Game EXP: Chicken Wiggle (3DS)

Disclosure:  I reached out to Jools Watsham at Atooi on Monday September 11th, 2017 when he offered free download codes for his recent Nintendo 3DS game, Chicken Wiggle, to reviewers on non-specific gaming sites.  That same morning, I received a download code, free of charge with no caveats about how the game would be reviewed, nor was a positive review of Chicken Wiggle promised or inferred in exchange for the provided code.  After receiving the code, I did write that I would post an article reviewing Chicken Wiggle in a given time frame, but that was of my own volition.

I also wanted to add that all of the screen shots I used in today's article were taken from the "Chicken Wiggle: Stage 1-6" and the "Chicken Wiggle: Play Create Share" videos up on Jools Watsham's YouTube channel because I wanted to use pictures that were not taken with the crappy camera on my phone.

On with the show!

Chicken Wiggle, the most recent game from Jools Watsham over at Atooi, a 16 bit styled puzzle platformer from the same mind that created Mutand Mudds, (and Mutant Mudds Super Challenge), Bomb Monkey, Xeodrifter, Totes the Goat, and the soon to be released Treasurenauts.  If you have played any of these games on any one of the platforms they have been released on, you will immediately recognize the visual aesthetic.  If you are unfamiliar with Jools Watsham, Atooi, or any of the aforementioned games, I suggest checking out one of the trailers on YouTube.

All of that being said, I have currently made my way through the first three worlds (called Towers as there is a fair amount of vertical climbing), have tooled around with the Mario Maker styled level designer, have shared two levels online, and have played/downloaded a couple of custom levels.  There is a lot to do here!

First off though, one of the things that I love about this game, is that there is no emphasis on high score, or fastest time.  There is no timer that ticks down, or additional points for killing more enemies.  All of the stages I have played have consisted of getting to the end to free one of your captured friends, and you are welcome to take as long as you want.  There are diamonds to collect that are scattered throughout the stage although they are typically arranged to function like a path to follow.  There are also the letters F, U, and N that are usually hidden to some degree, often with very little if any clue as to where there is an invisible wall ahead, which I do appreciate.  And the reward for finding all 100 diamonds and spelling FUN?  You get a star, and extra gold shine on the stage button after you finish.  The completionist in me is having a blast, and somewhat thankful that I do not have to do it all within a certain time or with enough points to earn those often coveted three stars; looking at you Angry Birds!

The meat of Chicken Wiggle, and where I have spent most of my time has been playing through the pre-created stages.  What I have loved so far, is how tight and precise the game-play and controls are, similar to Super Meat Boy, but without the aggravating precision that is often required.  In Chicken Wiggle, you have two forms of attacking, the first using your worm friend (Wiggle?) as a whip which can stun enemies and stretches up to four "squares" across the screen, and the second being your (Chicken?) peck attack, which reaches only 2-3 pixels beyond your chicken sprite's little beak.  And in classic Mega Man fashion, a lot of the stages are filled with spikes.  Spikes that will kill you without a second glance if just one of your fluffy yellow pixels comes in contact with their spikiness.

I could probably use the rest of the article to talk about various aspects of the stages that have been a lot of fun.  Everything from the challenge of the stages, to the enemies and their locked-in patterns, and the bonus outfits that you equip which give you different skills for that one stage.  But since there is more to Chicken Wiggle than just the story mode experience, moving on is a necessity.

The second part of the game is the aforementioned Mario Maker type creation kit that allows you to create your own stages.  When you start out, every single item and enemy in the game is available to you and I was at first a little disappointed that there was not anything to unlock, as well as a little overwhelmed by all of my options right off the bat.  When I started, I had already completed the first tower area so I recognized a number of the items, monsters and blocks, but there were still things that I was confused by, and this is where I feel that the game made a great choice.  While you are able to use any item you want, knowing how to use them well really comes with experience in the game.  I have managed to create two levels that I uploaded to the online server (see the third and final section below) titled "Follow Me!" which is a traditional yet easy Chicken Wiggle type level, and "Sort Of 1-1" where I tried to create an homage to World 1-1 in Super Mario Bros.  Something that I really like about how this creator studio works, is that in order to post your stage for others to play, you have to complete the stage.  Every diamond you put down, every F, U, and N you place, you have to pick up.  If your stage requires you to kill all the monsters, you have to do that too before your creation can be uploaded.  

The final aspect of the game is the sharing of said stages, which is directly related to the creator studio from the previous section.  My biggest fear with attempting to play creations from other players is the same as playing stages from people in Mario Maker.  There are going to be, and there are, plenty of stages that are just downright difficult, or have a great concept (the Pac-Man stage started out fun), but they lack the polish of someone who has created something to be fun.  For instance, in a lot of the main story stages, there is a checkpoint right at the point where you feel that if you died, you would be upset and annoyed if you had to start all over.  Knowing that distance between creating a fun challenge and deciding that your stage is only going to be about challenge comes with experience and, I would assume, having to deal with people who actually pay money for your product and the desire to please your customers.  

The music is something that I initially wrote off, especially during the first area Cloud Tower.  It was a little bland and uninteresting for my taste, or maybe I was expecting something as catchy as "World 1-1" from Mutant Mudds.  But by Treetop Tower, I felt like the music had hit its stride and was a better fit for the action on the screen.  Even the background music during the creation stage is entertaining and fitting for having to make minuscule yet necessary touches to fine tune your own level.  I may end up covering one of these in an upcoming MIDI Week Singles article.

At this point you might be thinking that the receiving of the game has clouded my judgement of Chicken Wiggle.  Like, "where are all the bad things about the game?"  Honestly, for what the game promises, it really delivers.  I do not feel that there is a whole lot of innovation if as you play the main game as a puzzle platformer.  As a level designer, there is not a lot here that was not already seen in some aspect in Mario Maker.  But these two combined create a great gaming experience.  After only playing for a few hours last Monday, I was questioning if my niece Flan had a 3DS so that I could buy her a copy as the difficulty level would be perfect for an 11 year old.  It may not be the easiest experience, but hey, I was beating Super Mario Bros. 1 and 2 by the time I was 9.  

Now that I think about it, I guess the one negative thing I have to say is that there is not a lot of replay value once you have completed a stage if you already have found all 100 diamonds and spelled out FUN.  But because there are official developer created stages and a mound of community created stages to sift through, as long as Atooi's online servers are active, Chicken Wiggle may never run out of content.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Playing With Our Lives


P.S.  Once again, super uber thank you to Jools Watsham and Atooi for the complimentary copy of Chicken Wiggle, which allowed me to play and review the game for our site much earlier than I would have been able to do.

P.P.S.  It should be noted that from yesterday (September 14th) through next Thursday (September 21), Chicken Wiggle is 33% off it's regular price.  I wasn't prompted to mention this because of the free game, I just really like the games that Jools / Atooi develop so why not mention it?

P.P.P.S.  In all of the interviews that I have watched/read in recent weeks, I did not come across anything that mentioned Banjo-Kazooie.  For me, this was the first thing I thought of when I saw game play videos of Chicken Wiggle.  Both games have a protagonist who carries a friend around in a backpack while on the trail of an evil witch.  To me the those similarities are very obvious, but they come across more of an homage, be it intentional or not, than an attempt to capitalize on the nostalgia of 1998.  Had Rare made a 16 bit side scrolling Banjo-Kazooie entry, it very well could have looked and felt a lot like Chicken Wiggle.

P.P.P.P.S.  In case anyone was wondering, the download size for Chicken Wiggle is 280 Blocks, which translates to 35 MB in real world memory size.