Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken

Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.

Very Positive · 82%Very Positive · 82%2012

$4.99

US Steam price, checked 1 h ago

The verdict

A short, stylish chicken-vs-penguin run-and-gun with a standout rock soundtrack, charming art and co-op, held back by clunky controls and shallow shooting. Skip it if you need tight gameplay.

Great for

Fans of quirky art, indie rock soundtracks and short co-op sessions, buying on a deep sale

Main risk

Clunky controls and repetitive, shallow shoot-left-or-right combat make the gameplay feel boring.

What players love

Standout New World Revolution soundtrack

Mentioned in ~1 in 2 positive reviews

“Absolutely Killer soundtrack too, N.W.O knocked it out of the park and even 13 years later the soundtrack shines spectacularly!”
Steam review · 3 h played ↗

“this game's soundtrack has been in my playlist for the better part of a decade at this point, worth buying alone just to listen to the music”
Steam review · 4.4 h played ↗

“the soundtrack is simply stunning, the songs fit so well you want to download and listen to them separately”
Steam review · translated · 0.8 h played ↗

Great cartoon art style and cutscenes

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“Awesome art style (especially the cinematics,) great music, and a genuinely compelling little storyline.”
Steam review · 8.2 h played ↗

“An excellent platformer. This is largely about the level graphics, which are simply top-notch.”
Steam review · translated · 5 h played ↗

Funny, charming chicken-vs-penguin premise

Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews

“A chicken. Killing penguins. It’s glorious.”
Steam review · 16.4 h played ↗

“Bold and offensive in all the best ways, Rocketbirds has more personality than just about any other game of its kind.”
Steam review · 2.8 h played ↗

Fun co-op mode

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“Rocketbirds was a really solid little co-op experience that even managed to be relatively approachable for someone who was intimidated by the beat-'em-up genre.”
Steam review · 6.3 h played ↗

“You play the same levels as in singleplayer, but with different mechanics, due the size of each multiplayer character.”
Steam review · 15.5 h played ↗

“not long but very funny game, play it with two”
Steam review · translated · 3.5 h played ↗

Fun jetpack flying and puzzle variety

Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews

“The shooting feels powerful, the flying levels are incredibly fun and the soundtrack is amazing.”
Steam review · 2.6 h played ↗

“Fun Game, especially the rocket pack flying!”
Steam review · 4.6 h played ↗

Short, cheap and worth it on sale

Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews

“Super-fun little action platformer. Use a controller. Worth $5? Probably. Worth $1 on sale? Definitely.”
Steam review · 15.5 h played ↗

“The game itself has the perfect length; any longer and it would've overstayed its welcome.”
Steam review · 2.9 h played ↗

What players complain about

Shallow, repetitive left-right shooting

Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews

“This "boils" down to getting onto the same platform as a bad guy and holding down the shoot button.”
Steam review · 2.7 h played ↗

“shooting is just crouching and hammering the fire button until the unreasonably tough enemy bird dies”
Steam review · translated · 1.1 h played ↗

“All you need to do is crouch and tap the shoot button thats how you win all encounters.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

Clunky, sluggish controls

Mentioned in ~2 in 5 negative reviews

“Sounds is great but the controls are clunky as hell.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“Movement feels sluggish and stiff, like driving a tank that also has to peel itself off the linoleum every time it stops and starts again.”
Steam review · 1.6 h played ↗

“The oversensitivity of the controls, these include movement. I tap right and suddenly I have moved a quarter of the screen length.”
Steam review · 1 h played ↗

Confusing level design and keycard hunts

Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews

“Get a keycard, get another keycard and then get a third keycard. To obtain them you have to - guess what - cross empty hallways, back and forth.”
Steam review · 1.2 h played ↗

“Many platforms can be mistaken for the background”
Steam review · 18.4 h played ↗

Broken or unsupported controllers, esp. in co-op

Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews

“One of the few games that only supports MICROSOFT-BRANDED Xbox 360 Controllers.”
Steam review · 2.1 h played ↗

“It was a great co-op couch game until most controllers stopped working with it under Steam”
Steam review · 8.9 h played ↗

“It demands an Xbox controller, otherwise it only runs with keyboard and mouse. My Logitech isn't supported.”
Steam review · translated · 0.1 h played ↗

Unfair difficulty spikes and final boss

Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews

“There are waves of enemies attacking you and it's just luck if you beat them or not.”
Steam review · 4.9 h played ↗

“At points in the game they just throw enemies at you from both directions (it's 2D).”
Steam review · 2.8 h played ↗

Laggy, buggy online co-op

Mentioned in ~1 in 14 negative reviews

“Whoever is not hosting gets freeze lag every second or so. Makes it completely unplayable.”
Steam review · 0.3 h played ↗

“Buggy, and laggy in online co-op.”
Steam review · 1.3 h played ↗

System requirements

From the Steam store page

Steam Deck: Unknown

Minimum

OSWindows XP (with Service Pack 3), Windows Vista, Windows 7

ProcessorDual Core with 2.0 GHz

Memory1 GB RAM

Graphics256 MB RAM graphics card (GF 7600 GT / Radeon X1950)

StorageAt least 501 MB of free space

Recommended

Memory2 GB RAM

Graphics512 MB graphics card (ATi HD 3870 / Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT)

OSWindows XP (with Service Pack 3), Windows Vista, Windows 7

ProcessorDual Core with 2.0 GHz

Memory1 GB RAM

Graphics256 MB RAM graphics card (GF 7600 GT / Radeon X1950)

StorageAt least 501 MB of free space

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