TOKYO: Ultimate Chicken Horse is a platform that lets the player build his or her own levels on the fly and challenge their friends to see who can reach the flag first. The game is meant to be a party game that can be played with up to four players, but only requires one controller because players take turns placing blocks and items to create the level, as well as to attempt to guide their character through the masterpiece that they no doubt created.
Ultimate Chicken Horse is a game that features two type of gameplay, each relying on a separate skill that the player must use to succeed. The first is the strategic level creation that occurs where the players must plot out levels that are difficult, while still making sure they are beatable. Otherwise, the player risks not only screwing their friends over with a challenging level, but themselves as well. After completing the level, the players will then enter the platforming mode which has the players taking turns trying to see who can make it to the flag, which rewards the player with a point. After each round, the players return to the level creation mode to add more traps and platforms to the level, and the process repeats until a player has scored enough points to be crowned the victor.
There are two major gameplay modes in Ultimate chicken Horse. The first is the Classic Competitive Mode, which allows you to place any blocks that you would like from the game’s huge inventory, and features the players taking turns running through the level. This is the recommended mode for 2-3 players. The other mode is the Party Mode, which features a randomly generated box of blocks to choose from, and also has players competing at the same time, which will require having more than one controller. There are not collisions for the players at this time, but they are definitely considering adding them, and I feel like that would make the game much more hectic and entertaining.
The Shared Controller Couch allows you to swap controllers between friends, meaning you won’t need multiple controllers to play multiplayer.
Along with the game’s main multiplayer modes, Ultimate Chicken Horse also features a single-player puzzle adventure that leads you through increasingly difficult levels that often limit which blocks and how many of them that you are allowed to place. For those who are not interesting in creating levels, you can find many levels available on the game’s server so you can instantly jump in to some difficult and entertaining platforming action.
In terms of its gameplay, which I was able to try through the demo which you can find here, I found Ultimate Chicken Horse to be a very solid platforming experience. The controls felt very responsive to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. Although I did not have a friend on hand to try out the multiplayer, I can definitely see it being extremely entertaining. The idea of creating levels on the fly and through collaboration with friends who are trying to screw each other is fantastic, and I really like the fact that Ultimate Chicken Horse tried something new instead of leaning on a bland, typical design. Ultimate Chicken Horse tries something new with the platforming genre and executes it perfectly, and I highly recommend giving it a try.
