Go! Go! Mister Chickums - Xbox Review

Go! Go! Mister Chickums is the kind of game that feels like it was discovered behind a stack of dusty arcade boards in someone’s garage, the sort of thing you’d plug into a CRT, smack the side of the cabinet, and immediately lose three lives to a rogue bouncing enemy. It’s a single‑screen platformer in the purest, most unapologetic sense: tight arenas, strict timers, enemies with suspiciously cheerful faces, and a protagonist who looks like he’s one bad day away from becoming rotisserie.

And honestly? It works.

The core loop is beautifully simple: Collect the eggs. Bop the enemies. Beat the timer. Move on.   That’s it. No XP bars, no skill trees, no crafting systems where you combine feathers and sadness to make a +2 omelette. Just 100 handcrafted levels, each a little puzzle box of platforms, hazards, and routes to optimise.

The design philosophy is straight out of the Bubble Bobble / Snow Bros / Donkey Kong lineage, the era where every screen was a self‑contained challenge and the game didn’t care if you needed 12 attempts to figure out the “correct” path. Chickums absolutely nails that vibe.

What keeps it interesting is how much variety the developers squeeze into those tiny arenas. Some levels are breezy egg‑gathering sprints; others are tight gauntlets where one mistimed jump sends you back to the start, questioning your life choices. Enemies behave differently, layouts twist in clever ways, and the game occasionally throws in mechanics that feel like little winks to arcade veterans.

It’s simple, but not shallow and the kind of design where mastery comes from shaving seconds off your route, not unlocking a double jump.

Local co‑op lets a second player join as Fritz, Chickums’ equally determined buddy. This transforms the game from “retro challenge” to “accidental slapstick comedy”.

You’ll help each other. You’ll hinder each other. You’ll fall off platforms because your partner jumped on your head. You’ll laugh. You’ll shout. You’ll blame each other for everything.

It’s exactly the kind of couch co‑op energy that retro games thrived on.

The visuals strike a nice balance: clean, colourful, and readable without leaning too hard into pixel‑art nostalgia. It feels retro, but not retro‑for‑retro’s‑sake. The soundtrack is upbeat and catchy and it's the kind of music that would absolutely blast out of an arcade cabinet while someone’s mum yelled that it was time to go home.

Performance on Xbox is flawless. Instant loads, smooth movement, no stutters. It’s a small game, but it’s extremely polished.

This is where Mister Chickums earns its stripes. Does it reinvent the genre? No. Does it need to? Also no. It understands the rhythm of classic single‑screen platformers:

• Quick levels

• Tight controls

• Clear objectives

• Increasingly tricky layouts

• A “just one more go” loop

It’s not as mechanically deep as the greats, but it captures the spirit, with that blend of speed, precision, and mild panic that defined the arcade era. If you grew up feeding coins into machines, Chickums feels like coming home.

Where it falls short is longevity. Without progression systems or unlocks, the experience is only as compelling as your love for the arcade loop. For some players, that’s bliss. For others, repetition will set in.

Pros

• Faithful, charming throwback to arcade single‑screen platformers

• 100 varied levels with clever layouts

• Excellent couch co‑op chaos

• Smooth performance and responsive controls

• Bright, cheerful presentation and catchy music

Cons

• Repetition may hit players who aren’t already fans of the genre

• Difficulty spikes can feel abrupt

• No online co‑op or modern progression systems

• Some levels feel more trial‑and‑error than skill‑based

Go! Go! Mister Chickums is a love letter to the arcade era. It's a compact, colourful, and occasionally chaotic platformer that knows exactly what it wants to be. It’s not trying to compete with modern indie giants or reinvent the genre. It’s here to give you a nostalgic hit of pure, old‑school gameplay.

If you enjoy retro platformers, tight level design, and games that feel like they belong next to a stack of 20p coins, Chickums will absolutely scratch that itch. If you’re looking for depth, story, or modern systems, this chicken might feel a little too classic.

XPN Rating: 4 out of 5 (GOLD)

Go! Go! Mister Chickums is available now!