Step aside, "Mario Kart" — there's a new adorable racing game in town.
Rovio Entertainment, the company behind the insanely popular series of "Angry Birds" video games, announced Wednesday on its Facebook page that it's working on another game based on its iconic irate fowls — only this one doesn't involve flinging the little guys at vindictive egg-nabbing pigs. Made in partnership with Red Bull, "Angry Birds Go!" is a kart racing game.
Rovio and energy drink maker Red Bull didn't go into much detail about "Angry Birds Go!" other than to confirm its existence, but speaking generally, "kart racing" games are a subset of racing games popularized by "Mario Kart" that allow players to pick up items like power-ups and weapons rather than just speed around a track and bump into other players.
In a tongue-in-cheek video posted on YouTube late Tuesday night, Rovio's Kalle Kaivola said that the "Angry Birds" developers had experimented with making "Go!" an endless running game similar to "Temple Run" before settling on kart racing.
"Angry Birds Go!" is another example of Rovio leveraging its powerhouse of a casual gaming brand to branch into new genres of video games. Earlier this summer, the company announced that the sequel to its popular "Star Wars" spin-off title, "Angry Birds Star Wars," will be compatible with a new set of action figures in a manner similar to other popular toy-gaming hybrid franchises like "Skylanders" and the recently released "Disney Infinity."
No release date was given for "Angry Birds Go!" Watch the new teaser video below.
Yannick LeJacq is a contributing writer for NBC News who has also covered technology and games for Kill Screen, The Wall Street Journal and The Atlantic. You can follow him on Twitter at @YannickLeJacq and reach him by email at: [email protected].
