Egg-cellent video games for Easter

This classic was a ‘game of skill’ released all the way back in 1983. It’s also one of the most innocent on the list. Hen House Harry must collect 12 eggs positioned in each level before a timer reaches zero, picking up piles of seed before they’re eaten by chickens to stop the countdown for a while and grab some extra points. Chuckie Egg II in 1985 was just as innocent: Harry had to assemble a toy-carrying chocolate egg from its constituent parts and deliver it to a dispatch lorry. What a great guy.

Players stepped into the shoes of Time Master Tim in another release from 1983. Collect dinosaur eggs and rescue tiny dinosaurs while trying to avoid snakes, flying creatures and the worst enemy of all: Dino Mom. Physical contact with any animal causes our hero to become contaminated and devolve into a prehistoric spider, unless he returned to the time-warp force-field before a timer ran out. A revival of the game is available on Steam, although players seem to enjoy the Commodore 64 original more.

This release from 1987 was the first featuring protagonist Dizzy – who started off as a face with hands and feet, but then changed into an egg when the developers accepted that everybody thought he was one. It’s up to our oval hero to roll through the fairy-tale land of Katmandu while searching for five magical items needed to make a potion to defeat the evil wizard Zaks. This was a tough game to crack with only three lives, so it could be perfect for you if you’re looking for a challenge this Easter.

The aim of this 1997 arcade game was extremely simple: ‘shoot bad things’ and ‘avoid shooting good 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 submarine through the sea. The original version had no ending and was programmed to simply get harder. I’ve not played it myself, but I might have nightmares about CGI eggs with faces and floating hands after watching the video opposite.

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 in 1999 featuring music by Phats & Small and N-Trance? It’s just so random and sounds like every nineties dream come true at once. The game wasn’t available to purchase but was advertised via television commercials and offered in exchange for wrappers posted to the company. I don’t remember any of this, but I’m sure it got plenty of kids pestering their parents for sweets.

This 2002 puzzler was like 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 release like this from all the mentions in the title, but this only relates to the characters and may therefore not give you the Easter fix you’re looking for. But if you’re sick of the sight of eggs after working through the other games on today’s list, it might be one for you.

The peaceful world of Morning Land, where the Chicken inhabitants live together 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 six Chicken Elders, gaining additional powers while holding an egg. Can he stop his nemesis’s plan to hatch the Giant Egg and receive ultimate power? It sounds like you’re going to be all chickened out after playing this 2003 platformer.

There’s something strange going on at Terror Taste Farm. The farmers have killed all the chickens – except one, who’s now armed with a gun and incredibly angry. Pick up eggs as ammo for your weapon, fight off the zombies and collect all the golden eggs to continue your epic journey through this 2016 single-bird shooter. The Steam reviews are more positive than I expected them to be (although the players could be having a yolk), so it could be worth checking out if you’re in the mood for a clucking rampage.

No, that’s not a reference to how you’ll feel after reading this post. It’s the name of a weird little game created for the A Game By Its Cover jam in 2017 about cooking, rebirth and punishment. It might seem simple at first, with the player cracking eggs into a frying pan as it starts; but drop one onto the floor and you’ll set off a bizarre chain of events which could see you ending up in the underworld. The reviews on the Itch.io website are intriguing and it sounds like a strange games which will take you by surprise.