by Wyatt "JOEDOG" Elliott
This must be the year of the chicken, at least for Playstation anyway. Eidos has a successful Chicken Run game and Crave has its own chicken game. It's called Mort the Chicken and is from the creators of Tiny Tank.
In the game you play as Mort, a chicken who must save his fellow chicken's baby chicks from the clutches of the evil alien cubes. Yes, that's right. The villains are nothing more than blocks. Square, colorful, blocks. And it might be pointed out that Mort is a male, so technically it should be called Mort the Rooster, but we won't go there.
The game is basically a collage of small levels filled with lost chicks. Mort must find them all and get out. The layout reminds me of a weak Frogger, the rest of the game is pure chicken.
The game would be bland if it were not for the dry sense of humor. Mort features animated sequences with the sharp dry wit of those great Neverhood games. The animation is horrid, and the game's graphics are choppy. It's the unique sense of humor behind the game that shines.
That's why the evil enemy blocks work here. In any other game it would have been looked at as a lack of effort or originality. And it still might be the case, but I see it as the same type of satire that fills this game.
I don't think this game was ever meant to be taken seriously.
Maybe I'm looking too hard for something that is not there, but I think Mort The Chicken fills a spot in video games that is empty.... Comedy.
What was the last game you played that made you laugh with it, and not at it? The last one that comes to my mind is Skull Monkey's. Another great game a lot of people and critics didn't like, but I saw a vary clever game with an awkward warped sense of humor that made it unique. Mort the Chicken is the same, in the sense you want to play more to see the humorous cut scenes.
I may not laugh out loud at these games, but I enjoy the off beat dry wit. In short, Mort the Chicken is a simple and repetitive game that will tickle your funny bone.
So don't be a chicken and try this inventive title. For around fifteen bucks, it's nothing to cluck at . . . Sorry I had to.
PUBLISHER: CRAVE
GRAPHICS: 5 MUSIC & SOUND: 4 CONTROL: 4
SECRETS: 3 ORIGINALITY: 7 FUN & REPLAY: 4
OVERALL: 6