Chicks need to eat, and in Hungry Chicks HD it’s your job to make sure they eat.
This short burst puzzler plays a lot like the multi-level puzzlers of Cut the Rope or Angry Birds, but instead of cutting ropes or launching birds, this time players guide momma and poppa bird to food and then their chicks.
Players navigate the screen by tapping around the birds to send them in the right direction. Tap below a bird, for example, and it floats upward in a quick puff like motion. Tap above the bird though, and it jettisons downward a bit more quickly with the force of gravity.
The object of every level in Hungry Chicks is to collect up to three worms (by flying over them) and then deliver them to the nest of chirping chicks.
Arrive safely with one worm in beak and you’ll still pass the level with one out of three stars, but worms unlock achievements and new levels, so the goal of the game is to get as many worms as possible.
At first this is an extremely easy task and players will spend the first couple levels thoroughly enjoying the cute graphics and adorable way that the bird’s feathers fly poof out when it bounces around the sky.
Over time the levels become more difficult with wind streams, zapping electro-currents, and spiked swinging catapults. The game also becomes more interesting when the beginning task of using one bird to feed three chicks in one nest turns into two birds fluttering about to two nests of corresponding colors.
Bring the wrong nest the wrong number of worms and the worm is wasted, but get zapped with an electrical current and you have to start over on that mini-level. Hungry Chicks takes a bit of patience to time movements so as not to run into obstacles, but experienced gamers will likely breeze through all three worlds of 36 levels each.
At its heart, Chillingo’s Hungry Chicks is a casual game. Although it doesn’t feel like its targeted at children, the cute animation style and the fact that it’s easier than some other popular Angry Birds style games make this a shoe in for the whole family. Just note that although versions exist for both the iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch, they must be purchased separately.
Bottom Line: Hungry Chicks is a casual Angry Birds spinoff ideal for casual gamers and the whole family.
