Chicken Run, Michael Bay-style.
Developed by Nitrome, Bomb Chicken is a 2018 puzzle-platformer for Nintendo Switch and Steam. Its titular character is a chicken that, following a freak accident, develops an ability to lay bombs instead of eggs. Newfound ability in hand, Bomb Chicken sets out on a quest to stop the antics of fast-food chicken chain BFC.
Gameplay-wise, the main premise of Bomb Chicken is solving platform-game challenges without being able to jump. You can lay multiple bombs in order to reach high platforms or get over obstacles, kick bombs to trip switches or kill enemies, and much more...but all of it comes with a risk. Your bombs can blow up most enemies in the game, but they're just as good at blowing you up.
Works relating to this trope include:
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Big Betty, the first boss of the game, chases after the Bomb Chicken to chop her to bits with a giant buzzsaw. She's impervious to all damage, and thus, Bomb Chicken is required to escape from her through the obstacle course in time before she'll fall prey to Big Betty's buzzsaw.
- Alien Blood: It turns out that the "blue hot sauce" is the blood of a giant mutant chicken.
- Animal Gender-Bender: Bomb Chicken has the prominent coxcomb and wattle of a rooster...but only hens can lay eggs.
- Attack Its Weak Point:
- The Gl..., the game's second boss, can be defeated only by having a bomb be hurled right into its eye. Since its eye is located up above Bomb Chicken's level, it's mandatory to lay a stack of bombs and push it at the boss's direction to ensure that bombs will be high enough to hit the eye.
- The final boss can be defeated only by blowing up the tumors that appear all over its body, and then blowing up the gemstones that pop up in place of tumors after the explosion. After all gemstones are shattered, the boss's head falls onto the ground, allowing the Bomb Chicken to target it directly.
- Background Boss: The final boss rests on the background for duration of the fight. Since it can be defeated only by hurling bombs at its head, the Bomb Chicken must force it on the foreground by blowing up the tumors, and then gemstones, that grow from its body.
- Carnivore Confusion: Most of the employees doing actual work at BFC are also birds...and they're shown eating the factory's wares. While they're clearly not chickens, they also don't bear any resemblance to actual birds of prey.
- Cartoon Bomb: The bombs in this game look exactly like you might expect.
- Collection Sidequest: Littered through every level are blue gems, which you can use to purchase extra lives.
- Cryptic Conversation: Between each level, you're taken to a room with a giant statue of a bird, and you're treated to a cryptic quote from an unknown source. They don't really make much more sense once you reach the end of the game. The source of the voice is apparently the final boss — a horribly mutated chicken that also lays bombs.
- Excuse Plot: A bomb-laying chicken attempts to escape a fried-chicken factory. There isn't much more to the story than that, but then, not much more is needed. The true "plot" is revealed in the last couple of levels, but it's kind of a Gainax Ending that isn't clearly foreshadowed earlier in the game.
- Gainax Ending: It turns out that the "blue hot sauce" BFC is famous for is actually the blood of the final boss — a horrifyingly mutated chicken that also lays bombs. After defeating the boss, the entire island where BFC is headquartered explodes, but Bomb Chicken survives by landing on some driftwood in the ocean. Then Bomb Chicken suddenly sprouts a growth on her body to her horror, and the screen goes black. The implication seems to be that she's destined to become another version of the final boss. Things sure took a turn for the weird in the last three levels...
- Hammerspace: The bombs that Bomb Chicken lays are just as big as she is, and she can lay as many as she needs without any delay. It's quite surreal to watch.
- Hollywood Natives: One of the game's common enemies is a very stereotypical version of the "savage native."
- Hot Sauce Drinking: Several workers can be found laying on the ground, drinking the "blue hot sauce" leaking from the pipes or the ceiling.
- Instant Roast: If a normal non-player chicken that wanders around will get caught within the blast radius of the Bomb Chicken's bomb, it will immediately turn them into a chicken roast.
- No Name Given: Downplayed; the second boss's name has its name written on the sign...but only two letters can be made out: "the Gl", with the rest of the sign being too damaged to make out the rest of the name. According to the official Limited Run Edition booklet, this is because the boss ate the sign, and nobody can remember what the rest of its name was.
- Retraux: Just like all of Nitrome's games, Bomb Chicken's aesthetic calls to mind The 16 Bit Era Of Console Video Games with its cartoony sprites and smooth animation, but an actual 16-bit system wouldn't be capable of running this game.
- Secret Ingredient: The BFC Company is renowned for its "irresistible blue hot sauce" that led to it becoming a dominating food chain. To this date, it remains unknown what exactly is this blue hot sauce made of. As it turns out, it's actually the blood of a heavily-mutated chicken that is fought as the final boss of the game.
