Quick Review: Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken

In a world taken over by a totalitarian penguin regime, only one Hardboiled chicken takes to arms and aims to restore peace.

…Did I really just write that?

Can nobody notice this jetpack chicken?

Developed by Ratloop Asia, published by Reverb Publishing and released on October 15th, 2012, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken tells the story of Hardboiled, an action movie hero in every single way; over-muscled, always has a badass quip to say, can punch enemies or fill them with bullet holes… except, y’know, he’s a literal chicken. His world fell to a dictatorship when he was young, and after some time on their side, he has decided enough was enough, and now that he’s ripped, he’s going to rip that Putzki tyrant to pieces.

Sneaky bullets!

Kinda dark around here, isn't it?

This game is described as a cinematic side-scrolling platformer. As I just said, Hardboiled has a lot of options to take down enemies. The game is heavy on gunfights, and you even pick up new guns through the story mode. The intro shows our protagonist with a powerful jetpack and crashing; well, you do recover that jetpack and get to use it in order to sneak onto zeppelins. Later in the story, a small puzzle dimension is added to the whole thing when Hardboiled gets his hands on little items that can steal someone’s consciousness, allowing him to take control of enemy guards around a level. (I would actually argue that this doesn’t really fit with the themes and feel of the game’s plot thus far.) There’s also the usual color keycards that force the hero to take 300 detours to find the ones he needs to unlock doors in order to progress.

"Our Fearless Leader" is crapping his pants
right now on hearing Hardboiled is coming.

What may strike the most upon playing the game, however, is the number of fully-animated cutscenes it has, as well as the very rock soundtrack accompanying them. The Steam store page proudly boasts its use of tracks by indie rock band New World Revolution. I’m already partial to rock, so… yay! The animated scenes also reminded me of the days of Flash gaming on Newgrounds, especially in their style and tone, though that may be just a coincidence.

With all that said, I have a handful of gripes. Some screens are so dark that you can barely see the platforms, to the point where it seems like Hardboiled is holding on to nothing when hanging from a ledge. The jetpack controls annoyed me and made aerial combat difficult (though these sequences are rare).

Bring on your soldiers.
Hardboiled can take them all down.

However, that main plot isn’t all. There is an additional co-op campaign, which can be played over the Internet or locally; it follows a different story in which two of these Clucking Expendables have to rescue a girl from a kidnapping. The game includes a lot of options to enhance the experience, such as the use of 3D filters so you can play with the famous double-colored glasses on. Not sure why you would, but… it exists, and some people like that.

Alright, I'm just gonna let my mind-control
slave do my work for me now...

These are avians, were you expecting
a proper dogfight?

This one was pretty cool. Pretty good too, but mostly cool. It runs on the principle of cool. This is a chicken built like a bouncer who shoots at everything and flies a nuclear jetpack. With a cool story to boot, told through pretty sweet cutscenes and a kickass soundtrack. The gameplay is about as basic as can be, as it’s mostly a side-scrolling platformer with guns and a spoonful of puzzle for variety. And to its credit, the puzzles get a bit tricky as well – you push things around, and the mind-controlled enemies often have to explore the levels in order to push buttons or levers so you can move forward. Each level is self-contained, but you mostly have freedom of exploration in each of them. However, several levels are a little too dark to see well what’s going on, which is a small but noticeable issue.

Not every piece and idea fits or works perfectly, but the presentation more than makes up for it and you’ll want to keep playing just to see another animated scene or hear another headbanger of a track. The game also had a sequel, released in 2016, in case you try this one out and like it enough to want more.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is available for 4.99$.