Freeware Game Reviews

The chickens are invading!!! AFter years of seeing their earth cousins being eaten, they've decided to take action against earth. Only one person can stop them!! (Well, two if you're playing the 2-player game.) Take your spaceship out and zap those chickens!

Well, that's about it really. Chicken Invader is a bizarre and frankly quite inspired re-hash of the ancient space invaders idea. Instead of wave after wave of aliens, you face wave after wave of... alien chickens. There are 10 sets of 10 levels, each level being slightly different from the other 9 in that set but the 10 repeating only slightly harder each time. The first 2 waves are classic space invader formation, then you have some asteroids to dodge, then different formations, high speed asteroids (these can be pretty tough - my advice is to watch the top of the screen!), more different waves a la Galaxians, then the big boss chicken (or chickens).

The graphics are extremely polished with 3d rendered chickens (now that's an expression you don't see all that often!) The backgrounds are suitably spacey, the intro well designed and amusing, and the sound effects are good quality and occasionally hilarious. You can only move your ship left and right, fire (duh), and fiere a missile. These are obtained by collecting enough drumsticks - which are obtained by frying chickens. These chicks also lay eggs on you though so watch out, you could become scrambled!! (Sorry I'm being frivolous, really it's no yoke.) [Groan...] You can also collect power ups for your laser from time to time, increasing your normal firepower. Die and you'll lose 2 power ups though, which can make things extremely tough on later levels! (In which case it's sometimes a good idea to use your missiles in the hope of grabbing some more power ups relatively easily.)

Though Chicken Invaders is a very fun game to play and extremely polished, it sufers from the problem all Space Invader games have, which is that it quickly becomes repetitive. Due to the quality of the production, the 2-player mode, and the aesthetics it certainly holds your interest longer than most though. There is one major drawback to the 2-player game too - the ships are identical with only a minor colour detail being different in each ship. This makes it very easy to lose sight of which ship is yours - until it's too late and you've become an omlette.

(Chicken Invaders 2, which is shareware, rectifies these problems to a large extent. The first game is freeware though so it has that advantage. If you like the first game, I recommend the second even though I won't get any commision from it!!)

Pros

Cons

Verdict

Graphics: 8
Sound: 6
Playability: 8
Longevity: 6
Overall: 7

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