Love it or loathe it, you can’t deny that as a franchise Angry Birds has been quite successful for company Rovio. Now a new spin-off game has been announced that removes the bird-flinging mechanic that the game is most famous for and replaces it with a story, quests, items and a customisable character build. That’s right – Angry Birds is getting an RPG.

The new game entitled ‘Angry Birds Epic’ will involve turn-based battle and a crafting system for armour, potions and weapons which can be made from resources picked up during the game or purchased for real money via micro transactions. There will be a story-driven campaign mode as well as endgame content to play after you’ve fought your way through the waves of Bad Piggie-based enemies to complete the main story.

A soft release of the game is coming to the Apple App Store this week in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as a way to introduce players to an early version of the game which Rovio say will be tweaked and refined before the full version is launched although no world-wide launch has been announced yet, although Rovio hope to make the game available soon. The game will also probably be available on Windows Phone, Android and iOS when the full launch goes ahead.

So, has the idea of an Angry Birds RPG gotten you fired up or do you just wish the franchise would vanish already? Let us know in the comments below!