Chicken Wiggle

3DS Video Game Review

Written By Adolph Vega

3D

The stereoscopic visuals are a nice minor addition to the visual presentation of this game. The 3D uses a few layers of 3D depth to present its classic 2D platforming gameplay. The 3D looks sharp and doesn’t detract or impact the smooth fluidity of the game’s overall visuals. One impressive use of the 3D is that of passing clouds. Occasionally transparent clouds will float by the screen that are closer to the player than the main gameplay, and these clouds really showcases the different layers of 3D depth. The more you turn up the 3D slider, the more graphics will recede and give the player more 3D depth. The pixel art graphical style of this game lends itself nicely to multiple layers of 3D depth. Sadly no enemies, characters or objects travel in-between the layers of 3D. The 3D depth is limited to the static backgrounds and has no impact on how the actual game plays. Overall I really enjoyed the 3D element of this game, and I can easily recommend playing this game in 3D .

Final Verdict: Good 3D

Game

Chicken Wiggle is a new 2D side scrolling adventure game from Atooi. Atooi has created several excellent 2D side scrollers in the past, and I’m happy to report that Chick Wiggle is another great title in their repertoire. In Chicken Wiggle you play as a small chicken who is attempting to save his flock who were kidnapped by a witch . A worm joins the chicken's quest, and they work together to save the flock in various levels and worlds within the game . The story of the game is minimal but it works well for this style of game. The game is played in similar fashion to other 2D platform adventure games like Super Mario Bros, where you explore 2D levels to reach an eventual end point. When you free a kidnapped comrade the level is completed . At first glance this game may appear to be aimed for small children, but the fun gameplay and great level design make this game fun for anyone of any age. Chicken Wiggle is a new franchise and it feels like a fresh new gameplay idea that is well executed and a joy to play.

The gameplay of Chicken Wiggle is fairly strait forward and is a joy to play partly because of the excellent precise controls. You have direct control over the chicken as you explore the various levels with either the circle pad or control pad. I prefer to use the control pad, because 2D side scrolling games just feel more natural to play with the control pad. The choice is ultimately up the player, regardless both control inputs work well for this game . You can jump as the chicken with the B button. You can do a peck move with the A button. The peck move can be used to defeat enemies and is a context sensitive action. As the chicken you can use the worm to cling to parts of the environment with the Y button. Clinging to the environments is a core element of the game, and learning how and when to use the worm to hook-shoot around the levels is key to the players advancement and the exploration. The worm can also be used to temporarily stun enemies from a distance. As you play the game you will need to use multiple buttons simultaneously and they all work without issue. The start and/or select buttons can be used to pause the game and take you to the submenu where you can exit the level and go back to the main menu , retry the level or continue the game. The touch screen can be used to navigate the various menus and to assemble user created levels (more on that later). Overall the controls are pixel perfect for the player and feel tight, responsive and precise.

I really enjoyed how well crafted the levels are within this game. The game is broken down to eight worlds with six levels per world. You play the levels in sequential order and within each level you have floating golden diamonds to collect and the letters that spell out the word FUN. Each level has a certain amount of golden floating diamonds to find within the level. The game counts the amount of gold diamonds you have collected and shows the player how many total golden diamonds are present within each level . The letters that spell out FUN are placed strategically in each level too, and they can be fairly tricky to find . Exploring every area of the level and fully understanding the level design will help you find all the letters that spell out FUN and all the golden diamonds. Sadly, nothing outside of personal satisfaction is gained by collecting all the letters of FUN or the golden diamonds for each level. After you finished a level you cannot see if you collected all the FUN letters or all the gold diamonds in that perspective level. The lack of knowing if you fully completed a level is a disappointing omission from the game. Replay value for the story aspect of the game is diminished by not being able to clearly see what levels you have fully completed. In other similar games collecting a percentage of the trinkets can unlock the player a bonus section, additional levels, music selection, art gallery , etc, so it's disappointing that nothing like that is present within this game . Personal satisfaction is simply not enough of a reward for collecting the various trinkets within the game. The actual level design for the story mode is fairly inspired and clever. The levels have various check points to help the player and a difficulty that never feels cheap or annoying. The game does a wonderful job of adding variety by slowly introducing several new gameplay mechanics, power ups, and enemies to the game. Sadly the game only has one boss battle. It’s a shame that more boss battles weren’t present within this game , because I found that boss battle to be a fun and interesting twist on the gameplay . The game overall has a fantastic pick up and play mentality with levels that aren’t overly long and keeps the player interested from start to finish . The game feels good to play on a portable gaming console where you can play and complete a level within a few minutes. The main story mode lasts a few hours and it never out says it’s welcome . The gameplay of Chicken Wiggle is a unique twist to traditional 2D side scroller video games. Overall Chicken Wiggle and is a breezy adventure that is intelligently designed and is very enjoyable to play .

The game has a level editor that allows the player to easily make and share levels. The level editor exclusively uses the touch screen and is well designed with a straightforward drag and drop mechanic for creating levels . The level editor is robust with options and features for the player. This level creator essentially gives the user full access to make levels as they see fit. The game does limit the user with the overall size and number of items/enemies each level can have, but those limitations are understandable and overall these limitations don’t hamper the level creation experience. Unfortunately, the level editor doesn’t have any kind of tutorial, which is a small annoyance. I strongly recommend playing and completing the story element of the game before making your own levels. The aspect of sharing levels is well done and requires the player to first complete the level before uploading it to the server. This aspect should prevent uploaded levels that are impossible to complete. You can save dozens of user created levels onto your game file so you can play them whenever your offline. The level editor also allows the user to make levels that have different criteria for completion. One example is a user created level that reminded me of the original PAC-Man arcade game. This user created level has a maze design , ghost enemies and still uses the gameplay mechanics of Chicken Wiggle. This Pac-Man inspired level requires the player to collect all the golden diamonds within the level to win. The game has a built in level browser that gives the player many options to search for and find user created levels like the PAC-Man level. As the user makes a level they can edit the title and several key searchable words to help make your level more discoverable. If you play a specific level within the built in browser you can like (heart) the level after you complete it . You cannot leave text comments or dislike a level so the interactions the user can have with user created levels is minimal. The game gives you an alpha numeric code for each uploaded level that is fairly easy to remember. The level code for the above mentioned Pac-Man level is 328. I created one custom level for the purposes of this review . The code for my custom designed level is 685. This level is also the final photo on the photo slideshow at the top of the page. Sadly, the game does not offer a way to easily share your levels via popular social networks like Facebook , Twitter, Tumbler and or Instagram. Using the built in 3DS web browser the game could have easily implemented a way to share and find new levels via social media. I would love to see a dedicated Offical Facebook group for sharing Chicken Wiggle levels. Maybe have a official chicken Wiggle hashtag for twitter. Having a official blog post on Tumbler that allows commentary and voting on specific levels would be awesome. These ideas could dramatically increase the thriving community of level editors. Obviously I am judging the game on its own merits and not what I would want or expect from it. The current system of sharing and viewing user created levels within the game is sufficient, but I feel like it's lacking and could have been further developed . Overall the level editor is is a fantastic addition to this game and give the player a huge amount of value .

One aspect of the game that I must discuss is the colorful graphics and delightful music. The graphics for the game (outside of the 3D element) looks like a long lost Super Nintendo game. I say that in the highest regard, because the Super Nintendo has many beautiful games that still look fantastic decades later. The pixelated sprite based art style created for this game is a timeless design. The graphics never have any slowdown or graphical glitches so the engine is incredibly solid . The animations within this game look nice and are very smooth. One minor complaint I have with this game is the fact that the text on screen uses a tiny font size. I don't know why the game developer decided to make the fonts so small for the player to read. I played this game on a NEW Nintendo 3DS XL with near 20/20 vision and I still struggled at times to read the tiny sized text. The tiny font size is annoying, especially since most of the real estate of the screen is still present so it was obviously a design choice. Going back to the graphical design, the various levels do a great job of setting themselves apart. The art work in the different levels cycles from a few different variants. Having several different level art themes keeps the game looking fresh and different and I appreciate the effort. Overall the best word to describe the graphics for this game is adorable. The game looks clean and sharp on the 3DS screens, while it doesn't push any boundaries it does have a distinct style that preforms well without issue. Regarding the musical melodies within this game they are upbeat, peppy, and catchy. The music also varies based on the graphical design of the levels and it complements the gameplay. The game is dripping with cuteness and is incredibly charming both with the audio and visual components.

All things considered Chicken Wiggle is a great 3DS game. I enjoyed the level design and found it to be very fun to play. On a technical level the controls, graphics, and music are all top notch. I also enjoyed the level editor included with this game, but I found it lacking in some key features. Overall Chicken Wiggle is a delightful game that I can easily recommend .

Final Verdict : 8 / 10

This game was provided by Atooi for purposes of review.

Chicken Wiggle Official Website

Chicken Wiggle 3DS Video Game Review