Bouncy Chicken Review

Throughout my time with Bouncy Chicken from Eastasiasoft I’ve had one overriding thought circling my mind – how on earth am I going to be able to stretch some review thoughts to decent numbers? At least this opening paragraph has taken up fifty words or so. Only another few hundred more to go. How this plays out will be anyone’s guess. 

Bouncy Chicken from Eastasiasoft and YeTa Games is a single screen puzzler in which you take charge of a singular chicken. This little guy is hungry, on a mission to gobble up all the corn that has been strewn across his farm. It’s up to you to point the feathered one in a general direction, bouncing them off fences and various obstacles (some of which are springy), in hope of filling that chicken’s mouth. And generally speaking, that’s Bouncy Chicken in a nutshell. 

Where the skill (it is skill, right?) comes in is by making the most of angles, directing your chicken through one piece of corn, onto another, and another. With multiple cobs scattered, but only a set number of times said chicken can be fired, it’s not long before a smattering of strategy comes to mind. Mostly though, that strategy and any tactics you can muster up will be overcome by sheer persistence and barrels full of luck. Without that, this little chick will starve to death. 

Pushing in a general direction via the left thumbstick lets you line your chicken up, whilst holding – and then releasing – the A button provides power, letting them fly. From there, the most dodgy of physics comes into play, as your bouncy chicken pings this way and that. Grab the corn and a new level will need overcoming. 

New stages add various obstacles, some that help with your chicken’s bounce, others that fire them off in all new directions. Never do things feel fluid though, and whilst it’s easy to come to terms with the finicky direction and power controls, what happens from there on out very much feels like it is in the lap of the gods. In fact, in many levels of Bouncy Chicken you’ll not have a clue how things will play out, firing that chick off and crossing fingers. 

The luck based element is fine on the earlier levels, as fewer corns and higher chicken shots are present. But as you get to the latter stages of the ninety on offer in Bouncy Chicken, it starts to become a bit of an ordeal, as multiple attempts are made with little success. We’re pinpointing our lack of enthusiasm for Bouncy Chicken at Level 55 and onwards. Things felt fun before that. Yet near on everything after is frustrating. Even holding down the A button after a shot, stopping the chicken on a dime fails to really help. And honestly, we’re not sure if that mechanic is meant to be part of the Bouncy Chicken experience. It’s certainly not highlighted anywhere… 

It’s not like the visuals or audio can help matters. An earworming backing track will be switched to mute well before you complete Bouncy Chicken, whilst the visual side of things is a letdown. It’s all a bit basic, with levels feeling like they’ve been thrown together via stock assets. It gets worse when your little chick is found glitching through various level structures too; we’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve seen our bird push his way through a solid planter or rotating fence. 

Ultimately, Bouncy Chicken is nothing but Eastasiasoft achievement fodder. Look for anything more from this one aside from the ping of some easy Gamerscore and you’ll be left severely disappointed. Even the low price point and decent number of levels can’t save Bouncy Chicken from being a frustrating puzzle experience.