Chicken Wiggle Review

Developer: Atooi

Publisher: Atooi

Release Date: August 17, 2017

Platforms: Nintendo 3DS

Kill’em With Cuteness

Chicken Wiggle is aggressively adorable. Every single pixel in this 2D side-scrolling, buddy-buddy platformer, with a level creator is lovingly crafted to pop an “awwwww!” from your mouth. But don’t be fooled by the cuteness. The punchy and digestible level design, awesome power-ups, and chiptunes soundtrack all come together in an irresistible reason to dust off that 3DS or justify a shiny new 2DS XL.

Eight Worlds to Rule Them All

Firing up Chicken Wiggle prompts three clear options: Play. Create. Share. We’ve seen this before with the likes of Little Big Planet or more recently (and on the 3DS), Super Mario Maker. At $14.99, it’s easy for me to recommend Chicken Wiggle even if all you do is “Play.” With 48 gorgeous levels jam-packed with secret passages, 100 collectible jewels, and three F-U-N coins to find, I am compelled to go back to a few spots to completely 100% Chicken Wiggle.

Mario has his jump. Samus her roll. Wiggle has her whip. The defining method of motion is the ability to launch the worm to attach to nearly any surface and pull the duo towards it and latch on like Link’s Hookshot. Chain a few of these motions together, either in 90-degree turns to climb a vertical tunnel and avoid baddies or from the roof like Spider-Man, and you’ll begin to understand what I mean. It’s such a no-brainer that I’m left wondering why it hasn’t been done more in the past. Answer: Coupling character design with such a strong, dependable, intuitive movement mechanic is a hallmark of brilliant game design and Chicken Wiggle deserves accolades for this.

Wiggle isn’t just a one-trick invertebrate, whipping an enemy stuns and leaves it vulnerable for Chicken to safely peck him to oblivion. It’s deeply satisfying to have the protagonist pair whip these baddies unconscious and then knock ’em into next week. All of this is elevated by the excellent power-ups like the Demo Hat, which empower the dynamic duo to smash through any surface or the Ghost Touch, which allows you to kill Mutant Mudds-reminiscent ghosts and harmlessly float over otherwise deadly spikes.

Atooi (previously, Renegade Kid) has historically challenged players with pixel-perfect platforming and unforgiving level and enemy design. Chicken Wiggle aligns fairly appropriately with it’s all-ages aesthetic. There is still a hint of that challenge that appears from time to time and gradually ramps up throughout the 48 stages until the final boss encounter. Many of the challenges and dynamic level design come out of a clear homage to Nintendo games like the jelly patches from Super Mario Land 2.  Unfortunately, without an introduction to each World/Tower – a quick splash screen to welcome you to “Cloud Tower” or a mini boss battle at the end – I missed any sense of satisfaction for “beating” a Tower aside from simply moving on to the next level.

The other aspect that keeps Chicken Wiggle from feeling like an adventurous journey, as opposed to a collection of four dozen individual levels, is related to the power-ups. For no story or lore-driven reason, Chicken and Wiggle lose their power-ups at the end of each level so there is no continuing on to the next stage with your favorite enhancements. Clearly, it’s to ensure the each level is self-contained and playable but perhaps Chicken and Wiggle could have given their power-up to their rescued friend at the end of each level and have them fly off or demolish their way to freedom, when applicable.

A final minor gripe: With only a single save slot, I wasn’t able to share Chicken Wiggle with my wife without making her feel like she wasn’t getting a fresh playthrough.

Create and Share

My time with Chicken Wiggle was primarily focused on “Play” but how could I ignore the Create and Share buttons? Especially when I was a little hard on Super Mario Maker a couple years ago for its obtuse sharing mechanic and patience-testing roll-out scheme.

Having a near-limitless collection of levels to continue playing Chicken Wiggle is an enormous value-add to this already-incredible game. Personally, I wanted to discover levels made by my friends so when it came time to learn what the Nintendo Guru had created, I was able to search by Author and not require a level code or even his full name. And, to my delight, that particular level was a Mutant Mudds theme. So, in addition to the in-game art styles, you can pay homage to Renegade Kid and other games with your creations. Atooi has done what all Play/Create/Share games should do with this powerful tool and avoided the need for a fan-made site to help curate or discover user-generated levels.

Final Verdict

Chicken and Wiggle are insanely adorable. Atooi has done a lovely job creating an instantly lovable pair of mascots and building a brilliant game around them. The movement mechanics, exciting power-ups, and awesome old-school homages make this an easy recommendation. I am left wanting more of this cute new IP. Luckily, the comprehensive and user-friendly level creator and curator will satiate this craving and make Chicken Wiggle an absolute must-have for all 3DS owners.