Nitrome – 1 Player – Out now on Nintendo Switch
Have you ever yearned for a side-scrolling platform version of Bomberman? And did you want the main character to be a big fat chicken? If so, look no further than Bomb Chicken, an explosive new 2D platformer. This tricky platformer is littered with puzzles and fiendish obstacles, which can only be navigated using a chicken that lays bombs. Enemy in the way? lay a bomb. Need to get up a ledge? lay a bomb. Lay as many bombs as you need in order to get as high as you can, but once they detonate, even your big fat chicken isn’t immune from the blast, so you need to get out of the way sharpish.
As the game starts it appears an ancient temple is being used as storage for a fried chicken fast food outlet. Some mystical blue goo falls on an egg, and Bomb Chicken is born! The play style is as addictive as it is tough, with lots of trial and error throughout the levels. There’s lots of little detail throughout, that will likely remind you of all kinds of 16-bit platformers, particularly the likes of Super Mario World, with those pesky circular saws and some very familiar pipes you use to go from one screen to another, and the big sprited Turbo Grafx 16 platformers that you probably saw in magazines but never played. It’s got a fun art style that doesn’t take itself seriously in the slightest, but then when your game is about a chicken that shits bombs, it can’t be anything but.
Bomb Chicken can get quite frustrating, and there’s been many a level where I’ve repeated the same section over and over, trying to get past a certain part, that requires just a little bit of patience and skill to accomplish. As said above, it’s a matter of trial and error and once you get past a particular level or section, it feels like an accomplishment. It’s by no means a casual game, and despite its pick up and play nature, chances are you may be stuck on the same level for a while, until it clicks. While some of the levels may not seem too vast, navigating them can take time, and considering there’s almost 30 levels of poultry puzzles, there’s plenty to get out of this. It’s a welcome edition to the Switch and its play on the go style, and it looks just as good in handheld mode too. In an age where retro-styled platformers seem to be over saturating the indie market, it’s fun and inventive enough to stand apart. And at little over a tenner, it’s worth a shot if challenging platformers are your thing.
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