Announced last week, Angry Birds Star Wars II gives fans the ability to swap out the bird (or pig) line-up in their iPad or Android game using physical toys, but Hasbro's Telepods technology isn't Skylanders. It's much simpler than that.
At the bottom of every packaged Angry Birds Star Wars Telepods figure, seen here in their San Diego Comic-Con 2013 display case, there's a teeny, tiny QR code. And that plastic base? It's got a magnifying lens on it. You place the stand over your phone or tablet's front-facing camera, it reads the magnified code, and presto! You're a bird-swapper.
There are limitations. You can't port in more birds than that level allows for, and since the game allows players to choose Light side or Dark side of the force, you can't bring opposing sides into a level.
Then there's the question of cheating. I'm giving it a week once the initial 30+ figures are released before every QR code is available on the internet to print out. Shame, shame, shame.
I'll stick with the physical toys, if only because little scraps of printer paper will be absolutely no fun at all on the Star Destroyer.
The Angry Birds Telepods toys hit stores September 13, a week before the app's September 19 worldwide launch on iOS and Android.