There isn’t a great deal of story to Fluster Cluck, it is more crafted for the excuse to participate in the game. You begin you career as a lowly member of the Chikkin Koop corporation, working your way up through the bureaucracy. Turning anything and everything into “Chikkin” as you gain the required experience to “level up” the corporate ladder.
My first piece of insight for this heading is for anyone able to view the games introductory video, is to do so right away. Given too you much like a brief induction video for a working site. This video covers everything this game has got, humor, action, honesty and CHIKKINS!
Fluster Cluck doesn’t take itself too seriously, just sit and think about the name of the title…. See, not a very serious game is it. It works the humor angle perfectly though, with the hilarious induction video mentioned above, to the simple premise of the game. All out intergalactic chaos to turn everything into Chikkin.
As far as visuals are concerned this game could easily have been a last gen console game or even a hybrid PS2/Xbox game but that is half the charm too it, that and the honorable nod to the games couch based co-op/multi player inspirations. Colors are bright and lively in the various themed worlds you do battle in and the sounds are playful yet excitingly frantic as you lose yourself in the chaos of the battles.
There are various customizations you add to your character which I will dive into under game play but even having these options aesthetically is a brilliant little design that I felt added that genuine charm too the game. The various hats and characters to pilot your spacecraft sold it for me.
Loot entertainment are seeming to make a name for them selves striving to relive what I believe too be the glory days of gaming. The couch based multi player/co-op of the N64 era is certainly the motivation behind this game, taking strong elements from Mario Kart 64’s frantic battle mode mixed with what I felt to be a slight twist of Bomberman 64.
Your task is simple, in the small arenas you are placed in for each match. You grab anything you can and Chikkinize it. These ingredients include cows, camels, zombies even your opposition. The first three ingredients are found locally in the world standing idly by waiting for you too gather them but the remaining targets, the enemies can be taken down with a volley of attacks from your forward mounted guns, rear mounted guns or your special attack, If you choose it too be offensive as opposed to defensive. The one with the most points for Chikkinizing things at the end of the timed round wins the match. Simple but satisfying.
As you level up and gain experience, a range of customizable options become available too the player. A change in ship can alter vehicle attributes, a change in character is purely for aesthetics, although I did favor one particular character called “Gherkin” with a rather sour look on his face. A hat on your chosen character offers different buffs such as speed boosts or bonus attack damage. Weapons and special weapons are also selected too suit your particular style of play.
Upon booting this game up, I decided to take on a few solo matches too get my head around the controls and the concept of the game. I quickly selected my variables with very little on offer seeings as I was just a beginner and during a very short load screen was quickly shown the controls. When I say quickly, I mean in the blink of an eye because at the end of my first game, I was absolutely slaughtered. Running in at a dismal dead last and my ego annihilated. A testament to the traditional difficulty of the games Loot Entertainment aims to capture.
A quick shuffle to the options to cover the controls and drop the difficulty for two matches was the perfect starting point. I had grasped the task, controls and difficulty. Just in time for the couch multi player session I arranged for the purpose of the review.
Multiplayer offers you the opportunity to continue your single player campaign or more importantly offers you the chance to utterly humiliate your mates in a variety of matches from traditional game modes, collect chikkin and become the best employee or a plain and simple death match. No hunting ingredients just pure demolition of your friends. These modes can be completed in a team scenario or a free for all. If you aren’t lucky enough to have four mates around at the same time, the computer will happily fill the gaps for you.
As I mentioned this game takes brilliant inspiration from the couch based multi player games of the N64, which works a charm when you have your mates around. Needless to say an online option would have filled that void. Although what could potentially be a brutal learning curve with no tutorial or a brief view of the controls may deter initial players, I implore you too take the initiative of learning the games mechanics as the experience is something that surely most older or experienced gamers have missed.
