Ultimate Chicken Horse Switch Review by SwitchWatch
Developer: Clever Endeavour Games
Publisher: Clever Endeavour Games
Release Date: Out Now
Price as of Article: $14.99USD, £13.49GBP
Game code provided by Clever Endeavour Games for review
Story
There’s no real story in Ultimate Chicken Horse to speak of, so let’s skip this part.
Gameplay
Ultimate Chicken Horse is a multiplayer competitive platformer were multiple players play offline or online using a plethora of different objects to create or hinder each other to get to goal.
On the main menu, there are two main options: Play Locally and Play Online. There also other options for stats and standard options.
When you begin, you move a cursor around an area to pick one of the animals that are currently available to play. The controls are really simple, only really requiring you to move the left analog stick to move and you can jump with the A button. You can also wall jump and do a little taunt with the Y button – other than that, all controls are displayed while playing.
After picking a character you can explore the hub area. Here you can discover a few different options that you can play around with.
The Tree!
There is a large tree in the centre area, with each branch housing a unique level that can be played with 4-players using joy-cons or you can use the hot-seat feature which lets share your controls with each player taking turns to play. However, sharing joy-cons in hot seat mode can only be done in creative mode, which lets you create your own levels with the help of others.
There’s a large red button that’s located on top of the house in the hub world. If you jump on it with your character, you can swap between each of the 4 modes – Party, Creative, Free, and Challenger modes.
Creative Mode!
In creative mode, you will use your inventory and cycle through 3 pages of different objects that you can use to help you get to the goal. Each player will receive points for completing a course. However, each player can hinder others by making a sort of obstacle course that they can maybe overcome to reach the goal, hoping others won’t. It’s great fun with others – reminds me of Mario maker/multiplayer experience. There are not a lot of objects to use in this mode but its simple nature makes this experience more focused.
Free Mode!
This mode is little more free as you can play with either 1 player or 4 if you so wish to. When you’re in the level, you can check out your inventory and this time there are 4 pages full of objects, colours, moving parts, platforms, and a range of different hazards to use in your level.
There are well over 40+ objects to use in free mode which are real cool. Plus, setting up levels is super easy and most of the objects can be rotated with the ZR and ZL buttons on joy-cons.
You can also save all the levels either online or locally.
Party mode!
This is where it’s at for up to 4 players and it’s a complete blast to play with friends. Each of the levels appear in the huge tree in the centre. And as you progress, more levels and secrets will be unlocked – these show themselves as question marks that appear on random levels. You can pick which one you want to play by simply jumping on the platform. Once the level begins, a box shuffles a couple of objects, everyone has to pick an object and place it in the level. Then everyone has to try to get to the goal. However, this is where the chaos begins! As each player will want to reach the goal but also want you to fail by setting up hazards or objects to make it difficult for you to progress. First player to reach the goal will receive a point on the bar chart at end of the round and as the level progresses the level will become crazier and more difficult for everyone!
The game also uses cross-play features with PC players which is pretty cool so you always find someone to play with.
Challenger!
Challenge mode is very difficult and uses levels that have been created by the community. Some are truly crazy to get through. To load up community driven levels, you need to jump down the well in the hub area and use the level loader.
You can look through level NET, local levels, favourites, and recent levels. You can also search for levels and change the difficulty, time, and type of each level to find what you’re looking for.
Each level has a completion rate and other stats like how many times the level has been played, when it was published, and its current rating.
Love community driven content and this has it in spades!
Once you find a level you are looking for, you can either load it up to 4 empty slots so you can play it later. You can rate them and checkout the online leader boards. Also, you can favourite, save, or share them with in-game codes that you can share on social media.
Some of these levels are really creative but insanely hard to beat!
There are also blank levels where you can edit and creative levels without restrictions as well.
And few other extras, like rules and dress up stations where you can unlock different clothing options for your animals.
Audio
The audio is pretty jazzy with lots of guitars and trumpets. It has a pretty funky soundtrack and it fits the overall presentation well. Also, all the quirky animal noises and sound effects are good too.
Visuals & Performance
Visuals in Ultimate Chicken Horse are nice as they have a rather cool looking art style. Each animal is animated quite well too. Levels themselves look hand drawn and everything is presented well.
Performance was mixed in my experience, as the game crashed multiple times during my playtime.
I did contact the developers and they are aware of the issues.
Game also supports screenshots but doesn’t support video capture which is a bit of a shame.
Value
Priced at £13.49, I’d say this is pretty good value for your money. You can enjoy lots of multiplayer options as well as single player content which you can play, thanks to all community driven levels. I think if you are looking for a multiplayer game that everyone can enjoy, look no further than Ultimate Chicken Horse!
Pros
Fantastic local and online multiplayer
Cast of lovable animals
Community-driven content
Cons
Multiple crashes during gameplay
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