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I’m gonna let that title sink in for a moment, because it perfectly encapsulates this game.
You’re shooting. Shooting what? Shooting Chicken. And these chickens are BRUTAL. Suckas.
But now that the bleeding obvious is out of the way... y’know, you’re probably just
staring at the screen at this point, jaw kind of agape, wondering if what you’re seeing
is an actual thing that exists. Yes, it totally is: Cute Anna Miller’s-waitress-looking-girl,
hunting down fast-moving giant enemy chickens. With a shotgun. And grenades. And the occasional
flamethrower. Now, if only there was a large stock of tabasco on hand...
There isn’t much explanation given, save for the obvious: Chickens are flying at you,
and you have GUNS. Do what comes naturally. Which is to say, put on your Yosemite Sam
face and blow ‘em to smithereenies. That said, no one said chickens are easy to shoot.
These things come flying at you from every direction, often in blatant violation of the
laws of physics, and don’t stop until you’ve gone all Evil Dead on ‘em. And even then,
you might just blow the feathers off of ‘em, leaving you with NAKED EVIL KILLER CHICKENS.
That you can then roast with a flamethrower before executing, thus resulting in a YAKITORI
COMBO. Man, this thing is making me hungry, partially with the washoku imagery, and partially
because the game earns that word “Brutal” in its name. You can tell that the action
is influenced by frantic run-and-gun shooters like Gunstar Heroes and Metal Slug, but dialed
back a bit. While you can pick up rapid-fire weapons, including an *** and an assault rifle,
your bread and butter is going to be your pump-action 12-gauge, which also boasts a
fairly large spread for evening the odds.
It’s a strange, strange concept, but one that’s got an impressive level of polish
for the XBLA Indie channel. The character sprite is well-animated, though the chickens
just kinda spin wildly. But one of the most impressive aspects of this game is the soundtrack,
a mass of rock perfectly suited to blasting the bejeezus out of poultry. As ya do. Of
the indie games I’ve played, this is one of the better ones, primarily because the
difficulty curve is so high (while still being mostly fair) that you’re going to spend
plenty of time playing for just a buck. Just one dollar, for all the chicken you can shoot!
You can’t even beat that at Quaker Steak.