The Case

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, a sequel/reworking to a flash game Rocketbirds: Revolution, has been on PSN since 2011 and now, has finally found its way to PC. Does it live up to the standards of the many awards it has received, or is it better to leave this Chicken boiling for longer?

The Trial

You play as Hardboiled Chicken - a revenge driven stone cold penguin killer. When penguins invaded, Hardboiled, when he still was a chick, was kidnapped and brainwashed to do his masters bidding and crush anybody who stood against the mighty penguin army. But he managed to get back to his senses and is now fighting against his previous masters.

As mentioned before this game is a reworked version of a flash game called Rocketbirds: Revolution. But it’s not a straight “port”. It uses similar assets that have been upgraded to a full-fledged game. Even the levels aren’t exactly the same. They are a bit more spread out and the first chapter that was on the Flash game is now spread out over 4 chapters in the Steam version. But, not to worry, it is not just the same level copy-pasted into 4 chapters.

The game consists of a few different gameplay elements - it’s a sidescrollering shooter, platformer and puzzle game. The shooter parts are straightforward – you shoot everything that moves, while gathering new weapons and gadgets. While progressing, you get new weapons but later in the game it feels like the enemies “evolve” faster and your current weapons don’t cut it anymore. You have 3 different gun slots, each for a different “class” of weapon: handgun, SMG/assault, LMG/shotgun. Additionally, there is a bonus 4th slot, the knife, if you get the Smiley Faces achievement. You also get grenades and a... wait for it... control bug! The control bug is used to mind control enemies in order to solve puzzles and to soften the path for you.

The puzzle parts vary from obvious to “hmm what should I do now?” moments. Usually, if you die and can’t make it through, then it means you’re doing it wrong or simply missed something. There are a lot of puzzles that involve pushing a crate into place so you can reach a path. However, sometimes it gets a bit tricky and annoying (I’m looking at you, 3 crate stacking puzzle) but it seems the developers acknowledge that with a joke afterwards and you soon forgive them.

The platforming is a bit clunky but usually works fine. Rocketbirds has no life threatening jumps, nor jumps that if missed make you backtrack. Nor are there any ”pure” platforming parts so it doesn’t even have a chance to get tedious.

There is one more part – the Jet pack section. It fits in nicely and attenuates the game sequences so you have some variety. It is quite a cool sequence where you get to fly and shoot down few “waves” of opposition but it is a bit hampered by controls. While you aim with the mouse, the character can still only shoot into 8 directions (in 45 degree angles), which makes you miss way more than you’d like.

The game controls way better than its Flash predecessor. The controls are more responsive but there still is a presence of stiffness. Sometimes the challenge ramps up and you want your character to perform actions here and now but it’s not that easy to do. For example, if you want to shoot and then quickly throw out a grenade, you will just get shot thanks to all the animations and delays that are required to throw a grenade.

Rocketbirds supports local and online co-op for up to two players. You can choose from six playable characters that have different weapons and their own difficulty level. If you go for local co-op then one player gets to play on keyboard and mouse and the other has to have an Xbox 360 controller. The levels themselves are rehashed single player levels that are adjusted specifically for co-op.

The visuals of the game are gorgeous. The 2.5D works great and looks great. While there aren’t a lot of fancy options, you don’t need them here. It is possible to change the resolution, full screen or windowed mode and brightness. What stands out is that it supports 3D more natively, which is always a nice feature to have. This combined with a smart level design results in fun and pretty levels throughout the game.

The audio part is very strong here. There isn’t a lot of voice acting and some VO’s are done better than others, but in general they are all good and funny. The music is the strongest point., It was done by a band named “New World Revolution” which makes the game rock!

The Verdict

The game has some issues like the inability to perform quick actions or and the Escape-key not working in menus, but overall it’s very fun despite its issues. The levels are interesting and fun to play even without a lot of space to explore. Co-op isn’t just a simple tack-on experience and you will enjoy it with a friend. The music will blow you away and you will spend a lot of time just in the menu listening to the song from New World Revolution. Even being just around 3 to 4 hours worth of singleplayer content and a bit pricey at $10 it is a great package and a great game that will be enjoyed by many.

Case Review