Chicken Farm (Arcade)

What comes first? egg or chicken? I think chicken is the answer. Because egg can't hatch by itself, right? Whatever your answer is, i make review about egg management in presumably one of branch of McDonald's farm in Lai Game's Chicken Farm (1999). 

Here's the chief of hens, give instruction to player on how to play the game: 1) Good egg goes to frying pan 2) Chicken egg goes to nest 3) Rotten egg goes to thrash bucket. There's no backstory or anything like that. The hen just tells you how to play after said "Want to win ticket? Play chicken farm!". Yes, it's one of "ticket collecting as many as you can" dexterous game. I aware most its peer tend to be way too simple and not fun. Especially not fun. But please stick longer to me as i have spend 1 credit already. Ain't turning back now.

 

Here's the stage and i have to say it's very unusual for egg sorting section of ordinary farm. For instance, the egg check is performed by using X-ray electrode instead of light bulb! That's way too expensive and dangerous. I mean what if the egg becomes radiated or -worse- mutated into egg monster and wreaks havoc nearby residential area. Also are you sure about those tightly arranged sorting outputs, McDonald? I don't think these pass Health and Safety work standard. At least, there's no stove below the frying pan. The player assume control of the slide in the middle section by using three buttons. Left button will slide the egg to the frying pan. Middle button will slide the egg to trash bucket. Right button will slide the egg to chicken nest. The game ends within limited time.

 

Also there's sun in background supervise your work. No, seriously. It's alive.

If you are doing it wrong, it will shake its head and says "Wrong choice", while frowning. I have mixed feeling of uneasiness and hilarity regarding the sentient sun there. Mostly hilarity. Actually, that's common in cartoonish art, right?

Each of the right procedure will increase the egg tally on top-right corner by one. It all goes well and fun until the sun commands "Hurry up now!" to the egg drops, the x-ray scanner or the player. The egg will drops faster and the X-ray scanner emits the ray more intense that the egg will explodes in a wink if it lets alone. Everyone most likely complains about arcade game difficulty that goes unfair suddenly. And i believe this is the example of it. Using "slow and sure" method is no longer valid at this point. So you have to rely on 33% chance on every quick decision to increase the tally. It happens quite often that the egg only comes in 2 type instead of 3. So the success chance there becomes 50%.

 

Then the game switch into roulette kind. The highlight moves between the eggs very fast until you hit a button. Whatever the result, you got extra ticket. So there's no lose situation.

 

The number of ticket you get (if you play it in real machine, that is), depends on how many egg that you have sort correctly and the result of bonus roulette. If i'm not mistaken, for every 4 well-placed eggs you will get 1 ticket. I think the limit of egg counter is 25 or so. No wonder the supervisor Mr. Sun speeds thing up significantly if the tally reaches 20. So you can only get 5 tickets at most. In my previous playthrough i constantly manage to sort well 24 egg but the game only acknowledge me with 5 tickets. What a shoddy business here. 

 

I try once again to see if i can manage to score 24 or maybe higher. As you can see the egg is cooked finely in frying without stove beneath it. Could this be the legendary auto-frying pan that can cook anything without stove or any fire source? I want it so i can cook to my heart content in my boarding house room. Just imagine! You don't have to worry about gas explosion or wildfire. You can cook safely. To quote SNK's slogan: The future is now!  

The slide control feels clunky but that's quite what you expect from simple egg sorting mechanism on this still bit conventional farm. Also it's quite accurate, i feel like i can reach score 24. By the way the sun keep smile widely like that...

 

...until you make mistake. The despicable supervisor. It seems i'm stuck with score 21, again. I'm as disappointed as the supervisor solar there.

 

But i got jackpot! How miraculous! I never hit jackpot before. This kind of miracle also happen when i'm forced to be Marksman class in Mobile Legend (which is the most grating role) and not only we win the match but also i'm MVP on it. Miracle does happen, reader. (:

 

Wow! I got whooping 26 tickets. Even though i play it in emulator, i still can call that win thus everyone here happy. Before i finish the writing i like to show you the interesting "wrong procedure" cases.  

Chicken egg goes to thrash bucket

That youngling most likely dead by drowned in murky goop. Requiescat in pace, young one.

Rotten egg goes to frying pan

 

As if, the sun said "Nuh-uh! Not gonna eat that". Why not? I bet Slimer will dig that with no problem.

Chicken egg goes to frying pan

 

I don't see the problem. Everyone loves hot chick, right? You may think that i'm psychopath toward young chicken. Perhaps that's true but i don't think it's genuine chick. I mean it already has cockscomb. Or perhaps (much) premature generation? Nah. Must be result of mutation genetic experiment.

 

That's Chicken Farm (1999). Even though it's ticket-earning game, i very fond of it because it has lots of charm especially in simple-yet-great gameplay. The music in egg-sorting stage is pretty good and suitable to farm's atmosphere. The voice acting is catchy and cartoonish. I can't easily forget about Sun speech of "Wrong choice" and "Yee-haw!". The control is stiff and sometime need repeated input to work but overall quite good and accurate. The graphic is rough cartoon with tolerable quality. This game probably good to be mini-game in other game or become Flash or Unity game.

To summarize it: i can recommend you to play Chicken Farm (1999) with simplistic fun gameplay. But you have to endure nigh-impossible difficulty in later part. By the way, I have important agenda: searching every department store for that revolutionary auto-frying pan.

Radical Rex (Genesis) - Part 2

Previously on part 1: Rex embarks on journey to free his dino fellows from hypnotism/magic of bipedal prehistoric rat by defeating him. He's defeated but he soon revive and revealed that he has kidnapped Rex's girlfriend. Thus Rex's quest continues...  

Rex must through another forest stage, that's including swimming area. While swimming, Rex can't blows firejet like when he's on land. Instead, he blows harmless air bubble but he can knockback these water denizens to give himself some free-from-damage space. I have to say that swimming section is the least appealing to me. Not only you have to deal with undefeatable enemies but also insta-kill situations are basically everywhere here. And that self-exploding clam isn't helping with situation. At least it kills itself. I takes damage a lot in these water section. Luckily there's health refill pick-up that can fully replenish my health.     

You may think the 2nd forest stage is the same stage only mirrored. I ensure that's not the case. Its layout is more complex than the previous one has. Also there's this Echidnasaurus that appeared on jungle stage but not on previous forest stage. It behaves like Megaman's Met: he's invincible when ducked. But he sprays spike quite everywhere around him so its attack are nearly avoidable. The spiky bastard.

 

Also in the end of the stage, there's boss fight. It's Pterosaur who keen on dropping lava rock at Rex. There's 2 type of spring mushroom here: tall and short. Tall mushroom boosts Rex's jump higher than short ones. To efficiently defeat the boss: keep jumping on short mushrooms so he's baited into flying low then immediately jump to long mushroom thus your firebreath can reach him. Cool boss-fight design.   

 

Nothing new in boneyard stage except new layout. I forgot to mention that Rex will automatically tumbling down when he stops at slope made of bones here. Also there's tubes that powered by vacuum air that sent Rex rolling in mid air like this. In previous stage they only lead to secret place, but here most of them are mandatory way to finish the stage.

 

One of the tube leads me to this stage's boss. What's more appropriate boss in this wonderful skeletal place than greater animated skeleton? If you say "Other than living skeleton", shut your noise-hole! As you can see it tries to bite me but its jaw can't reach me. Even with its elongated neck.   

 

But don't be fooled. It has other mean to attack Rex: spitting fireball like what Rex can do, spitting fireball that travel in zigzag pattern, and summon bones to fall at approximately Rex's position. Direct firebreath won't harm it not even a little. So you have to wait for flammable bones to fall and blow at them so you create flaming bones that can actually harm the boss. The problem is: it takes very long time for the flammable bone to come down. Because most of the time, it's unflammable bones (like the one on bottom) that appear. Thus you are trapped in tiresome routine of boss's attack dodging and hopping that the flammable bone falls. Luckily, the lower its health the faster its attack procedure, that lead to the correct bones appear more often. Still i reckon this is the worst boss battle in the game.

 

And once again Rex get devoured by the long-neck bastard. You can't learn about safe-skateboarding, can you?

 

First thing Rex does while in the beast's gut (for second time): angrily kicks a membrane wall where there's fire power-up. I have to say that the kick is relatively underused even though it's well animated. Which is quite pity.

 

I believe this is the perfect section where you most likely can get Ninja Gaiden'd. That moving bubble can be popped with flame but i suggest you leave it alone. Because it will burst into 2 other bubble that move faster and homing at Rex. So you have to rely on Rex's jump that have lots of degree to control precisely.

 

Oh, great! It's another scene where Rex's girlfriend can get jealous. Even though he dislikes this kiss because it's harmful.

I have to question whether is there any creature that has hairy digestion chamber like this or not. Seriously, it makes my mind uneasy. This hairy part not only slow Rex's movement but also hamper his jump. At least it prevent him for getting another harmful kiss from that tadpole thing.     

 

Another boss battle ensues. This time against the dinosaur's organ that has tentacles and constantly spitting bubbles. To damage it, you have to burn its 2 holes that spit the bubble. But you should burn the bubble along with the hole because it will split into homing shrapnel. To get things worse, there's wide gastric-juice pool below the boss. So if you knocked down, you most likely get killed right away. You can switch side to face other hole by jumping on the organ. Also you will totally safe on top of it.      

At least, Rex learn how to duck on swooping Archaeopteryx...     

...but he got cocky and later get grabbed from behind. Silly Rex. :p   

There's new enemy here: plant that infinitely spawn deadly grapes. Here's the awful thing beside the last boss: the plant can't be burned! Like, seriously? Plants are supposed to be burnable. That's solidly written in nature's rule. Pyro_jeers01.wav 

And the amount of self-exploding turtles (like the one on right) are significantly increased than the last time Rex visits. Even they have exploded themselves, they're still harmful to touch. Perhaps the turtle is still hot to touch, judging by that sizzling smoke.

 

The stage's boss: the largest floating hornet nest. The battle is quite similar to previous boss but much easier because you can just burn the hole along with newly dispatched hornet and there's no insta-kill hazard below the boss. Even though there's 4 holes instead of 2, the battle is very easy.   

 

Before we reach the last stage. I want to show you the last bonus stage here. Rex starts at left-bottom cubicle. Should i left Rex stands for too long there, he will be immediately trampled by one of the evil Rex. Then Rex has to circle around him and make his way by pushing blocks, with careful though. As pushed block can destroy egg. Unless you don't want extra continue. But then, why do you collect so many egg in main stage if you don't want extra continue?    

 

If you think, my act of "dragonflies incineration" isn't righteous. Well. In this intermission, Rex does the same. So it's not out of his character.

 

Hey. What are you doing, guys? Mass suicide? Ok, cool. The rat must be very-unlikable leader that these dinos eager to end their life very soon. i better defeat him for good as soon as possible, if i still want to have fellow to command.

 

This probably the hardest enemy platforming. As you know Pachycephalosaurus will headbutt anyone in front of him. So positioning it into right spot can be tricky. Fortunately, i have the fireball power-up to make things easier. So what's the purpose of taking another one? Iseng.

I must say that i really love the jungle stage. My reason is simple: more dinosaurs and less dangerous hazard. The only insta-kill hazard in this stage: the lava pool. Even though, some of them spew fireballs, now. It's not hard to navigate unlike The Dino's gut stage. It's simply worst stage in my opinion.

I hope you don't expect something colossal for the final boss, because you will be disappointed to know that the boss is the magic rat, again. But this time he has different moveset. But again, you can be safe from his attacks if you stand below him...

 

...unless he initiates swooping blowtorch attack where he swiftly charges from right below then he return to his usual position. Fight fire with fire, eh? Actually, this attack pattern is the one that can be countered safely. Jump him and then fireblast his initial position at the right time. 

 

Here's the most reckless way to damage the rat. Jump behind him and burn his bum then hurry land below him. All while maintaining safe distance from him. Otherwise you will get knocked into lava pool and instantly die, of course. This method is really inadvisable.

 

There's 3 rat's attack pattern in total: he cast bouncing magic orb, he strikes with flame magic, and here's the last one: he cast lightning that will travel along the ground. When he's dying, he don't do the sweeping flame attack at all. Thus forcing you to seize the other opportunity like this: you can jump forward his lightning while burst flamejet then land below him. You can do this without taking damage if you do it at right time. Or you can empty the shout reserve. It's final battle, you can do it without hesitate. Do note that dying will empty you roar while your firepower remain intact.    

And then they live happily ever after...until all of these volcanoes erupt simultaneously or there's massive meteor shower. Then they live happily in afterlife. Good for them. 

 

That's it for Radical Rex (1994). I think it has same level of quality to Sonic The Hedgehog or Rocket Knight Adventure. It has its own unique gameplay but maintain the basic in good grade. I feel that the skateboarding section is adapted from Sonic game where you can experience satisfying fast movement action. By the way, you can do jumping flip by multi-tapping the jump button while on skateboard. Even though the game has rather generous health bar system, there's lots of stage's element that can instantly kill Rex. But still in fair manner. While the death animations are varied and distinctive among other which remind me of Crash Bandicoot. Beside from death animation, other animations serve to shape Rex's character which is well-implemented brilliant idea. The egg collecting part is tedious yet essential if you want to accumulate continues. But there's no clear indication of how much egg that you need to collect to access the bonus stage. The music is good and atmospheric. My personal favorite is the jungle stage. So there's another reason why i like it. The game's looping stage system is akin to Ghost n Goblin feature albeit with enough alteration. It may serves same purpose: to make the game longer. But the game is still relative short which can be finished within more than an hour and half that's why there's no save system or password. Fortunately, the game features no time limit which mean you can take your time to find eggs and other pick-ups. The first loop is quite breeze while the second loop is where the stern challenges lie. Also the game feature many neutral creature that you can burn for entertainment.

So the conclusion: Radical Rex (1994) is very solid good platform that i can recommend you to play it. Unless you really dislike platform game with non-human mascot that has attitude or you don't buy the charm from little T-Rex that can breathe fire. Either way you must be soulless git.

Radical Rex (Genesis) - Part 1

Valir is released in Mobile Legends. As a man with truest Pyro's soul, i immediately buy the flamecaster sod. Though, i still can't fully get the hang of playing as him. Thus i celebrate this moment with game where you can play as fire-breathing animal. No, not a dragon. It's  Beam Software's Radical Rex (1994). 

That's Radical Rex himself on left dancing cheerfully while the Rex on right is his girlfriend, who's also dancing albeit with different move. You know, those who wear bowtie on their head and wear lipstick are definitely female. You may know that in 90's there's trend of platformer games with animal mascot who has attitude and Radical Rex is presumably one of them. It's because of Sega and Sonic The Hedgehog, you see. There's 2 players option that allow 2 player play the game one at time (turn). Strangely, the 2nd player is The Radical Rex but with pink palette like his girlfriend. Definitely not her, i assure you. As he doesn't wear either bowtie or lipstick. 

Here's the backstory: a magic prehistoric rat out of thin air then hypnotizing the Dinos by using childish oration and/or magic demonstration. Rex isn't affected with that because he's king (as proved with his name) or he simply sleep all along. Anyway, he embark into adventure to stop the rat. Dinosaurs mustn't commanded by a mammal. That's prehistoric reptile pride.

First thing i do is burn an harmless dragonfly assuming he's under that rat hypnotism or just because i can. He's not regular Rex because of his capability to blow fire jet and ride skateboard. Yes, that's skateboard right there and he can ride it skillfully...

 

...or he can just walk and jump because i accidentally bail the skateboard. If he's on skateboard he can travel that half-loop with ease. But fortunately there's springy palm plant that can boost his jump to progress farther. So far the control is generic: direction pad to move and 'C' button to jump.

 

Here's my first real enemy, a sabretooth that can emit a short-range roar. Here's the standard procedure to dispatch enemy: firebreath (by pressing 'B' button) him until he's charred where his color become more reddish and he's stunned like in this screenshot...

... then i can kick (by pressing 'A' button) him that he becomes nothing but dusts. I'll bet the sabretooth is my natural enemy because he's mammal.

 

Passing crumbling platform (that's staple in every platformer game), i meet an unlit torchlight that act as  checkpoint. The way to activate it: by firebreath, of course.

 

Then i meet the Triceratops from prologue. He doesn't hesitate to kill so he deserve death penalty. You may notice that my fire is bigger & longer. That's because i have increased my firepower by picking fire power-up that fill firepower bar (on top-right HUD). Increasing it will not only increase firebreath's range but also its power that i  can stunburn enemy with less 'B' button press. You can also see another power-up that looks like triangle pointing left. It fills roar bar (which is below firepower bar) that will decrease everytime i unleash almighty roar befit the king of Dinosaurs. The roar is fullscreen attack that can be activated by holding up + 'A' button. You can hold it for long time, provided you have collected enough roar power-up. As for the eggs, let's consider it collectible item for now.

 

I found another skateboard. Radical Rex doesn't deserve to be called Radical, if he can't do sick spinning trick like this. I suspect skateboarding section roles as speedy section in Sonic The Hedgehog. Unlike Sonic, Rex can goes "Splat!" when he bump into a wall. But it doesn't damage his health at all. Just for cartoonish feature.

 

Collecting enough eggs will make a big egg appear near exit and then you can proceed to bonus stage. By "enough" i mean aplenty.

 

The bonus stage is collecting eggs again, of course! If you have phobia to egg (especially Dinosaur's), this game's really not for you. As for the bonus stage: collecting all of the eggs will grant you extra continue. Rex can't blow firejet. Pressing any action button will make him put his two arms in front of him that will either push green block along the way or snatch the egg in slightly distance. The other Rex are surely lethal to touch. You can either kill them with pushed block or avoid them.    

 

There's intermission: Rex is picked up by this Archaeopteryx then drop him into that gap. Rex is safe from the fall but suffer pernicious headache even though he land with his butt/tail first.   

 

At each of level start, Rex's bars return to starter so power-up hoarding isn't rewarding on next stage. Thus he has to rigorously burn this frog's feet to burn him which is tiresome.     

 

There's fireball power-up that let me emit fireball that travel across the screen instead of limited-range firebreath. With fireball you can burn and kill enemies from distance, ignoring the "kick" button. But the power-up will be vanish if Rex get hit once. Also fireball shooting needs high accuracy from you unlike firebreath. As demonstrated here, where torch lighting become serious accuracy test.

 

The burnt enemy can be used as temporary platform to reach secret place. The secret place contain eggs and invincibility power-up. Unfortunately, the invincibility duration is really brief.

 

In this stage, there vine swinging sections. The swinging mechanic is quite vine, although  i can't overswing myself to reach that top platform. That last part is absurd assessment, by the way.

 

There's also a pick-up that summons this Pterodactyl to grab me and take me to next safe platform. He's the kind flying creature. We have same color skin, you see.   

 

Dragonflies are decoration creature that can be burned for solely your entertainment. On the other hand, this hornet is really irritating git that keen on sting my head then immediately fly to safety. The easiest way to deal with it: use the roar. But if you can manage to burn it alive, you feel very satisfy. I guarantee. 

 

Finishing the stage, Rex goes on skateboarding until he got swallowed by this giant dinosaur. Makes you wish you grow-up immediately into proper T-Rex and eat this bastard, huh?

So, the next stage takes place in the dino's digestive system. Moving between intestine chambers via colon, isn't gross or anything like that [Mid-level Sarcasm]. The floor is bouncy thus you can use it as spring to reach that fire power-up. It requires rigorous jump-button press, though.

 

Beside lethal gastric juice and these (perhaps) misplaced thorn/teeth/spike, this stage is full of bubbles (that either serves as platform or multiplying enemies) and what appears to be tadpole. Despite the hazards, Radical Rex keeps smile idiotically optimistically. What an attitude.

 

Next stage takes place in barren desert full of bones. It could be a place where Dinosaurs era is over. But Rex isn't alone. Some of the bones are alive and harmful. So the rat is adept at necromancy, huh? This stage introduce you to unkillable enemy like this spin-walking bones though you can jump over it with relative ease.   

In this stage there's another helpful dino. This green guy moves the platform where Rex is standing for free. It's because Rex is the president of wide-smiling dino club where he's in. I mean look at them. They smiling really wide like someone got expensive gift but refuse to open his mouth because he has severe dental problem.

 

In this level, there's highwind that hinders Rex's progress to exit. Actually annoy is perhaps more suitable. It can make Rex miss the platform to ground level. Fortunately there's no falling damage, but you have to wait for him being dizzy for quite moment.

 

Or Rex can fall to secret place that's patrolled by the flying sod. He drops the annoying method of picking Rex then dropping him to high elevation from that cutscene, to more direct harmful approach of rock dropping on his head. The bastard.

 

What's the equivalent of tumbleweed but with full of bones? Tumblebone? Okay. Let's call that thing tumblebone. Firing at it only knockback it. So you have to destroy it with the roar. But be careful! It will spray bones when it get destroyed.   

 

Next stage, Rex got kissed from fish that he didn't recognize. His girlfriend must be jealous when she see him like this. Actually this sudden CPR procedure, is either decrease or increase Rex's air bar depends on fish's starting condition. If it's bloated, it will blows him with air. If it's deflated, it will sucks air out of him. You may know that Rex need to keep his air reservation while swimming otherwise he's dead. 

 

There's bubble pick-up that fill your air bar, like the one near that hydra. It can kill you if you get tangled on its tentacle. Actually there's many insta-kill hazards before this such as: lava pools, gastric juices, sharp plates, squashing organ, and spikes. But you can evade them quite easily thanks to Rex's jump that 's high enough and his ability to control himself while in mid-air. There's also opportunity that he can get Ninja Gaiden'd but his firebreath can cover enough range even though his firepower is at lowest level. So the game's difficulty nicely fit into challenging level instead of frustrating.

 

After through walking, bit skateboarding, and another swimming, i encounter the magic rat himself. Thus begin the first boss fight. It goes quite simple, he shoots lightning, i avoid it then i whittle his health by burning his waist in a brief moment after he finish his attack otherwise he's invulnerable to my attack. If your fire is not big enough (which is very unfortunate), your fire can only reach him if you jump through that short springy mushroom. Otherwise you can just jump and blow firebreath like what i do here. His attack pattern: single lightning shoot, 3-way lightning shoot, 3 succession lightning shoot,... 

 

...or shoot lightning vertically then they fall in random pattern. In my opinion this is his hardest attack to avoid. Maybe if you position Rex below him, he can dodge them . But i'm not sure myself. You can empty whole of the roar bar to deplete his health bar by ± 50%. It's pretty grueling battle but eventually Rex wins.

His glory cut pretty short as the rat revives and Rexanne (his girlfriend) got kidnapped. So the (very common in videogames) "damsel in distress" trigger is on, huh? I don't think she looks troubled.

 

See! She looks as idiot optimist as Rex. Maybe she really believes that Rex can save him in future. But what perils that Rex must through to save his ladylove? Will the rat has better trick on their next faithful battle? Find out in next part that approximately comes out next week!