John Blythe's game, as he says on the page, isn't a direct remake or a sequel to the original Chuckie Egg. It simply has a lot of the hallmarks of that game; Henhouse Harry still runs and jumps from platform to platform while avoiding Farmer Giles's hen-chmen, but the game itself has been re-imagined for the PC. John's redesigned the levels and added one or two extra features. Can't fault his motives, really: the best way to pay tribute to something is to create something new.
No, you idiot!
So what's new about this game? There's an extra bird on the screen, for a start; Tabitha thinks it's an albatross, I think it's a duck. This albatross (or duck) flies from left to right or from left to right at a randomly determined altitude, ensuring that nowhere on the screen is entirely safe. You may think you're safe from one of the hens on a remote, ladderless platform; but if you're not careful you'll get a face full of duck.
Naturally, the graphics and sound have been updated, and Mr. Blythe's done a pretty good job of capturing the tone of the original. Gone are the chunky, attribute-clashing graphics from the Spectrum; in comes something that's a little easier on the eye. It looks like a love letter to the 16-bit era; something that wouldn't look out of place on the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis to you Americans) or the Amiga. It looks and sounds overwhelmingly cute, which is ideal. The chicken noises the game emits when you succeed in grabbing an egg are particularly wonderful.
What the hell am I DOING???
It's a pretty good game, but sadly falls short of being truly terrific because of just one minor detail. The controls could do with being more responsive, for a start. On more than one occasion I've caught myself taking my finger off the arrow key, hitting the space bar and yelling Jump, you fucker! Jump!
only for Harry to continue running a couple of steps, straight into one of the hens. The jumping itself is a bit of a nightmare as well. Stationary hops or running jumps aren't on the menu. If you face left or right and press space, you jump left or right. A set distance each time; take it or leave it. It takes a bit of getting used to, and the task of leaping over an oncoming hen is a bugger to accomplish.
Although that aspect of gameplay lets the whole thing down somewhat, it's still quite fun and a treat for the eyes and ears. It's one of the more popular downloads from Retrospec, and justifiably so. Let's just hope the controls are a bit easier in version 1.3!
| Author | John Blythe | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Windows | |
| Reviewers | Phil Smith and Tabitha Brown | |