Reviewed: June 3, 2008
Reviewed by: Arend Hart

Publisher
Mumbo Jumbo

Developer
Mumbo Jumbo

Released: March 6, 2008
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1

5
4
4
4
4.2

Supported Features

  • Touch Screen

    		•
    When the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) first his the US market in 1984, it came packaged with two games; the first Super Mario Brothers title, and a simple little point-and-shoot title called Duck Hunt. And while that first Super Mario Brothers title wowed gamers with its side-scrolling adventure-based platforming, Duck Hunt was seen by many as being little more than a short-lived tech demo for the console’s included light gun accessory. Not that this kept Duck Hunt from becoming the iconic casual gaming classic it is today – but it didn’t take gamers long to realize that beyond the initial half-hour of light gun shooting, the game had very little to offer.

    But it is no surprise that nearly a quarter-century later, a similarly-themed title pops up on Nintendo’s handheld money-printing machine – a.k.a. the Nintendo DS – in an attempt to capitalize on the newly realized movement in casual gaming. This time around, our crosshairs are not centered on avian waterfowl, but rather on the barnyard’s favorite poultry product – the chicken – with Chicken Hunter.

    First off, as someone who grew up on a farm, I would feel remiss if I did not make the following disclaimers:

  • 1) While chickens technically have the ability to fly, they generally do not take flight – and if they do it is only for very short distances (5 to 20 feet at a pop) and only when under extreme duress, or to find a safe perch.
  • 2) As I understand it, the sport (or lack thereof) of killing chickens using firearms is considered illegal in most US localities.

    But Chicken Hunter was borne from a German game called Moorhuhn – which literally translates to “marsh chicken” in German, but really means a grouse, which is in fact a sporting bird – so maybe it is simply a matter of translation.

    This Moorhuhn game is actually quite popular in the Europe where it began as an interactive advertisement for Johnnie Walker scotch whiskey – as sort of a “punch the monkey” game for whisky drinkers to do a wee bit of virtual grouse hunting. The original title has since blossomed into an entire family of games in Germany, branching off into platformers, kart racers, phone games, puzzle games, and more. Those Germans really like their marsh chickens, eh?

    So if a game is that popular in Europe, is must be pretty cool, eh?

    Not really – Chicken Hunter pretty much sucks.

    OK, OK – maybe Chicken Hunter does not entirely suck – it just does not really offer the DS anything that your standard flashed based game offers for free on the internet, other than maybe some flashy box art and portability that a PC cannot provide. But really that is it – Chicken Hunter is little more than a simple point-and-shoot flash game that is about as deep as a banner advertisement – with about as much longevity.

    Chicken Hunter touts 3 unique game modes, with two additional unlockable modes. Given the fact that each mode takes at most 10 minutes to play through its entirety, using the term “unlockable” is a joke – as the two additional modes are basically handed over in the first few minutes.

    So the five modes are as follows:

  • Classic – A simple point-and-shoot knockoff of Duck Hunter
  • Weights – Tossing a series colored weights at color-coordinated chickens.
  • Gems – Sounds like Bejeweled, but plays more like Connect Four.
  • Spot the Difference – Determine the differences between two chickens.
  • Hotwire – Cart Racing from a birds-eye view and mid-1980’s codebase.

    Of the modes, the most enjoyable modes Weights and Gems, as they are the only ones to really give a sense of difficulty. It is almost impossible to miss a bird in the wack-a-mole like play of classic mode, the spot the difference is only a fraction of the difficulty of the standard Sunday paper funny pages version, and the top-down point-and-drag ray tracing cart racing looks like my 1985 middle school science fair project as it rambles through the randomly generated courses scrolling incrementally faster as the minutes drag on.

    Chicken Hunter looks decent on the DS – but tends to miss the mark both ways; there are times where the game could have done away with some of the background detail, whereas other times where the game desperately needs more detail. Case in point, Spot the Difference and Weights definitely would have benefitted from more detail, whereas the Classic mode goes a bit overboard.

    Chicken Hunter looks decent on the DS – but tends to miss the mark both ways; there are times where the game could have done away with some of the background detail, whereas other times where the game desperately needs more detail. Case in point, Spot the Difference and Weights definitely would have benefitted from more detail, whereas the Classic mode goes a bit overboard.

    With only 30 minutes of simplistic gameplay and very little replay value, Chicken Hunter is hardly worth the $20 retail value it carries. And for those who say the game is geared for children – I would first cite the Johnnie Walker tie-in above – but then let it be known that my three children fought over this game for the first hour and a half, and it has seen absolutely no action since.

    Rather than waste $20 on Chicken Hunter, why not spend the money on a bucket of KFC and spend an evening playing free flash games on your PC – I guarantee you will have a lot more fun.