Can Saturday morning cartoons and 90s violent movies be married in perfect gaming harmony? Why yes they can and Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is a shinning example of how these two items come together for a fun, albeit quirky, game that will not break the bank.

Game: Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken
Developer: Ratloop
Genre: Action Adventure
Price: $11.99
Pros: Mindless fun coupled with some of the best art and music around
Cons: Generic game play and a lackluster story
Verdict: Entertaining and the co-op is a hoot while the visuals and audio quality is a true treat
Acquired via Developer

Developer Ratloop Asia took one chicken and infused it with some DNA from John Rambo that included the addiction to weapons that go boom in the night. Then this chicken, or Hardboiled, runs amuck in Albatropolis to rid it of an army of pure evil penguins and their equally beefed up leader, Putzki. With so much testosterone flowing from just this setting, can there truly be a fun game hidden here?

Let’s start with the single-player campaign, which is a solid mix of puzzle solving and platforming action. Players will make their way through plenty of varied locations while mowing down every penguin in sight and solving some rudimentary environmental puzzles. The action is further complicated by some rooms requiring the player to prioritize their targets while staying on the move and conserving ammo. There are plenty of enemies to put down, but Hardboiled has allies like a Cardinal and Parakeet to offer advice and help along the road to liberate Albatropolis.

When not fighting in the confined halls of various super fortresses, Hardboiled straps on a rocket pack and takes to the skies for a bit of aerial fun. Where the action on the ground is all side-scrolling shooting mayhem, the air game turns into a twin-stick gun fest. Enemies are less varied in these sequences, but the tools of death they bring will force players to react quickly and plan an attack worthy of action movies like The Expendables. There are only a handful of these levels but they do provide an enjoyable diversion while adding in new gameplay elements to keep the game from growing stale.

Upon finishing the single-player campaign, gamers can drag their friends into this fowl-filled world for some co-op action in an alternate version of the campaign. Instead of playing as the hero from the single-player mode, each person picks a Budgie Commando who specializes in one of the game’s bountiful weapons. Despite locations from the story mode getting the recycled treatment, they must be approached differently thanks to their tweaking to handle two players. For example, some switches and buttons now require both players to interact with them in order for them to activate. The co-op campaign is fun and adds in a good reason to have a friend over, crack a beer, and play through this one night.

Finally we get to the best part of the game: the aesthetics. This is one good-looking and badass sounding game. Thanks to New World Revolution laying down some audio tracks, this is a pure treat for the ears. The rock theme fits well with the action and odd setting of this game, while some of the cutscenes are worthy of being on VH1 or MTV (you know, if they ever played music videos). The art style is just as good. The world fits right at home in the Saturday morning cartoon lineup thanks to its hand drawn nature. The over the top violence, like juggling a baddie in the air by repeatedly shooting them as fast as possible and their blood staining the walls red, fits the 90′s action movies in which this is clearly modeled after. This game is a shining example of how carefully crafting the audio and visual packages can propel an average game into something much more memorable.

It is not all pure bloody fun however. I found it extremely hard to not feel like I was playing a game that had just ripped off the popular Xbox 360 title, Shadow Complex. Anyone looking for something to push them when it comes to solving puzzles or a more complex gun play mechanic will be terribly disappointed. It also needs noting that the lead character is a male, and therefore is technically a rooster. Yet the game consistently refers to him as a chicken. Sure it is not game breaking, but either this is a transgender chicken or someone is messing with our minds.

For what it is, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken is a solid and fun puzzle-action-platformer. Sure the game is not pushing any innovation boundaries, but the gameplay is solid and the presentation is far and above that of many downloadable titles and even some of the more expensive disk-based games could take some notes on this. At under $15, this quirky game is a gem.

GrE Grade: A-

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