It’s a war that has been going on for centuries, a constant struggle for control of the arctic and farmlands. Hundreds of casualties in tens of battles have now been brought to your home console in Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken.
Single Player boasts a 15 chapter campaign with some of the most furious pressing of the R trigger that I have ever experienced. You play as a chicken who has presumably been on the same diet plan as Marcus Phoenix, and it is your job to overthrow the evil, oppressive penguin army. The game is played as a you would expect your typical side-scrolling shooter to be played like. Here, however, there isn’t really any side-scrolling so much as you are presented with one screen at a time. You run to the right and shoot baddies as you enter new screens. After entering into a new screen and immediately getting shot before I could react, I spent the rest of the game immediately firing my gun as quickly as I could every time I walked into the next screen. A lot of the time I would just waste ammo but I got too many kills this way. Also, you get a health bar here instead of dying in one hit because you will get shot a lot. Right off, though, the art stands out as very unique. The character design reminds me of Castle Crashers but what really caught my eye was the setting.
The environment is very well done, especially when you aren’t inside another gray army base. There are a levels that take place outside and it looks fantastic. I’ll go so far as to say that the art is the strongest trait of this entire game. The gameplay at first, was pretty fun and I found enjoyment turning militarized penguins into Swiss Cheese. This got to be very tedious though once I found out that most of the game is played the same way: Walk into room. See enemy. Shoot enemy repeatedly. Repeat.
You cannot shoot in any other direction than straight ahead. This doesn’t usually become a problem because the enemies can’t either but what really bothered me was that I couldn’t jump and shoot. This meant that any time you jump anywhere, you are left completely vulnerable and this get you shot more than you would think. They introduce items like new weapons, a jetpack (which is kind of fun), and even a mind-controlling bugs throughout the course of the game which serve to kind of spice things up. But it all circles back around to doing the same thing again and again.
I can’t really complain about the story as it is just as in-depth as any other side-scrolling shooter I have played. X is the enemy and they need to be destroyed. Not that interesting but it doesn’t really need to be. The voice acting is a little lackluster and the jokes just fall flat most of the time. I would have preferred if they just didn’t have it in the first place, to be honest.
Then there is co-op. This is basically the same as the first game as you play through most of the same areas but with smaller chickens and a buddy at your side. They do much less here to keep you interested in the new story of “Find the President’s Daughter.” They take out the jetpacks and mind control bugs which introduced new dynamics into the gameplay of single player. You will probably spend most of your time accidentally jumping on top of your partner and sending each other into a jumping frenzy. You can stack onto each other to reach higher areas which adds a little new puzzle element but this becomes more of an annoyance than anything. I couldn’t even find somebody who would play through the entire co-op with me as it just got too repetitive for most of my friends.
I think that the art is fantastic but the gameplay definitely needed something more. The single player is more fun than the co-op but even still, I was bored well before the final chapter (15). I give Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken…
2/5 Hardboiled Chickens