Producer: Firebird
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £2.50
Language: Machine code

Sacre bleu! Well yes, in a way it is blue. The private life of the local henhouse explodes onto your screen in this rather unusual, but definitely tongue in cheek offering from Firebird.

Set in a henhouse with two doors to the outside world on the left and right walls, a central "bedroom" and two nesting platforms against the back wall, the idea of the game is to keep Madam Chicken satisfied by... hmm... well... ahem... doing what Cockerels are best at. All this takes place in her boudouis BEHIND A CLOSED DOOR. For every... hmm... thingybob ... you do (takes a few seconds you know) she'll produce a fertile egg and a heart appears at the top of the screen.

When you feel you've had enough, leave her room and Madam will follow a moment later, make a bee line for the nesting boxes and lay the same amount of eggs that you... um leftgooseberrybushesunderherbed.

It is here that the game now gets rather frantic. You see all the nasties that loaf around the farm - racoons, snakes, porcupines, rats and the like start to come into the henhouse and try to break the eggs. If you don't peck the bad guys (this sends them away) in time then they'll break the eggs and madam won't be too pleased to say the least: in fact she'll come out and biff you with her handbag. You've got three lives available and you lose one each time your wife biffs you.

Just to make life a little more difficult, as well as guarding the eggs you've got to enter madam's little room and give her something to help her produce more eggs. As the eggs hatch the chicks rush down and go into their Mummy's little room. If there aren't any more eggs and the last chick disappears into your birdy wife's boudoir, then she'll get very angry and give you more of the handbag treatment. So there's always got to be at least one egg on the nest waiting to hatch at any one time.

All this hectic exercise makes you pretty tired out. As you get more and more tired you begin to slow down - a big disadvantage if you're to catch those beastly baddies. Luckily there's plenty of grain lying around which you can peck up to keep you fit and energetic. Occasionally worms which stick their heads out of the ground. Peck these up and you'll be truly rejuvenated.

You score points according to how long you manage to keep all the eggs safe and madam happy. Extra lives can be gained throughout the game and later on, when the going gets frantic, you certainly need them!

COMMENTS

Control keys: 5 left, 8 right, 6 down, 7 up, 0 peck also redefinable
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: great!
Graphics: big and jolly
Sound: nice tunes and effects
Skill levels: gets progressively harder to survive
Screens: one

Chicken Chase appeared on to Commodore quite a while ago and received a warm welcome, not just because of its sauciness, as it is in fact a great little game. Rushing round with all the different factors - your energy situation, madam and the baddies demanding your attentions makes the game very frantic and enjoyable to play. The graphics are good, smooth and fast and the game has a nice feel about it. The fact that it's a mere £2.50 makes it even more enjoyable!

Quite an original game this, a real change in style for firebird's budget range. The scenario is a mite bit base but to play Chickin' Chase is fun. Keeping your time split between the several different tasks can be difficult and certainly the challenge is constant Graphics wise, Chickin' Chase is quite competent, the monochromatic sprites moving around fairly smoothly. Overall an above average offering for a below average price.

Ooh La La. Isn't it risque? A daft little game really, but lots of fun to play and about as offensive as a wet Wednesday. Not the most brain straining in terms of strategy or the most demanding in terms of arcade action but a neat idea, with some tidy graphics and enjoyable gameplay. There's plenty of things to keep in balance - the life of a real-life rooster must be tough it the game models reality! For the price, not one to be missed.

Firebird
£3.95

This may be a Gallic two screen cheepo that you won't need to buy on higher perches but it's high on the pecking order of this type of game. Essentially you have to direct your petit cock round his coop, upstairs, downstairs and occasionally in his lady's chamber, where the little red rooster learns all about the bees and the humans. Along the way he must eat to keep his strength up to satisfy his Frenchmen's 'apetite'.

However, rotten rodents ranging from rats to stoats keep ripping off Madam's eggs. This harrasses the hen to the point where she wallops our game cock about the wattles. Most amusing.