Chicken Invaders
Chicken Invaders is a series of Arcade Games about saving the world from invading cosmic chickens. What "the world" is in this context varies between the games: In the first game it's planet Earth that's constantly getting attacked, in the second you need to clear out the entire solar system, and in the third game there's an entire galaxy to clear of evil chickens as you try to get back home to earth in time to save the day once more. And then once you're through doing that you can go and do it a fourth time, in a similar premise to three.
Tropes used in Chicken Invaders include:
- Adorable Evil Minions: The chickens
- And Now for Something Completely Different: The Chicken Leotard unlockable from game four.
- Animal Wrongs Group: The chickens are here to wipe out the human race in order to save the earthly chickens.
- Awesome but Impractical: The whole game, but the Utensil Poker in particular.
- BFG: The Satallites are fairly large compared to the ship which would make them gigantic compared to a human.
- Big Eater: The hero, ready to devour a universe of chickens.
- Book Ends: In the fourth game; the second chapter starts with "Chicken Wobble" and the penulitmate does as well.
- Boss Rush: The name itself is parodied for "Weapons Rush" and "Satallite Rush" from the fourth. It's pretty much Boss Rush for the hero... for 150 Keys.
- Chicken Walker: Averted - the chicken have lots of chicken-based technology, pretty much everything one could think of except this one.
- Color Coded for Your Convenience: Averted. At first "The Ultimate Omlette" seems to rank weapons in order of rainbow (Red being lowest) but this isn't true... It goes something like Yellow -> Red -> Green -> Orange -> Light Blue -> Blue -> Pink -> Dark Blue -> Dark Pink -> Black. (Fiddly names and score aside.)
- Deadpan Snarker: The narrator and the hero in spades, though Hen Solo has shades of this.
- Did Not Do the Research: Some of the weapon names are laughably inaccurate. Let's look at, hmm... Proton Swarm? Those are not protons. Plasma Rifle: not plasma... etc., but the premise is so silly that its easy enough to look over.
- In 2 the chickens are actually arranged in rainbow order according to strength, though.
- Doomsday Device: In the second game the "Mother Hen Ship", in the third game the Yolk-star and in the fourth game the Egg Cannon.
- Downer Beginning: The third game starts where the second game ended, subverting its happy ending as a new Doomsday Device is uncovered and the hero is teleported to the other end of the galaxy.
- Repeated in four, which also leaves off just as the hero wins... Hen Solo flies out of a black hole and practically demands his help.
- Earth Is the Center of the Universe
- Elite Mooks: The late level chickens.
- Featureless Protagonist: The character is implied to be the human captain of a spaceship, but all the player ever see is the ship.
- Improbable Weapon User: The Utensil Poker weapon which is basically just a bunch of forks poking chickens until they die. In game 3 the menu is a Foreshadowing of the final boss fight where you get to use it and it's an unlockable in the fourth along with 3's Vulcan Chaingun and Plasma Rifle.
- The Chickens use eggs to kill you as well. eggs. Perhaps justified in that the protagonist seems fairly proud, but that wouldn't explain the kaboom...
- The chicks from four use poop.
- Interactive Narrator: In the third game, the narration and the hero just keep bickering with each other.
- As do they in the fourth game to similar funny levels.
- The Lancer: As a Shout-Out to the page picture, ""Hen Solo" from another galaxy acts as this to the hero. It's never determined whether he looks human or not, whether he's a chicken or not (Though that's not likely) or what galaxy he's even from.
- Money Spider: Interstellar chickens drop not only power-ups for your ship to eat and chicken meat for you to eat, but also coins.
- More Dakka: You always need more powerups, even if your firepower is maxxed: You keep it in reserve, since you lose firepower when you die. At later levels, a death can make the game unwinnable because you lost too much firepower.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: One boss in the third game seems pretty easy to beat. Until you notice that you aren't really leaving a huge dent on its health bar. Lo and behold, when you defeat the boss, the camera pans back revealing a much bigger boss.
- Police Are Useless: With the solar system invaded by chickens and the hero struggling alone against them, the police force is still active - but it's only contribution is to give him a speeding ticket.
- Recycled in Space: Space Invaders, recycled with chickens!
- Refusal of the Call: The hero tries this a bit, but to no use.
- Shock and Awe: The "Lightning Frier" weapon and, to an extent, "Plasma Rifle."
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: I the second game, the chickens get more powerful the deeper into the solar system you go. In the second game it's arbitrary, with the chickens getting stronger and stronger along the haphazard way you happen to be taking.
- Starfish Language: Cluck?
- Trademark Favourite Food: The Hero and his/her love of chicken.
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Hen Solo: The world is going to be destroyed by the chickens! |
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