You know that awesome scene in action movies where the actor gets to walk away while an explosion goes off behind them? Ever wanted to know what that feels like? Well, now you can…but as a chicken!
Bomb Chicken is a unique puzzle game for the Nintendo Switch where you play as a very large chicken with the ability to lay bombs rather than eggs. You find yourself in a strange facility of buzz saws, primal spear wielding warriors, and a strange blue liquid. Confused yet? You have no idea what is happening in this facility but you know that you have to escape! Between each level, a giant chicken statue will provide you with some more tidbits of context to the main plot, just don’t expect any grand sweeping narrative.
The story, however, is not the star of the show here. The levels are where it really shines. Each level is perfectly designed for the mechanics you have to work with. Unlike most platformers, Bomb Chicken is not able to jump at all. Instead, you must use your bomb laying abilities to propel yourself high enough to make your way around the map. The only thing close to jumping that you have is when you lay bombs high enough to then fall down and bounce on an enemies head. This makes for an interesting pace because you must be quick enough to lay bombs and move away from eventual explosions as each bomb laid will detonate in a few seconds. You also have the ability to kick bombs away if you are on the ground and run up to them. This adds another layer of complexity for puzzles where you must push bombs while also laying them high enough to get to that specific lever or box that needs to be destroyed. As you progress this becomes much more difficult when they throw in falling platforms, destructible floors and ghosts that chase you.
As you progress, the game also accounts for the rising difficulty level by providing gems that you can collect to trade in for additional lives. This felt well balanced as the later stages always seemed to take me a few extra tries to get the right timing and tricks down but I never felt like I didn’t have enough lives to cope with this (Although I will admit there were a few occasions of me cursing at my Switch for encounters that were quite difficult).
However, if you do run out of lives, you can also quickly restart back from the level you were on. This way, dying– although frustrating — feels quick enough to pick back up where you left off. The only part that I felt scaled strangely was the final boss, this due to the fact that you spend so much time collecting gems and getting hearts, only to then die to the boss from one hit. The bosses are clearly scaled for this but it did make the heart collection feel pointless once you got to the end of the game.
Each level is about a few minutes long and the game allows you to play on any level you have previously completed. The game only consists of 29 levels which in the end seemed a little short but considering its affordable price this game is more than worth it.
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