Re(?)Considered: Alfred Chicken
Cluck amuck.
With the Re(?)Considered column, Stuart Gipp — friend to unpopular games that are in all honesty a bit crap — looks back at the games no one else cares about and tries to find the joy in much-hated (or just plain ignored) critical duds. You can enjoy his rehabilitative efforts every other Tuesday.
The injustice levied upon poor, precious Alfred Chicken breaks my heart. Scorned, mocked, just plain ignored. Even the boilerplate intro to this article states that it is "a bit crap". It isn't. It is one of the best platform games of all time. I believe this with all my heart and will endeavour to explain why.
Alfred Chicken has a story. It is something about rescuing eggs. It is drivel. Forget it. Seriously, don't worry about it. Eggs need saving. Just press Start.
You control the titular Alfred, a chicken. Your moveset is limited, but useful. You can move around, jump, flap your wings to marginally slow your descent, peck at the walls ineffectually, and you dive bomb with enough force to transform yourself into a missile and blow enemies to smithereens.
Yes, with a casual tap of "down" on the D-pad, you can transform an airborne Alfred into an instrument of violent death. Smashing an enemy in this form will cause Alfred to bounce high into the air, ready for another bombing raid. Chaining kills like this is fun and satisfying. It's Alfred's primary means of offense, unless he's lucky enough to find a very well-hidden jam jar or can of worms.
That reminds me, this game is absolutely out of its tree. A smorgasbord of lunacy. Your goal is to peck balloons. Your opponents are snails and clockwork mice. To get the Good Ending you must find a fiendishly-hidden watering can within each level and bring it to Mr. Pekles, a giant flower. What else would you expect from the Brits? We grew up playing Jet Set Willy and watching Bod. We're mad, us.
Level design has a pleasing mixture of well thought-out platforming and mild puzzling; blocks need to be switched on and off via pecking switches, or, latterly, manipulating enemies to hit them for you. The sprites are small, but this game is all about clarity and precision, so the intricate looks suits the intricate stages. While not maze-like by any stretch, exploration is necessary to find the crucial balloons that will see Alfred liberating his eggy pals.
There are many superb ports of Alfred Chickenbut I have to recommend the Game Boy version. The gameplay simply suits Nintendo's handheld and the graphics aren't detailed enough to suffer from excessive blurring. The NES version is great, but short; at only five levels, it's more like a demo. The SNES' Super Alfred Chicken has completely different levels, but this game just feels at home on a portable system.
I think every game has potential and the less acclaimed something is the more likely I'm going to try my damndest to wring some measure of fun out of it. Every game I've covered so far has been flawed. Alfred Chicken is not. It's quite simply a damn good platformer. Either this is enough for you, or it isn't. Give it a try. What are you, chicken?
