Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-Beard is a debut effort from N-Zone based on, I’ve learned, a set of movies about Chickenhare and friends (itself based on graphic novels). The films are primarily European-centric and focused on a younger audience so I think that means I can consider this a movie tie-in game, joining the legacy of PS2 classics that served a similar purpose. In this Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-Beard I will detail what I think the game does well.
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Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-Beard Review for PS5
- Title: Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-Beard
- Developer: N-Zone
- Publisher: NZone Production
- Primary Genre: Action, Adventure, Platformer
Gameplay
This has a lot of the standard Platforming elements that genre veterans will be familiar with. It takes a character-switch approach with one character able to glide, one able to fight, and the other having a shell for slopes and protection. There’s also a swinging ability that’s pretty fun.
On the surface, this is all pretty simple stuff for the genre and the actual platforming is fairly easy. There are some platformers that take a more difficult approach but Chickenhare keeps the basics pretty simple.
Where I find there’s some joy in this is the completionist elements. Good Platformers are either difficult at the base or they’re difficult to complete. I find that this game brings some Crash Bandicoot inspiration with the landing circle, stars being given for completing the level in a specific way, and the desire to collect everything in sight, even if it makes the game a bit harder.
The game became a lot more interesting once I realised there was a real difficulty to collecting the three treasures, limiting deaths, and collecting every coin in a level. This is where I feel Chickenhare really shines, and given the numerous homages to Crash Bandicoot, that does feel intentional.
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Visuals
Recent movie/TV tie-in games have taken a pretty solid approach to their art. Bright, vivid colours and a cartoony sheen are the best ways to make me feel like I’m playing through a part of a show or film.
Chickenhare also has some great perspective shifts that I found to be pretty well done. Some of the levels are quite vast and based in the air and the game handles shifting pretty well, giving a great view of the level and landscape.
Story
Good guys vs bad guy, meeting some help along the way, there’s some tropes here but they do provide a reasoning to go from place to place and level to level. A game like this doesn’t need to revolutionise storytelling and what is done here is perfectly fine for a platformer based on a kids’ movie.
Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-Beard Review – Last Word on Gaming Viewpoint
As far as platformers go, I really liked Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-Beard. There’s enough challenge in being a completionist to make you come back again and again, the only thing holding it back is the occasional limitation of the game’s controls that can make it easy to miss a coin or two without much of a mistake on the players’ part.
Chickenhare and the Treasure of Spiking-Beard Review – The Verdict
8/10
*review code provided*
