Easter is here and we know all what the best thing about it is: eggs. Fluffy little chicks hatch from them; they’re used to make all sorts of cake; and the sweet variety provide chocolate for us to munch on while we’re gaming throughout the bank holidays this weekend. And not only that, they feature in some classic titles.
Last year we discussed the best secrets in video games, but this time around we’re focusing on eggs themselves and making them the star of the show. From hard-boiled characters to hatchling dinosaurs to chickens with a grudge, read on for eggy-inspiration if you’re looking for something to play this Easter weekend.
Chuckie Egg
This classic was a ‘game of skill’ released in 1983. It’s also one of the most innocent in the list: Hen-House Harry must collect 12 eggs positioned in each level before a timer reaches zero, collecting piles of seed before they’re eaten by chickens for extra points. It’s worth a play just to hear the rendition of The Birdie Song over the title screen (a little bit of this, a little bit of that and shake your bum).
Dino Eggs
Players stepped into the shoes of Time Master Tim in this 1983 release to collect dinosaur eggs and rescue tiny dinosaurs. Make sure you avoid the snakes, flying creatures and the worst enemy of them all: Dino Mom. Physical contact with any animal would cause our hero to become contaminated and devolve into a prehistoric spider, unless he returned to the transport force field before a timer run out.
Dizzy – The Ultimate Cartoon Adventure
This 1987 title was the first featuring Dizzy – who started off as a face with hands and feet, but then changed to an egg when the developers accepted that everybody thought he was one. It’s up to our oval hero to roll through the land of Katmandu while searching for five items needed to make a potion to defeat the evil wizard Zaks. This was a tough game to crack (pun intended) with only three lives, so it’s perfect if you’re looking for a challenge.
Egg Venture
The aim of this 1997 arcade game was extremely simple: ‘shoot bad things’ and ‘avoid shooting bad things’. Each level involved a series of missions such as shooting frying pans instead of eggs, protecting egg scuba divers from piranhas and firing an egg’s submarine through the sea. Expect to have nightmares about CGI eggs with faces and floating hands after playing this one.
Egg Mania: Eggstreme Madness
This 2002 puzzler was Tetris in reverse: instead of laying down shapes to create rows and eliminate them from your screen, the blocks are instead used to create a tower to reach a hot-air balloon. You’d expect an egg-heavy game from all the mentions in the title but this only relates to the characters and so it might not give you your Easter fix. But if you’re sick of eggs after working through the releases in our selection, it could be for you.
Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg
The peaceful world of Morning Land, where the Chicken inhabitants live in harmony, is shattered when Dark Raven and his army of crows cover the world in a blanket of eternal night. Billy Hatcher must obtain the Legendary Chicken Suit to begin a journey to free the six Chicken Elders and stop his nemesis from hatching the Giant Egg to receive ultimate power. I think you’re going to be all chickened out after playing this 2003 title.
EggK47
There’s something strange going on at Terror Taste Farm: the mean, old, greedy farmers have killed all the chickens… except one, who’s now armed with a gun. Pick up eggs as ammo for your weapon, fight off the zombies and collect all the golden eggs to continue on your epic journey through this single-bird shooter. The Steam reviews aren’t entirely positive, but it’s one for you if you want to go on a clucking rampage.
Hell
Created by Babylon Brooks for the A Game By Its Cover jam last year, here’s a weird little title about cooking, rebirth and punishment. It might seem simple with the player cracking eggs into a frying pan as the game starts; but drop one onto the floor and you’ll set off a bizarre chain of events that could see you ending up in the underworld. If you fancy something small and strange this Easter, Hell could be worth a download.
K.S.-n-Kickin
I’d never heard about this title before completing research for this post: why has nobody ever mentioned there was a Kinder Surprise game made for Ferrero with music by Phats & Small and N-Trance? It’s like every 90s dream came true at once. Apologies for the poor quality of the video (and the amount of swearing); there isn’t much footage of K.S-n-Kickin online, which goes to show I’m not the only one who wasn’t aware of it.
Hopefully this selection of games hasn’t scrambled your brain (badum tish). Let us know what you’re playing this Easter in the comments below, and make you eat plenty of chocolate!
I was pretty worried when I began reading that you were going to include “Dr. Eggman” from Sonic the hedgehog, but you didn’t… And rightly so… Because he’s Dr. Robotnik and always will be…
He was going to get an honourable mention… and then I decided that I couldn’t shatter the dreams of middle-aged gamers everywhere. He’ll always be Robotnik to us. ❤
Do it! I haven’t played it myself but I watched the video while writing this post… and it looks like it could be one of the most random 20 minutes of your life.
I feel like Yoshi is a pretty solid Easter character. He turns everything into brightly-colored decorated eggs and even he himself has lots of different creative designs as if he’d been dyed.
On another note, I never knew there were so many games in which eggs played such a significant role!
Yoshi was meant to be on the list; I’d planned to include Mario & Yoshi but for some reason, I’ve only written up nine games instead of ten. Obviously I was under egg-streme pressure and cracking up after so much research into eggy games…
You can’t make a cake (omlette?) without breaking a few eggs.
It seems as though a few of the older games used a simple character because they were easy to animate, and then decided they were ‘eggs’ after players thought that was the case. Clever marketing!
I was pretty worried when I began reading that you were going to include “Dr. Eggman” from Sonic the hedgehog, but you didn’t… And rightly so… Because he’s Dr. Robotnik and always will be…
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He was going to get an honourable mention… and then I decided that I couldn’t shatter the dreams of middle-aged gamers everywhere. He’ll always be Robotnik to us. ❤
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Hahaha I didn’t know there would be so many games with eggs involved !! 😛
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There were more egg-based games that didn’t make it onto the list – I was surprised at the number I managed to find!
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Billy Hatcher! We have a winner!
Although I do want to have a look at that Hell game…
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Do it! I haven’t played it myself but I watched the video while writing this post… and it looks like it could be one of the most random 20 minutes of your life.
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I feel like Yoshi is a pretty solid Easter character. He turns everything into brightly-colored decorated eggs and even he himself has lots of different creative designs as if he’d been dyed.
On another note, I never knew there were so many games in which eggs played such a significant role!
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Yoshi was meant to be on the list; I’d planned to include Mario & Yoshi but for some reason, I’ve only written up nine games instead of ten. Obviously I was under egg-streme pressure and cracking up after so much research into eggy games…
*Sorry*
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Egg-streme……………
I approve of this pun. 🙂
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Also “cracking up.” I’m a bit slow, apparently!
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Maybe my post left your brain scrambled… egg puns for the win!
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Love these! I think Speedy Eggbert would fit nicely here.
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I’ve never heard of Speedy Eggbert… I’m egg-stremely disappointed in myself. 🥚
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I am puzzled as to why there are so many games based around eggs. Also cake is best.
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You can’t make a cake (omlette?) without breaking a few eggs.
It seems as though a few of the older games used a simple character because they were easy to animate, and then decided they were ‘eggs’ after players thought that was the case. Clever marketing!
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Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
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very appropriate games to play ahah
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I’ve egg-celled with this post, even if I do say so myself. 😏
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