that had the players hooked. Angry Birds is a very popular game. It made into a worldwide pop culture icon. This was seen when there were huge collaborations with NASA and Lucasfilms Star Wars. There was eventually a movie and many other products that featured Angry Birds bird character. One popular product was a red pillow that featured the bird character of the game. Finally, in 2023, Sega acquired Rovio with a deal of 1 billion dollars.

I read the book. I liked it. With all this about a great Finnish game I have to be honest and tell you that I have never played any of Angry Birds games. I am not a huge fan. That goes to all mobile games for me. But if considered that there is a book written about a Finnish mobile game development company I might pick a book like that and just read it. I did like the book. I can recommend it to you if you are into startup companies and if you maybe want to try something like this by yourself also.

I found this book from this huge book store in Helsinki. I don’t want to advertise the place but it is my favorite book store since it has such a large selection of books to choose from. As I bought this book I also picked a book about this food delivery company Wolt and another book that was about artificial intelligence. The Slingshot Formula does cost 25 euros. It is written in English and that is the language that my copy also has been written in. It’s nice to have some language skills, isn’t it? You could probably seek it from a library if you are into borrowing books. There might also be a possibility to read this book as an electric copy.

The book is somewhat lengthy. It has a bit over 300 pages. Pascal Clarysse describes the main characters in the book with a nice detail and shares soem knowledge about different roles that these people had with Rovio and Angry Birds. There were many professionals involved from graphics design and programming all the way to musicians and also some financial specialists that made this phenomenon of the icon of Angry Birds as successful as could have been possible. Angry Birds are today known in all corners of the planet Earth and even beyond it. They actually did send an Angry Birds themed pillow into a NASA space station. Today Angry Birds is a very well-known brand and an icon.

Why Would You Play Mega Man 3 Today?

Posted on February 21, 2026 by Viljami

It takes some nerve to play Mega Man 3. You can play it with emulation or hardware. What ever your chosen form of play is you are going to face a very difficult game. Although it takes only three hours (regarding to HLTB website) to beat the game it does require a concentrated mind and good reflexes. NES as a gaming platform is not making things easier in any way. You also have to memorize many elements of this game.

I did try my best to beat the game in one sitting. I played Mega Man 3 for about two hours. I can only imagine the players back in the day trying to beat this game for hours and hours day after day until they finally could say something like “Man, I just beat the Mega Man 3 on my Nintendo Entertainment System!!”. For me the Sega Mega Drive was the closest thing to something like this. Even with Mega Drive I didn’t face a game as difficult as this one. This also tells us something about how gaming actually was back in the 80s and early 90s.

While Mega Man 3 is a hard game it is kind of rewarding after all. You get to know this game so thoroughly. When to jump and how hard should I push to accomplish a perfect landing that secures a some way of progression inside the game. You might get a hit from an enemy. Is it a critical hit? Can you continue to your goal or did you just miss something important that takes you all the way back to the beginning of the level?

Mega Man 3 isn’t for someone that is somewhat of a perfectionist. In several cases your character gets hit by an enemy or you miss a correct spot of a jump and lose some of your health. The health bar is your most important way to see how are things going and how are you getting with the overall progress in this game. Often in this game things get tight. There is a constant tension present while you keep playing and trying time after time.

Should you even try to play this game in 2026? You might like it. You might not like it. Regardless of the way you are going to play Mega Man 3 I am going to say to you that you will have to try it. It is a legendary game. That’s not even something to debate about. The game is legendary in a way that many youngsters today will never going to able to understand. And if you really like NES games the question about if you should or should not try to play this game, if you haven’t ever yet, is a kind of a “no brainer”.

We can go through some game mechanics. In Mega Man 3 you control the main character with a basic controller. You can move the character to forward and backward. You can jump and shoot with a press of a button. There are obstacles and enemies, that sometimes shoot ammo at you. If you get hit by an ammunition or an enemy you lose some of your health. You can pick up bonuses that can give you more health, lots of more health or maybe an extra life point. You get try each level for three times. The game progresses to a certain point. If you spend all three attempts, you’ll have to restart the whole level. Once you progress to a boss you get a try to defeat it. If you defeat the boss you get through the whole level. There are more than eight levels in the game. I only got to play two levels as I only played for two hours (I guess I will have to try again some other day and spend some more time with this game).

With some limitations that NES console does have I am encouraging you to play this game. If you like NES games this game is a must to play. You actually cannot save the game. You do have a password system that helps a lot if you are going to try to beat the game. Mega Man 3 was originally released in 1990 for NES. There are some later games released in the series. We can mention Mega Man X series and also some collections that have been released just lately. I think the game is also very much available as a NES cartridge as it doesn’t cost a whole lot. The price of Mega Man 3 seems to be about 45 euros today.

Switch Is Now The Most Sold Nintendo Console

Posted on February 13, 2026 by Viljami

Nintendo Switch passed Nintendo DS as the most sold Nintendo console of all time just recently. There have been over 155 million Switch video game consoles sold worldwide. This console was released already in 2017. Only Sony PlayStation 2 has sold more than Nintendo Switch. We saw earlier last year how Nintendo got to release the sequel and it was named Switch 2.

Current situation of Nintendo tells us a lot about how popular gaming really is today. Many people do still have the first Switch. It is also available for a game consumer to purchase. There haven’t yet been any decisions about how long will the first Switch stay in production and available for purchase. I don’t know if it will ever succeed like PS2 did. PS2 was for many people something even more than a device to play your latest video games. It was also for many a very working and first DVD player for watching also the latest movies. Currently PS2 holds the record of most selling gaming console with over 160 million units sold.

PS5 has also sold well. It holds the eight place in the list of most sold gaming consoles of all time with over 92 million units delivered. In this discussion we can also add Xbox Series S/X that have to this day sold almost 30 million units. PlayStation 4 has sold over 117 million units and Switch 2 a bit over 17 million units already. Switch 2 hasn’t been in the markets for even a year. It was released in June last year (2025).

As I am a hobbyist in this field I do have a Nintendo DS gaming console. I also do own Nintendo Switch Lite and Switch 2. I barely use a Switch console in the handheld mode. I keep my Switch 2 docked and connected to my television. As Switch 2 is fully backwards compatible with the first Switch it made a perfect sense to actually remove Switch from the setup when I first got my Switch 2 last year.

Nintendo DS is a funny and retro style of a gaming console. It offers a portable option for playing video games while being in the move. I got it just out of curiosity. It was first introduced in 2004. This was way before the modern smart phone as a gaming format was introduced. There were cellular phones but the first iPhone we did saw in 2007. With this in mind during the 2000s it would have been reasonable to buy a Nintendo DS and actually many people eventually did buy it.

I got my Switch two or three years ago. I wanted to purchase it for my somewhat intensely growing gaming setup. It offered some interesting games that weren’t available on any other system. I’m talking about games like Super Mario Wonder and Link’s Awakening and every other Mario, Donkey Kong and Zelda game out there. Nintendo just seems to have this certain ability to entertain every one from children to senior. If we really go back to the 1990s we can see how first Sega and later Sony tried to destabilize Nintendo. Sega and Sony tried to offer things like blood and violence while SNES for example had their own modified and not-so-bloody version of a game like the first Mortal Kombat. Also, with SNES, the NHL hockey game didn’t include fighting at all.

Nintendo has always been for the whole family. They have been and still are a very successful gaming company. It has to be stated that Nintendo was the company that gave a console called NES or “Nintendo Entertainment System”. They were the company that made video gaming popular again back in the 1980s. Nintendo had games that were of a very high quality. The quality of the games seems to be the key to success they’ve managed to hold even today.

If you want to read more about different video game consoles and how they have sold (the website keeps updating) you can head to:

This Wikipedia page right here