Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken

There aren't many situations in which being called a chicken is a good thing.

One exception is Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken, a puzzle-platformer for PS Vita that packs in more style than a catwalk made entirely of leather.

If your PS Vita has been gathering dust for a while, this is most definitely a good reason to wipe it off and press your thumbs into action.

Boiling point

You play as a beefed-up chicken on an unknown mission to wipe out an army of penguins. Yes, it's as silly as it sounds.

After mowing down enemies with your weapon in each area, you then have to solve puzzles by shifting objects around and finding a path.

This is the main crux of the concept, but it's far from the whole package. Rocketbirds throws a ton of variety your way, with plenty of great gameplay ideas that keep the action fresh throughout.

The puzzles are genuinely tricky at times, too, with later instances involving the mind-bending use of mind-control bugs, allowing you to get into the heads of enemy soldiers.

This Vita version has several neat ideas that the PC edition lacks, such as the ability to tilt your device to see new perspectives, and to use the back panel to better aim grenades.

Rocketman

Rocketbirds is also hugely stylish, with a fantastic soundtrack, gorgeous visuals, and lovely animated cut-scenes.

The storyline and corresponding dialogue are snappy and gave us a laugh or two, although the voice-acting is a little off at times.

It's only later into the game that negatives begin to show -namely in the fact that when you die you're made to sit and watch a loading screen for a good ten seconds or more.

This wouldn't be so bad, but the game gets really difficult, and you will die often. The time spent waiting around quickly builds up and becomes a serious issue that the PC version didn't suffer so much from.

This issue aside, Rocketbirds is a fine experience that goes swimmingly with your lovely Sony handheld. If you're into your puzzle-platformers, don't pass this one up.

Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken

Rocketbirds is more heavyweight than featherweight, with slick puzzling and oodles of style
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.