Action · 2016 · Clever Endeavour Games · local · online
Ultimate Chicken Horse
You build the course you then have to run yourselves — and the other one is building too.
What it is about
A course from left to right, a goal at the end, and in between: nothing. You fill the nothing yourselves. Before each round everyone draws an object from a pile — a plank, a circular saw, a beehive — and places it somewhere.
Then you all run at once, across exactly what you have just built. You only score if you arrive and at least one other does not. Block everything and you cannot get through yourself; build too kindly and you get nothing.
You play on one screen with up to four controllers, or online. The characters are a chicken, a horse, a sheep and a raccoon, and that is about as seriously meant as it sounds.
Our verdict for couples
You build the course you then have to run yourselves, and the other person builds it with you. Points only come if you get through and at least one player does not, and the whole craft follows from that: the trap has to be tight enough that you can just barely clear it yourself. So you place a circular saw exactly low enough to squeeze under, then watch the other one jump two centimetres too high. For a couple with a sense of humour that carries many evenings; anyone who dislikes competition in the living room should stay away.
Pros
- Understood after one round, never mastered
- You build different courses every evening
- Straight in even with no gaming experience
Cons
- It is expressly about making the other one fail
- Less happens with two than with four
- Wrong place if you dislike competition
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Relationship test
- Cosiness
- Mixed
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- No ending
What other co-op fans say
97 per cent approval, and the reason given is the same everywhere: understood in a minute, not mastered after a hundred hours. Several point out that people who have never touched a platformer keep up fine. The word that comes up most is 'chaos' — approvingly. There is barely any criticism; where it appears, it is about needing the right people to play with.
- “The ultimate game to play with friends. Endless fun and endless stress lol”
- “Platforming mechanics were really easy to pick up even for my friends who have never touched a 2D platformer before.”
- “You just need the right people to play”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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