Perhaps I played this too soon after Xeodrifter, but I found the simplicity of this retro-throwback style wore thin over my time playing it.

I played through all of Chicken Wiggle over the course of two cramped, uncomfortable intercity bus rides. Maybe my mental state affected my enjoyment, but I found it quickly ran out of tricks. I saw it through, but didn’t explore the user-generated levels much at all.

Yes, a big selling point of this game was its “create and share levels” feature. I find this can have the side effect that the campaign mode feels artificial as it was made using the same tools that are to be accessible to anyone. The final boss was an exception in this case as a unique format, and to be fair the game does make a decent effort to stay fresh.

You’re playing as a buddy duo (always a plus for me) of a chick and a worm in a backpack. The Banjo-Kazooie vibes this conjures aren’t paid off, as the campaign is 99% just playing levels with minimal framing. Still, they make for a cute team with appropriate game mechanics. The chick can peck (an interaction mechanism and a distressingly short-ranged attack), and a powerup lets it fly (among other one-off abilities). The worm acts as a grapple to pull you to any surface, or stun enemies. This dynamic is implemented well and plays smoothly through the puzzle-platforming stages.

Each level has 100 gems and three hidden letters to find, purely for collection’s sake. There’s a trickle of new mechanics and enemies, teaching you the behaviours before testing you, and ideally inspiring your own level creation. It’s all done well and with a pleasing pixel look, but I grew accustomed to the formula and the basic tile-based structure over time. I think the fun of the grapple mechanic is what most kept me going when the shine wore off, it’s a very neat little device that’s tied to the character design. Yeah.