The game actually surprised me. The music is great, and plays a big role in making what you're doing feel epic or to maximize the emoteness (is that a word?) of the cutscenes. As far as gameplay goes it is fairly straightforward; you run, you jump, shoot, switch weapons / gadgets, and there are some simple puzzles along the way as well.

There is certainly one element of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, which is when you or your enemy gets shot you go flying in the air and lose control. You are always using a semi-auto or full automatic weapon, so it ends as either you totally ♥♥♥♥ up your enemies or they totally ♥♥♥♥ you up. There's also the shield holding penguins who you have to "dodge-roll" past to get behind them. However, if you don't roll far enough and manage to shoot them instantly they will beat the birdshit out of you, because the sprite just flips around and whacks you like a masochistic nun in an all boys boarding school.

I still had fun playing it, though, and that's the most important thing.

This game might look ridiculous, but I assure you, it is not. This is a gritty story about guerilla warfare and an oppressive regime. While the story is good, the gameplay is even better. Sure, it takes around ten bullets to take down the standard enemies, but this is more than made up for by the ability to "bullet juggle" enemies by shooting them continuously. This game also has some interesting and original mechanics that spice up gameplay, but to tell you about them would spoil the story. Suffice to say, this game, while being a shooter/action game at heart, also has puzzles every once in a while as a break from the action.

I guess that is what I like so much about this game, that it tells a rather messed up story using irony and moments of hilarity to minimize the effect. Some of these moments may be unintentional (I personally like to roll like a tumbleweed throughout the levels), but some, like the title of the game and the snippets of dialogue scattered throughout, are well thought out.

Verdict: 10/10 Because I honestly don't have anything bad to say about this game. I had a lot of fun playing it and everything works well together.

This is an excellent game for the right kind of person, maybe, but I am personally not feeling it. The thing I love most about Rocketbirds is its art. It LOOKS amazing. I love everything about not only the quality of the art, but the cartoony style. I also love the theme of chickens vs penguins. In a game culture where so many things are grimdark or the same old human space marines shooting the same old badguy marines and/or aliens and/or zombies, there is something refreshing about a change of wallpaper. And what great-looking wallpaper it is.

I also was interested in Rocketbirds because it looked like it had some action akin to a metroidvania or possibly something a little bit more contra style. I typically enjoy those types of games, so it seemed like a safe buy. But ultimately Rocketbirds just didn't satisfy me. Here are the turnoffs:

1) Movement feels sluggish and stiff, like driving a tank that also has to peel itself off the linoleum every time it stops and starts again.

2) Shooting is incredibly simple. You can either shoot straight ahead or you can crouch and shoot straight ahead. That's it. You can't change aim direction while shooting, though, and HB controls and moves slow. So one of this game's favorite things to do is have 2 to 4 penguins come running in from both sides of the screen and attack you from both sides. If you only shoot one way, you'll get shot in the back. Ostensibly what you want to do is quickly shoot back and forth to keep enemies on both sides staggered. However, if you are shooting right and want to shoot left, you have to release the trigger, turn HB around, then start shooting again. Since HB also controls/moves very slowly, this makes it very easy to get ganked in the most frustrating way.

3) The platforming feels very bad. The jumps are sluggish as the rest of HB's movements, for starters, but the other weird thing is that HB will auto-grab any ledges he jumps toward---and he will do it at a fairly far distance. This is great if you are actually trying to get up on that ledge, but if you don't want to auto-grab that ledge, then having him auto-grab it is annoying. The same goes for dropping over the edge of a ledge or precipice. If you are standing on an edge and press down, HB will automatically climb down that ledge. This is annoying in situations where you climb up onto a ledge, then an enemy runs on screen, and what you WANT to do is press down to crouch and shoot, but instead HB crawls down the ledge. Sigh.

4) Trying to line HB up with a buttons and switches can be awkward due to jerky movements. Likewise, there are also lots of light puzzles involving pushing crates around, but pushing the crates also feels awkward due to jerky movements. This is the "sticky" aspect of controlling HB. Because while on one hand he feels sluggish, he is also difficult when trying to make more fine/precise movements, because his movement/animation tends to "pop". When pushing crates, they don't just slide across the floor in a smooth, consistent motion. They jerk and lurch forward as you push them. When trying to make fine movements, such as to line HB up with a button, he will jerk to the left and right of the button.

5) There are different guns in the game, but it largely doesn't matter which gun you use. They all pretty much control the same, and for the vast majority of enemy encounters, one gun does not provide any advantage over another gun. There are power differences and rate of fire differences, but due to the way the combat works, it doesn't really change your tactics in any significant way.

6) You can use mind control on the penguin enemies to take over their minds and make them go shoot their friends, but they control exactly the same as HB (except in the rare case where you can mind control a bazooka penguins), so the gameplay doesn't feel different. This still makes for good puzzling, however.

I got frustrated once I got to one of the ships where you had to flip the self-destruct button and escape the ship in time. (Time challenges. Always thrilling.) I was struggling with the controls but eeking by up until that point, but at that point it was just asking for more than I was willing to fight the controls for.

Final Verdict: A beautiful looking game with a great heart, but the controls just don't feel very good, which brings the rest of the experience down.

I picked this game up when it was under 3 dollars. It is well worth it at that price. Lots of fun and great soundtrack. The fact that its linux compatible and full controller support is great. Runs very well on ubuntu with a wired usb 360 controller. It isnt super short either. So you do get plently of game play hours out of it. Overall the game storyboard is well thought out and put together. It is a bit violent but kids over 8-10 should be fine playing. But use your own judgement. Every child is different. This game has not disappointed. I would recommend it at 9.99 but when on sale its a steal of a deal. I hope this helps anyone on the fence about getting it.

I love this game. This gem was clearly inspired by Rolling Thunder, with a bit of Astroid (old arcade game from the 80's) inspired segments thrown in. I can't say too many harsh things about it, but its really a great game in my personal opinion. The game is a bit short, but being im not a fan of excessively long games, the shortness of the game is much welcome. The soundtrack is also outstanding. The sounds of indie rock music that plays between cut scenes and gameplay is welcome and wonderfully fits the game's mood. The run and gun game play is also just as satisfying. I would recommend this game to anyone who are into old school run and gun games like rolling thunder and, hell even dirty harry for the NES. This is definitely a worthy purchase for future buyers.

I bought this for my friend as a joke, and they hated it, so I played it myself and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ loved it.

When I bought 'Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken', I was looking for a fun, simple diversion that I could start up and play quickly, but could easily put down. 'R:HC' fit the bill, and I got it for a very good price at just over $1. Too bad it is not a good game.

'R:HC' has its humble beginnings as a Flash game. It was later expanded to a full game for PC and PS3. From its trailer and screenshots, I was expecting a side-scrolling action game. What I got instead with 'R:HC' was an action platform puzzle game that still played like a Flash game in most instances. Unfortunately, neither its action nor its platform puzzle part was done well. The side-scrolling action was too slow, the jetpack action was too frantic and hard to discern; the platforming puzzles were too simple. In the end, this mixed genre game failed in execution despite its potential to be entertaining.

Thankfully, 'R:HC' has wonderful artwork, amazingly directed cutscenes, and a rocking soundtrack by New World Revolution. I would have loved to see 'R:HC' as a full-blown animated film instead of this disappointing game. (The story of 'R:HC' is like an action film from the 1980s starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, so it would have made sense to make it so.) When the cutscenes are so exciting, the repetitive and mostly sluggish gameplay just suck the fun out of 'R:HC'.

If you are looking for an exciting, high octane side-scrolling action game, try games like 'Broforce' and 'Shank'. If you are looking for fun platform puzzle games, games like 'LIMBO', 'INSIDE' and 'Braid' are way better options. Even at its sale price of $1, I can't recommend 'R:HC' because your precious time deserves to be spent on better games.

It's not the most tight and complex sidescrolling shooter out there but it's one hell of a charming one. The music by New World Revolution is great and the visuals are amazing. The humor is ok, but it's present at least. There's some interest puzzle elements and they'll be the challenge for most of the game as combat is pretty easy and you'll get all healt and anmo back if you die and revert to a checkpoint. There's also a separate co-op campaign for two players though it uses almost the same environments it's decent to play once at least. It could be more polished but I look forward to that on a sequel.

This game. This game here. This is one of those games where you see it, and you ignore it, because it just has that look to it, that its gonna be a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game that belongs nowhere other than a bundle, and you only activate it just to add a +1 to your library. BUT... no.... no no no no no...

This game is ridiculously fun. The art style is cool, the controls are nice and tight and work well, the sounds are high quality, the music is great, and the humor is so corny you have to laugh. REALLY enjoyed what ive played so far, definitely going to be coming back for more, im loving it. It's not some super hard platformer or side scroller shoot em up. It's a mindless game with mindless shooting just like it appears to be, but its done in a way that makes it highly enjoyable.
First i was just running through the levels shooting up the penguin enemies. Then i got to a part where i found my jetpack. It shoots me up in the ait, and theres a huge Zeppelin that's spitting out penguins with jetpacks and we're twirling around in the air having dogfights. Was a lot of fun. I'm only two or three levels into the game and can already tell its a keeper. Even if nothing changes and this same gameplay repeats itself, its still a great game.
I would definitely reccomend this to anyone who likes side scrollerr shooters even in the slightest. I can't wait to hook up with someone to play some co-op with. I imagine it would be lots of laughs.
As far as pricing, i definitely would not want to pay the full $9.99 for it, it's a great game. But it's not $9.99 great. If you can manage to get your hands on an old bundle code, or you catch it on a sale here through Steam, or elswhere like Amazon or GMG, grab it. $5.00 would be a fair price for it with ease.

on a scale of 1 to 10 i give this a solid 9.

Good game!