Most party games revolve around competition. Whether it’s a game like Mario Party, where players compete to finish a minigame first, or Super Smash Bros., where players fight on platforms and aim to be the last one standing, party games revolve around one core goal a player must complete. In the case of Mario Party, it’s simple: finish first or perform the best. For Super Smash Bros., it requires one to be the last fighter standing or achieve the most knockouts. Ultimate Chicken Horse, developed by Clever Endeavor Games, presents its goal a bit differently. Ultimate Chicken Horse actually presents players with two different goals they must complete, adding layers that many other party games simply lack.
Ultimate Chicken Horse, at first glance, plays out like many other platforming games. For those who don’t know, a platforming game—most commonly known as a platformer—is a game where one jumps from one platform to another to make their way across a level. The most famous platformers are probably the Super Mario Bros. franchise. In Ultimate Chicken Horse, the initial goal is simple: move your character from the start of the level to the flag at the end. However, no matter how hard one tries to do so, each level is specifically crafted so that players cannot make it to the end. While this seems like terrible design at first glance, each round of the game plays out in two phases. In the second phase, one attempts, with up to three other players, to jump their way to the finish flag. The first phase is what sets Ultimate Chicken Horse apart from any other platformer I have ever played; rather than providing a level with the platforms carefully placed by the developers, Ultimate Chicken Horse gives the players the job of placing the platforms themselves.
Now, how does this work? In the main mode, where players compete to be the first across, they also compete to grab a platform from the random options presented to them. These could include items from simple wooden platforms to spike traps to flaming tennis ball launchers.
Players then can place their chosen platform anywhere within the level’s grid.
At first, this doesn’t create much of a challenge, with everyone making their way to the end most of the time. However, as time passes, players place more platforms and traps around the level, making it increasingly hard to finish. Often, towards the final rounds of the game, the level becomes completely impossible to complete, with either the finish flag blocked off or too many traps surrounding it. In the end, the player with the most points wins, and players are sent back to the lobby to play again.
This cycle of actively building the level and then immediately playing it makes for an extremely entertaining gameplay loop, and it is simple enough for most casual gamers to understand easily. This stands out in a genre where so many games are relatively copy-and-paste, as Ultimate Chicken Horse breaks outside the well-established molds of party games and ascertains its unique spin on things. This game is an instant recommendation to anyone looking for an innovative and incredibly fun game to play with friends or family.
Photos
Cover. LaunchTrailer_Thumbnail by Mongoose Rodeo Games. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5601be1fe4b0dfb50e050a73/1562877591180-NK1KXLCNGHDCP8QIG43O/LaunchTrailer_Thumbnail.png?format=1000w
Fig 1. Josiah Long. Picking platforms.
Fig 2. Josiah Long. Placing platforms.