Review: Chicken Coup - Unreal Round 'Em Up
by Staff Writer
February 10, 2011
The Unreal engine development kit is now out for iOS developers to use, but it doesn't have to be used only for hardcore games like Infinity Blade. Trendy Entertainment has used the engine to make Dungeon Defenders, and now has a new casual game called Chicken Coup. In the game you run a farm, and your chickens and roosters are running wild, and foxes are out to snag some of them.
It's a game of sorting as you drag and drop the different animals to the right places with the chickens and hens in their respective coup, and the foxes to the barn. You try to round up the animals for as long as you can with each chicken building up your chicken power meter. When the chickens are out for too long they get lost, and when a fox snatches a chicken it costs you chicken power. When your chicken power is gone it's game over.
There are three different farm levels with different arrangements of the buildings, and you unlock each one by saving a certain number of chickens on the previous one. Rather than path drawing you grab the chicken, and drop it directly in the coop, and you can form chains of chickens by dragging your finger over more chickens before dropping them off in the coop.
Chicken Coup offers up silky smooth controls that recognize every movement of your finger so precisely. This allows you to enjoy the gameplay which has a surpassing amount of action that builds up quickly. The game starts with a few chickens and foxes, but soon the screen is packed with animals with chickens needing to get to the coop, and hungry foxes in among a plethora of chickens.
You want to begin the game by building up chicken power which will allow you to last longer down the line. Every consecutive chicken you add in without a fox getting it, or sending one to the wrong coop will continue your point combo. Each new chicken is worth more points, and having a chain of chickens doubles the points for each additional chicken in the chain.
With the game so score based it's great the Game Center is included for online high scores and achievements. The three environments offer variability, but once you unlock all three there isn't much replayability after that, saving all the chickens in the game doesn't take very long, and the gameplay itself isn't that complex so repetition comes in to play. Also a pause button can do wonders because without it you feel like you can’t lift your head up from the game until it’s over, or you just lose.
The game has a great design with the 3D environment and figures which not only look great, but enhance the gameplay. The chickens are round making it easier to pick them up, and the houses are full shapes to make it easier to drag there. The soundtrack is upbeat mixed with a farm country like theme, and it's mixed with the sounds of chickens and foxes.
Chicken Coup (Universal, $0.99) isn't the most complex game in the App Store, but it is fun and really well designed. For only $1 Chicken Coup is worth picking up for one herding good time.
