Bomb Chicken (Nintendo Switch) Review

The fundamentals are very simple; the Bomb Chicken can move back and forth, and lay eggs. Nothing else. It can't fly, it can't jump. To get around the various environments, it can use the bombs to build paths. Eggs are laid directly below the chicken to get some height, to drop down onto enemies' heads or to reach extra heights. Should the chicken walk into the side of a bomb it wings it, sending it flying.

These fundamentals are all simple enough to master and the initial puzzles begin to encourage more advanced tricks, like all good games of this style. It's left up to the player to puzzle out how to overcome each challenge, then to combine those tricks to take on the harder stages. Building huge pillars of bombs, then hopping off just before they explode, or shoulder barging the side of this huge pillar to send the bomb flying across the screen in mid-air is tough, but satisfying.

At first, the stages are basic, requiring the chicken to utilise its bombs to press switches or to lift itself over or through various obstacles without accidentally blowing itself up. This progresses to having to lift the chicken to avoid little non-aggressive enemies, and then the classic obstacles of these types of 2D-scrollers appear; spike traps, lava pools, projectiles, plus various enemies. Then, as things get tricky, there are collapsing floors, moving platforms, and huge bosses. The latter of the 29 stages offers up the type of frustrating level of challenging that speed-runners adore.

During the traversal of the various stages, blue gemstones are scattered here and there to collect. These are used between stages to purchase hearts. These are the equivalent of the health bar system. Every death takes a heart and, once they are all depleted, a game over sends the chicken back to the most recent checkpoint. The strange thing is, though, that there's no incentive to go back and replay to get all of these gemstones to 100% the game - something that would definitely have made this even better. A level select on the main menu showing each stage with the amount of gemstones outstanding would have been a great addition.

Nitrome has previously made numerous free-to-play pixel games and its experience with the medium is in evidence here. The old-school sprites are very well done; sharp and vibrant, with cool retro animations for the numerous explosions, not to mention some great designs. The audio, however, is completely unremarkable and unmemorable.