Chicken Invaders is a casual shoot 'em up video game developed and published by InterAction studios for Windows PC and a wide variety of other platforms. Originally released in 1999, this game managed to copy the basic gameplay structure of the famous arcade title “Space Invaders” and put a whimsical comedy spin on it. After finding great success with its original title, developers from InterAction studios released several sequels, including The Next Wave (2002), Revenge of the Yolk (2006), Ultimate Omelette (2010) Cluck of the Dark Side (2014) and Chicken Invaders Universe (2018).
Instead of armies of hostile invaders in the form of spaceships, the players are tasked to take command over the lone spaceship and defeat various formations of intergalactic barnyard fowl. The gamers must tactically move across the screen, shoot the incoming birds, and evade the eggs they throw at him. Thankfully, the spaceship has not only a basic weapon, but it can also collect the drumsticks that are left in the wake of destroyed chicken, and earn additional missiles that can greatly help in the events that player ends up in dangerous situations by wiping out all enemies from the screen.
One of the reasons why the original Chicken Invaders have found such a large success was due to its infinite gameplay potential. The game can be played endlessly, with each gameplay session consisting of 10 waves of enemies and a boss. After clearing them all, the game repeats the challenge, but with increased difficulty – the enemies move faster, shoot more often, and bosses have more health. Thankfully, gamers always can call for help in the form of 2nd coop partner that can take controls via either keyboard or gamepad. The game can end only when the players lose all of their lives.
The original Chicken Invaders from 1999 remains played today by a large gaming community that doesn’t want to let go of this very creatively created shoot 'em up video game. Because of its age, it can easily be played on any modern PC, no matter what kind of hardware it has. The oldest home PCs and the slowest laptops still have enough resources to run Windows OS, and if they can run that OS they have more than enough power left to run this simple 2D game that weighs less than 1 MB in size.
Anyone who has some free time and wishes to test yourself in a fun arcade classic can look no further than Chicken Invaders.