For a while now, I’ve been making a conscious effort to play more of the games that I already own. Partly because I have a massive backlog of worlds that I long to explore, and also because I’m trying to avoid burning out on triple-A games. Variety is the spice of life and all that!
My latest backlog endeavour, after Mario Kart DS last week, has been Chicken Wiggle: an eShop gem from the brain behind Mutant Mudds and Xeodrifter. Whereas those two titles could be considered breakout indie hits on Nintendo 3DS, Chicken Wiggle launched on the handheld months after the Nintendo Switch had taken the world by storm, and thus never found its audience.
If Mutant Mudds was Super Mario Bros. and Mutant Mudds Super Challenge was Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, then, for all intents and purposes, Chicken Wiggle would have been Super Mario Bros. 3.
There’s some genuinely great level design across its 48 levels here, with considerably more variety in both gameplay and scenery than Mutant Mudds, and a fittingly chirpy chiptune soundtrack to boot.
Chicken Wiggle is a 2D puzzle-platformer – not too dissimilar to Toki Tori in terms of both gameplay and appearance – built around the abilities of its two protagonists. Chicken can interact with the world and attack enemies with his beak, while Wiggle can extend in any direction, grapple onto walls and ceilings, and hoist the duo into otherwise unreachable places. The game gradually combines these abilities with environmental puzzles and enemy behaviours, before throwing in a wonderful selection of power-ups that meaningfully change the gameplay.
Its charming 16-bit-inspired visuals are crammed with extra details and flourishes, although I do wonder whether it was designed and tested exclusively on a Nintendo 3DS XL, as some of the visual language feels a little too small to be comfortably legible on my launch day 3DS model.
Outside of the game’s 48 built-in levels, it also comes with its own level editor baked in, albeit without the ability to download or share content in 2026 following the shutdown of its online servers. Thankfully, the included Atooi-designed stages were more than enough to satiate my need for a humble 2D puzzle-platformer. An eggselent little package, although not one without its flaws.
The final level feels as though it’s pushing the game’s systems to their limits, with enemies spawning into the path of a jump that you’ve already committed to, or appearing from off-screen and leaving very little time to react – both resulting in an instant death.
I also came away slightly confused by how much of the game I’d actually completed. Unless I’ve overlooked something, there’s no obvious way to see whether you’ve collected all 100 gems, or the three letters which spell “FUN”, from each level.
Thankfully, the game ends on a particularly strong note. Its one and only boss fight uses a tried-and-tested design – a detached head flanked by two floating hands – but Atooi uses the encounter to provide one final test of gameplay mastery. It’s not revolutionary, but it combines each of Chicken and Wiggle’s abilities and asks you to figure out a solution without holding your hand.
I genuinely think that, had Chicken Wiggle released as a more direct follow-up or spin-off to Mutant Mudds, it could have been huge. Instead, Atooi’s ill-fated Treasurenauts was in the oven for far too long, while Nintendo stole its user-generated thunder with Super Mario Maker in 2015 and a brand new console in 2017. By the time Chicken Wiggle finally launched, the audience it deserved had already moved on. Its timing couldn’t have been worse.
Chicken Wiggle is sadly no longer available to purchase since Nintendo halted purchases from the 3DS’s eShop in 2023, and its remake Hatch Tales: A Heroic Hookshot Adventure – which is available on Nintendo Switch and listed as “Coming Soon” on Steam – seems to have lost some of its charm in the transition from 3D to HD. The beautiful sprite work has been replaced by a more generic, cartoonish look, while Chicken and Wiggle have been sacked off in favour of Hatch and a replacement hookshot.
I thoroughly enjoyed my handful of hours with Chicken Wiggle. It reminded me of a simpler time, when quirky little platformers could land a prime spot in the eShop and sell gangbusters. Sadly, even Nintendo seems to have slowed down on its more experimental hits like BoxBoy, Pullblox and Hydroventure.
Thanks, Atooi. Although I wish I’d played it sooner, it was the antidote I’ve been looking for as I step away from the triple-A treadmill.
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