Developer: Clever Endeavour Games
Publisher: Clever Endeavour Games
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One and Switch (TBA)
Tested on: PS4
Ultimate Chicken Horse – Review
There is nothing more fun than playing together with your friends and family especially if you can make them have a hard time. Games that make you able to tease your loved ones, often have a friendship ruiner status but they are incredibly fun to play. Ultimate Chicken Horse is one of these games. The game was both developed and published by Clever Endeavour Games and we were lucky enough to give this game a go. Perfect to bring to a family gathering or a party, Ultimate Chicken Horse has everything to become a friendship ruiner plus most importantly a fun game to laugh at with the people you like.
Story
A story isn’t really present in Ultimate Chicken horse. You choose between 8 different animals and try to win the “obstacle” race. Winning the race makes you the ultimate “animal”. Some backstory could have added a bit more sympathy for the animals but isn’t especially necessary. A story could have been used for a better way to unlock levels/characters since you now only unlock those by jumping against a box that randomly gives one of the players a level, character or outfit.
Graphics
The art style of Ultimate Chicken horse looks cartoonish and very adorable. Light pastel-like colors have been used for textures throughout the game and this makes it look almost like a children’s book. The animals have a simple design that is a bit more advanced than a stick figure but makes them fit right in with the charming theme.
There are a lot of different obstacles of which each design is a bit more advanced than the other. A lot of obstructions can be placed at the same time depending on the level and the number of persons you’re playing with. It’s a good thing that the textures from the obstacles aren’t overly complicated as it might give lag spikes if they were.
When one player is further ahead than the other players; the camera is zoomed out greatly. This can be quite annoying when dodging hindrances. Certainly, because it gives the person closest to the finish an ability to tease the other players as he/she can choose not to finish and make it more difficult for the other players. Even though the camera workings can be annoying, the other graphics run quite smoothly.
Sound
Each level has at least 2 different songs that fit the environment. For example: there is a level with a sphinx and a pyramid which has fitting Egyptian music. All the songs are pretty upbeat and fitting to the charming theme of the game.
There is no voice acting present in the game or at least no “human” voice acting as the animals do make noises at certain moments, which can be quite funny if you hear a horse neigh while he falls in the deep. Each obstacle has its own sound effect with a few that are a tad more special as they shoot projectiles. There is, for example, a weapon that shoots hockey pucks which gives a warning signal before firing. Without the signal, it could be harder to pinpoint when the hockey pucks will be fired when you can’t see the weapon itself.
Gameplay
Ultimate Chicken Horse is an action, casual indie game where you play as one of eight animals that try to be their ultimate breed. To be an “ultimate”, you have to gather enough points by making it to the finish flag with at least one player dead. If all players are alive, nobody gets points and if you happen to be the only one to make it to the flag; you get bonus points. To make sure that you can (preferably alone) make it to the flag, you are provided with obstacles to place. There are a lot of different ones to choose from. Some are just platforms that do nothing special like: a bale of hay, multiple sizes of wooden planks and more. Then there are others that interact with the players or other blocks: ice, honey, barbed wire, gears, and portals.
Lastly, there are a copious amount of weapons to kill your opponents with, such as a wrecking ball, a saw blade that rotates, a saw blade in a platform, a hockey puck shooter and more. When placing these hindrances, you have to be careful not to block your own path but still block the others. This is often a difficult combination. If obstructions that you or other players placed are too annoying or impossible; you can blow them up with a bomb, dynamite or even an atom bomb.
There can be maximum four players but there also needs to be minimum 2 players as this is not a single player game. You can play either locally or online. Local and online aren’t different play wise. You start in the “treehouse” where you can: select a level, change the game rules, change your outfit and change the game mode. There are 4 different game modes: free play, creative, challenge, and party.
Party is the regular game mode. In this mode, at the start of each round, a party box appears where players can choose obstacles from. When all players are dead or have reached the end line, the points are then divided and the party box appears again. The obstructions in the party box are completely random. Creative mode is almost the same as Party mode except that instead of a party box, players now have an inventory where they can choose 1 obstacle to place. You can also choose to move an obstacle instead.
In free play mode, you can make your own level and then test it together with the other players. Challenge mode makes you compete against the other players for the fastest time or the fastest time with all the coins. This mode can only be played with custom levels. All these modes can be selected by jumping on a special device in the treehouse. Sadly, no explanation is given for anything in the treehouse. The title screen does have options where you can find the explanation of the controls but nothing else. This means that you have to discover all this yourself and although some things might seem obvious, some are not. For example, there is a rulebook present in the treehouse in this rulebook you can lock the game mode. When you play online by hosting your own game, this is a feature that you should know about. Online players like to change the game mode or even fight amongst themselves for which game mode to play.
Playing online brings all kinds of issues forward. When playing online, you can either host a game or join a game through the lobby or with a password. The lobby has zero explanation about playing online. When you choose to go through the lobby to join a game, you get to choose between games hosted in your region. Each game has the number of players, the location, quality etc. However, the amount of players often gets updated too slow so when you select a game it tells you that it’s already full. This is quite annoying since there is already only a select amount of games available depending on the time. When you’re a beginner, it’s quite difficult to practice because there is no single player. Luckily if you host a game there is a way to put beginner in the title.
This fixes the issue if you are hosting and are a beginner but if you are a beginner and don’t want to host it’s a bit of a problem. There aren’t a lot of people who put beginner in the title as it’s mostly the default “fun” that appears. Now if you, as a beginner, join a game and lose too much you risk getting kicked. The opposite sadly happens as well, people who win too much risk get kicked. Playing online can be in more ways than one a struggle as the host of the game has all the power. This means if you join and the host is AFK, you can’t play or if the host wants to play a specific level without letting the random selection do its work; you can’t play. Hosting a game is also an option but there you occasionally have to be patient to get more players that join. Ultimate Chicken Horse also seems to crash randomly for no reason at times.
Conclusion
If you have friends and family in the same room to play locally or ones that have the game to be able to play online, then this is a game that can be extremely fun. If you prefer to play alone, this game isn’t really for you. The game has a great concept and a pretty art style that speaks to a range of different ages and people. Other than a few flaws, this game is pretty entertaining to play. So if you’re looking for an amusing game that you can play together with your friends and family; give Ultimate Chicken Horse a try.
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