So this conversation started to branch off on another topic (Will CI3,4 and 5 be remastered with the reworked weapons?) and rather than continue it there I thought it would be good to make a dedicated topic because it is indeed a topic in itself.
What are your thoughts on the Chicken Invaders story?
I use the term “story” a bit losely - people have been talking about “the canon” and stuff and I’m not sure that what Chicken Invaders has is enough to qualify making full blown canon/non-canon distinctions.
But basically I’m talking about the plot that the games follow - if you’ve played any CI title other than the very original (or maybe The Next Wave, I suppose) you’ll know what I’m talking about.
So this is the place to discuss the story - whether or not you enjoyed it at all, or which episodes you thought were best/worst and why. The style of humor (given the comical nature of the story) can probably also be discussed here, as they’re kind of one-and-the-same.
(And this is not a place to discuss all those weird fan-fiction sequels floating around on the wiki. If for some reason you want to talk about those then it probably belongs in another topic.)
Now I want to talk a bit about how science is portrayed in the CI franchise since it’s kinda relevant to the discussion:
While the context of the stuff is absolutely ridiculous (for example, finding a weapon inside a box of cereals), the actual science is very realistic: if you go to the Galactic Store descriptions, you’ll find that a lot of the descriptions have a lot of thought put into them.
About the Great Fan Controversy of CI5: it’s not a fan and some sort of G-Wave generator.
About the unrealistic size of chickens compared to the ship: They’re mutants who are blown up to unrealistic proportions. The real threats are the human-sized ones.
About the Ultra-Celerita Comets: they’re not comets.
With these retcons, mostly everything in the games can be scientifically possible and put the troubled souls of Einstein and Newton to rest.
I’m not sure if I’d put CI5 that far behind the rest (Madam Madamme was entertaining, and “My toungue got thtuck to the winthield!” was gold.)
I’d agree that it’s the lowest of the series, though, because it’s hyper repetitive and uneventful. You kind of know what’s coming next at any stage, so although it’s a string of funny scenes, there’s not really much of a story beyond what we’re introduced to in chapter 1. Nice to have a parody boss from something other than Star Wars, though.
It’s also tied with CI4 for worst name, in my opinion. (CI4’s story was ok, but kind of jarring because we got thirty consecutive missions without a single chicken. Ended with the Space Burger facility, though, so there’s that.)
This is my view:
1.CI4
2.CI3
3.CI5
4.CI2
5.CI1
But I always had in my mind that the day is the last chicken invaders that combine chicken invaders 1 to 5 And I have a story about this.
(I’m gonna get killed for that, but whatever.) This was actually really refreshing.
I mean, CI4 was the third game in a row where you have the same formula: killing 120 waves of chickens (with few meteor exceptions and some bonus bois in CI3). It was getting really boring and by the time we hit CI4 all the references got tiresome (is there such a word? I don’t know, it was tiring and too much). But due to the fact that we got 30 waves without chickens you could at least imagine what it would be if IA decided to stop with parodies. And it wasn’t bad really. Yeah, I know that Chicken Invaders is built for casual playerbase (especially CIU eugh), but can you imagine what a masterpiece of 2D shooter could IA do if not for the restrictions? No more 120 waves campaign, graphics not limited by mobile specs (maybe 3D which would allow for better customization of spaceships and better graphical effects), no more controls limitations, no more references to popculture. The thing is, CI games are good shmups, but they are limited by outdated tech that they use (beg you pardon, DirectX9.0 2D game in 2020). You could say that they don’t need anything more powerful and you’re right - they don’t need anything powerful because they are not power demanding themselves.
Chicken Invaders will remain being seen as a parody if in the next part IA doesn’t stop with references. It’s time for something original at least. Good direction for that was in fact CI4 where they expanded on space burgers brand (which is also a parody of Burger King I think, but we can give it a pass since there are so many fast foods brands today that no one should bother).
Sometime ago someone suggested that next game should be a spin-off about Hen-Solo. I agree with the spin-off part (we don’t need another main part where you once again kill 120 waves of chickens because reasons), but not the hen-solo part. Stop with references and build/expand original universe.
References don’t mean that a series is necessarily unoriginal. Take another sci-fi masterpiece: Rick and Morty. There’s a movie parody every few episodes, and Season 4’s finale was a literal Return Of The Jedi parody. And yet it still is, an original story for all intents and purposes. A good parody becomes an original story when it has sufficient differences from the source and is able to outshine it. I think the cultural references should stay, and we could change Hen Solo’s name and design because, copyright, and you just can’t ignore a character who was pivotal in an entire episode to just be thrown out of the window because of unoriginality.
On the other hand, I agree with the fact that there should be enemies other than chickens.
Such a word does exist.
Something that I keep stressing is that mobile specs have become beefier and more capable of competing with PC.
As a developer, there is a level of familiarity with the engine that you yourself have coded. iA is able to make Chicken Invaders what it is today because he is familiar with the engine that he’s working with. The tools don’t matter, the maker does. And the maker has to be familiar with his tools. And again, redundancy, a 2D shooter doesn’t need ray-tracing.
I don’t mind the references on the side (like Henperor’s Apprentice and stuff) but I’m definitely thinking that there’s too many “core” plot elements that are parody. We need more bosses like Egg Cannon and Space Crab, and characters like Madam Madamme, who are all still very entertaining without being inspired by anything specific (to my knowledge).
The parody was funny the first few times, especially because of the way they were treated - compare The Yolk-Star™ reveal to the Henterprise reveal, and you’ll notice that regardless of which came first, the CI3 joke is just more cleverly and entertainingly handled.
In CI5 it could almost come across as expecting people not to know the source material, and just get a small laugh if they do. In CI3, it’s clearly massively conscious of itself and the joke - the “It’s… It’s… The Yolk-Star™!” buildup works so well because everyone already knows what it really is, so when the narrator drops the name it’s 10x funnier than if they just had of had it show up and say “oh, its the henterprise” like CI5.
It doesn’t have to become an original story to be that good parody though.
Again, the Yolk-Star™ is by no means a more interesting concept that the source material, and if Star Wars had never of existed, it would frankly be quite boring. It’s funny because it clearly knows that the Death Star exists, and tries to sidestep the issue in such an intentionally laughable way. And CI5 doesn’t do that - it just says “I’m that thing from ___, but chickens.”
what if ciu is ar and the things we have seen didnt happen. i know that there is 120th anniversary and that it says that hero defeated chickens its weird to think about it but its just a theory.( this is maybe the most stupidest thing i ever said)
It we will ever see a CI6 I would like to see a game with more “lifespam”.
Compared to Universe episodes lack of long-term replayability (Grind for Hen solo’s ship isn’t proper replayability).
120 waves feels few if we count the usual 5 years of developement.
A formula change is definitely needed.
Ci4 is and will be my favourite due to that.
It added variety but not too much
The problem is that not everyone have the last model and old ones can’t handle quality mobile games but only the trash ones
Still… the average can support easily Nintendo DS games.
In my opinion Roty is the last game that truly wanted to feel like a parody. UO in comparison have little to no references/humor
Still… Egg Cannon reveal is the best one in the series yet.
You only had to play RotY a few times through to get all the unlockables. I get that it’s for mobile, but surely the paid PC version should have much more sane unlock requirements? Like, you could take a full digit off of most of the purchase costs in CI4.
I also think that there should be an endgame mission from another perspective, with different mechanics, maybe, since it wouldn’t make sense for the Hero to be flying, say, a bomber. This would be a nice way to include new stuff while still making sense.
Again, these could be unlocked like unlockables in CI3. And also one for getting all medals on a difficulty, which would actually make replaying worth it. Also, I think there should be perspective switches in-between the main game for variety, you know.
Humor in my opinion is a large part if the games and should be preserved.
I like it as well, although I prefer the X-mas version myself…
It’s pretty good but not my top imo…
I prefer this one tbh, and it especially fits darkness missions… I kinda feel like its Christmas counterpart is underrated…
Personally, I don’t really hate any music from the CI franchise, having said that CI5 let me down in a different way. You see, You got to explore the solar system in CI2, then you got to explore the Milky Way galaxy in Ci3, then in Ci4, you got to explore multiple galaxies in what I presume is our Local Group, aka a group of galaxies. BUT CI5 decided to limit our exploration back to the level of the Milky Way, and to make matters worse, you got to explore even less of the galaxy.
More replayability via adding side quests would be helpful too.
It’s actually more of a parody of corporate companies in general, I think. Usually when a food company can rent an entire galaxy you know that something’s wrong with society, human or otherwise.
