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With the stylus, constructing my level is a fluid experience. With a maximum 99 enemies I can deploy in a level, but an endless amount of spiked balls I can use, I decide on a vertically oriented stage designed around the flight suit, one of several power-ups available. I build my first level, Flightoid, modeling it after a legal pad blueprint I work up during lunch. I can’t begin to express my appreciation for this type of creative freedom.Įven with the limitations of the editor, the fact I decide what constitutes a win here completely changes my approach to design. I can instead require players to kill all the enemies, find a key and open an exit door, help a skeleton reach his grave and more. Throughout the campaign, the only objective is to rescue a trapped chicken. I name my level, select a background theme, give some hints on what people must do in it, choose some keywords, and, central to the excellence of this software, I pick which task the player must complete in order to beat the level. The editor is available right from the start and there is no waiting to unlock everything. In fact, the very first downloadable level I play, a Jools Watsham design, is cleverer than anything included in the game proper. Across those 48 levels, I get some inspiration for what I can do with it but none of them scratch the surface of what is possible if I let my imagination run wild with the tools Atooi has created.
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Together they’re a formidable pair for the many challenges I hope to face in the user-created levels.Įvery stage in the campaign, save for the one boss battle, comes from the extensive level creator which is the real star of Chicken Wiggle. Like Ristar’s arms, the worm can stretch great lengths to stun baddies as well as grab ceiling and wall pieces. He, or she… let’s go with she, has a weak jump and a slight peck to knock out enemies. The titular chicken isn’t much of a hero alone. It takes roughly half the game to see some inspired design and challenging concepts, but reused gimmicks, such as predictable placement of hidden collectible letters, are sewn throughout the ultimately underwhelming adventure. I feel I have to write about the campaign to Chicken Wiggle, the one where a pogo stick witch kidnaps a bunch of birds and is pursued by my chicken and worm duo across 48 levels, only because it is there. Will it work? Beats me, but if there are any 3DS owners out there jonesing for a new, intuitive level creator, they should take a good long look at Chicken Wiggle. Fewer still will contemplate launching a new IP instead of doing something with more name recognition. This late in the 3DS’s lifespan, not many tiny indie teams will attempt a project requiring dedicated servers and a great deal of community involvement to make it work.