Chicken Balls HD Review

Chicken Balls sound like a scrumptious treat you might pick up at a low rate fast food joint, but rest assured your cholesterol levels are safe. It's actually the latest game from Endloop Systems. Chicken Balls is a romp in familiar territory, but it manages to stay fresh by combining elements from several genres. If I had to put a label on it, I would call it an action puzzle hybrid.

At first glance you might write the game off as an Angry Birds clone, but after playing a few levels you'll realize that Chicken Balls refines aspects of some of the best casual puzzle games of the decade to make something decidedly unique. The menus and layout are extremely user friendly and should be familiar to anyone who has played Angry Birds (let's be honest, who hasn't).

You are tasked with flinging a ball shaped chicken across the stage in an attempt to free baby chicks from alien captivity. UFO's and various wooden structures try to impede your progress, and if you run out of chicken balls before freeing the little babes you have to restart the level. It all sounds very familiar right? Well Just when you think you've seen it all, Endloop Systems throws a curveball into the mix. Eggs, bumpers, and Farmageddon are introduced and the game totally changes.

The eggs and bumpers add a Peggle style to the game that's surprisingly fun, and if you manage to snag all the eggs in a stage you get to release the wrath of Farmageddon. This basically sends a plethora of farm critters raining down from the sky for total destruction (plus mega score bonuses). During the chaos, buildings will crumble and aliens will fly out of their UFO's. If you smash the aliens with your finger before they hit the ground you'll get some epic high scores. The game doesn't stop their either because Endlood decided to include various power-ups to spice up the Chicken Balls experience even more.

The game is chocked full of content with tons of levels, and the replay-ability is pretty much limitless if you are a high score junkie. I thought the difficulty scaled well, but some levels can be frustrating because of the slight luck factor. With enough trial and error or blatant skill you can suppress the "game of chance" feel, and once you get good you'll be banking shots off bumpers and blowing fake gun smoke from your fingertips. Nothing feels better than launching a perfect shot across the screen.

Chicken Balls does a great job setting itself apart even though it has some stiff competition from Angry Birds. The graphics and humor give the game a great vibe, and the added gameplay elements really make for a deep experience. Sometimes I felt like the physics were a little off, but I couldn't tell if it was just my lack of skill or an actual shortcoming. The good news is Endloop Systems is preparing for some really enticing updates. Buyers can expect new gameplay and levels with future updates from the developer. I know I might cause some controversy saying this, but Chicken Balls is my new favorite avian launching action puzzle game.

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