Yargh! I would be a rich old sandy sod if I had wagered on how many anthropomorphic protagonists lead games on these here mobile devices. Thar be so many o’ these things that ye can’t shake a peg leg with without hittin’ one or two o’ these adorable beings. O’ course, just because thar be many, doesn’t mean that their games can be weighed by the sheer cuteness o’ the characters as that’s just bad decision makin’. Angry Birds came out many moons ago, but the trend persists like the krakens of old. So before ye even think about pickin’ up Chicken Raid HD, why not read this humble review from a crazy old scallywag.
The Gameplay: Is Fighting with Fowl really that interesting’?
Okay, so if you managed to get your hands on the game before prior research, then you might find some similarities to Angry Birds. Scratch that, the art style is almost identical but that comes later. Gameplay in both games bear some striking resemblances to each other, however, Chicken Raid tries to do something different. Instead of flinging your innocent brothers into hard buildings (which kind of defies the laws of physics anyway), you are tasked with taking down building with taps.
Each construction has to be taken down if you strike the right places on a building. This makes the game a tad more interesting too, as destroying the right column will cause a chain of chicken destruction. That’s right, there are no pigs in this game, and that’s a point in originality, if not a means to avoid being sued. The opposing chicken armies, who have some flimsy architecture on their side, have one huge advantage. You see, a lot of their forces are hardened and so it becomes harder to exterminate them. However, taking down the chicken juggernauts also yields a higher reward. Basically, there’s a bit more thought involved in the game which is a nice change of pace from all the thing-flinging puzzlers that keep coming out.
The Visuals
Honestly, the game looks too much like Angry Birds. Barring the little helmets these fowls wear, there isn’t much difference. They both have heavily cartoony environments, the buildings look just as flimsy, if not more.
And overall, if you played Angry Birds you’ve basically seen what this game looks like. Now this may be a downer for most, but I consider it just another developer piggy-backing on a graphical and visual theme that works. The look worked for Angry Birds, which is one of the major titles and brand that mobile gaming has ever known – why shouldn’t the same look work for Chicken Raid?
The Verdict
Chicken Raid costs a dollar, isn’t too heavy on the graphics, and provides a lot more brain teasers than the game it took its inspiration from. The game has over a hundred levels to play through, and it looks like that the developers are poised to regularly update it with new levels and content. In my humble opinion, Chicken Raid is a worthy purchase for any hardcore puzzler fan. In other words, if you like the whole Angry Birds genre, you will definitely like or even love Chicken Raid.
