Angry Birds for Android available today

Stand by Android owners, as you'll be able to get your fix of evil pig killing suicidal flying birds from today.

In a blog post, Angry Birds developer Rovio revealed that Angry Birds Lite Beta would be available for anybody to download today. The creators were originally planning to run a closed beta test, but there was a 'massive response and demand from the Android community' to make it available.

Angry Birds has been a massively popular game in the UK for the iPhone and iPod, at the last count downloaded 6.5 million times and still number one on the top ten apps list, available at 59p. It has also been number one in many other countries throughout the world.

The goal of the game is pretty simple, but crazy all at the same time. You control a flock of birds who are trying to get their eggs back from these evil pigs. The pigs have sheltered under structures of various materials, shapes and placement. Your goal is to slingshot the birds onto the pigs or to damage the structures so that they land on top of them.

You've got different types of birds available, some that speed up, some that separate, some that drop bombs, and some that explode on command. It's horribly addictive. There are also Palm Pre, Nokia and iPad versions available.

Rovio said that the Beta should run on "second generation Android handsets" (whatever that means), but couldn't guarantee its functionality on every device. It asks users to give feedback by clicking a bug button in the main menu of the game.

Angry Birds has become a phenomenon, and late last month we revealed that Rovio were attempting to sell the Angry Birds idea to Hollywood execs, meaning that a film could soon be in the works. TV shows, toys and comic books have also been mentioned.

So Android owners, will you be having a play of the game and sending numbers of gaming birds with massive rage issues to their deaths?