Developer: Ratloop Asia
Publisher: Reverb Publishing
Rrp: £6.99
Released: 15 October 2012
Available on Steam
Played Using: An Xbox 360 Control Pad
Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is a side scrolling 2D platformer in which you play as Hardboiled, a chicken on a mission to take down his penguin oppressors. Did I mention that this is a world where birds are the dominant species?
This game is an expansion upon Rocketbirds: Revolution! which was a browser based game that was ported to the Playstation 3 and PS Vita before eventually being brought to the PC again via Steam. If you want to try the first level out before buying you can play the first level through your browser on their website.
Combat… Well it comes in two forms, platformer and aerial. For the majority of the game combat is held in the platforming sections of the game and it actually uses a very simple but easily overlooked system. If you are crouched shots fired by a standing enemy will miss and visa versa, of course your enemies aren’t exactly incapable of kneeling so don’t think your safe just because you knelt down.
The second kind of combat is aerial, this is very different. As you fly with your just back (by keeping the A button depressed) you have to chase after your enemies while at the same time trying avoiding gun and rocket fire. The aerial sections are infrequent, there being a total of three during the entire single player campaign
It has a local and networked co-op campaign where you play as a pair of budgie commandos. I only had the chance to play a few levels of this mode but it was a lot of fun.
The controls of this game lend themselves well to a keyboard but I found it worked best when played with a control pad. You fire your weapon using the right trigger and the left throws a grenade. Movement is handled with the analogue sticks, of course there isn’t any up or down looking to be performed so only one such stick is used. Weapon selection is handled by the direction pad (or D pad), A jumps and lastly the Y button interacts and picks up objects.
Speaking of weapons, Rocketbirds had a pretty good variety of weaponry to choose from be they grenades, sub machine gun, pistols or shotguns.
The quality of its animations both in game and through cutscenes are amazing. They feel very smooth, you could almost believe this were a cartoon on early morning TV… If it weren’t for the blood and violence anyway.
Along with these cartoony style graphics Rocketbirds also has the ability to be played in 3D if you have a set of the new 3D glasses and a television or monitor capable of displaying it. Even without glasses the 3D effect is well implemented causing objects in the for ground to shift slightly as you move.
It’s quite a short game lasting only about three hours for the single player campaign, but it’s a quality three hours. I didn’t find a single moment in this game where I wasn’t enjoying myself. Overall, I’m impressed with this game. It’s no great Shakes, but the story is serviceable and interesting enough to keep your attention.
If this interests you perhaps try;
Trine
Guacamelee!
Broforce
