Alfred Chicken is one of those games I seem to recall hearing about but never playing. I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen it in action before now. You would think it’s a big deal and popular franchise considering how many platforms this fowl mascot has appeared on. Alas, it never really made many waves and was more a result of the publisher trying to shove Alfred Chicken down the market’s throat. Either way, today we’re going to take a look at the Amiga CD32 iteration of the original game. It’s a real doozy. Let’s dive right on in, shall we?
I wasn’t able to track down any real story for this game. There’s a slight amount of dialogue so I’ve done my best to try and figure out what’s going on to tell you about it. It seems that a bunch of baddies have stolen Alfred Chicken’s eggs, and it’s up to this birdy to get them back. Along the way he makes friends and learns deep lessons about life. Not really. I made that last part up. Either way it’s a platformer starring an animal mascot so who cares? I will say that in the landscape of 90s mascots there’s a certain innocence with Alfred Chicken. He’s just a goofy looking chicken. No sunglasses, catchphrases or none of that. In that sense I’m thankful. On the other hand he’s a chicken, so there’s that.
Enough with the chicken talk. Let’s get to the steak and potatoes. Alfred Chicken is a 2D side scrolling platform game. You move left, right, and can jump. Your only means of attack by default is done by dive bombing the enemies. You do this by holding down at the end of a jump until you make contact with the foe. If you just try landing on their head normally you’ll die. Speaking of that one hit from an enemy, hazard, or projectile kills you instantly. There is no life bar, and the only second chances you get are from the extra lives you’ve accumulated. This can make things tricky because to dive bomb enemies you have to hold down on the directional pad the entire time. It’s easy to let up on it accidentally before you make contact, and this will kill poor Alfred.
Your goal here isn’t simply to walk from one end of the stage to the other. No, that would be too easy and as we all know Alfred Chicken doesn’t play that game. Instead your mission is to release a specific number of balloons. Yeah, that really makes sense doesn’t it? Upon letting the last one go you cling on and fly through a bonus stage collecting points on your way to the next level. Of course there’s a whole lot standing in your way of these precious balloons. You’ll have to contend with lots of enemies, some precision based jumping (including moving and falling platforms), and more environmental hazards than you can shake a stick at. One of your first goals in any level is to find the switch which activates floating blocks which you can stand on to reach new areas.
On top of the balloons you’ll also collect diamonds (which grant you points at the end of the stage), watering cans (for some reason these give you extra lives), and a few other things. There’s even a hidden item in every level that lets Alfred throw bombs at the enemies. This is a far easier attack to utilize than the dive bomb, but it’s not particularly easy to find. You’ll have to search high and low, and sometimes even must find hidden blocks. That’s one thing I don’t like about the stages in Alfred Chicken. They’re too large and sometimes a bit confusing. This is made worse by the many doors in each area which lead to new areas, or sometimes just other sections of the level. To be honest I would have preferred a more linear experience rather than a game where you have to search for items.
The big problem with Alfred Chicken is that it just isn’t very fun to play. Very little of it makes any sense. Searching for balloons in stages that eventually become too big for their own good. It’s a little annoying if you ask me. Furthermore there are way too many spring jumps required in this game. The exact mechanics behind them are a little confusing to be honest. I wasn’t sure if dive bombing them made you jump higher, or holding down the jump button after bouncing upward. Either way I seemed to actually get different results each time when I only did one, and so I just started doing both for every single jump. There’s a real lack of polish here which is typical of European titles of this era.
Alfred Chicken is also sorely lacking in boss fights. These would have gone a long way to keeping things fresh. That’s not to say that there aren’t any, but they’re handled a bit oddly. Toward the end of the adventure the end of the stage throws you into a ship (which can fire shots straight ahead) and you do battle with a floating enemy (I’d try to describe it but I’m not exactly sure what it’s supposed to be if I’m being honest.) These sequences are kind of interesting, but the one hit kill mechanic is very unforgiving here. I found myself exploding into a flurry of feathers more than once while trying to shoot down these boss characters. I know I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but this isn’t quite what I had in mind as far as boss fights go for a game like this.
This is also not a very pretty game. It’s bright and colorful, but the art style is all over the place. The first stage seems to take place inside a house, but the second is focused around toys. Next up there’s the woods, and then a laboratory. I just have to ask, why? They should have followed the platformer conventions with your standard grassy plains, ice, and lava stages if you ask me. Normally I wouldn’t wish for something that generic but it sure beats the weird approach taken here in Alfred Chicken. Our hero himself is rather small and barely looks like the animal he’s supposed to represent. The music is decent, and makes use of the redbook audio format. The problem is that when a song reaches the end the audio stops until the track restarts. It shows a real lack of polish.
Alfred Chicken is one of the best side scrolling platform games for the Amiga CD32. That might sound prestigious, but it isn’t. Alfred Chicken strikes just below the mediocre line with an unfocused and unpolished adventure that’s completely forgettable. It’s not offensively bad, or painful to play by any means. There’s just nothing special about it. Furthermore, there’s very little here (maybe just the music) that couldn’t have been replicated on other home consoles of this era. Alfred Chicken is a curiosity, but not a very good one to be honest. You’re not missing out on much.
