Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5 out of 10

Fluster Cluck is a twin-stick shooter game available for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4 and is a fusion of multiple genres as it is a cross between an arcade and party game with a twin-stick variation, while providing a humorous spin on both genres.

The premise of the game is to collect ingredients with a beam, followed by delivering them to the chikkinizer for the ultimate prize of a chikkin koop with ingredients including cows, camels and chests of gold. There are some further gameplay elements such as the current top scorer having a bounty on their head which is worth twice as many points to the competitor who destroys their ship. While a kill streak of three kills in a row without their ship being destroyed also places a bounty on their head worth twice as much; an interesting method of dealing with campers as a player who is camping will score less points and a player killed three times without scoring has their bounty reduced to zero.

Career mode comprises of 3 classes including coach, business and first class with a levelling up system which determines access to the business class and first class which are unlocked at levels 20 and 40 respectively with a total of 50 levels to ascend. These can be achieved by earning XP based upon how great the performances are such as surviving the entire round without having the ship being destroyed, destroying the ships of competitors, delivering ingredients to the chikkinizer and finishing position with updates being provided on the post-match summary in regards to how close the player is to levelling up and which level the player has currently attained.

Battle mode consists of quick skirmishes comprising of 4 different variations, Chikkin Hunt, Deathmatch, Team Chikkin Hunt and Team Deathmatch. Chikkin Hunt being a race against the clock to see which competitor can deliver the most ingredients to the chikkinizer, while Deathmatch has no ingredients or timer as it is all about who reaches 15 points first by earning 1 point for destroying an opposing ship; Team Chikkin Hunt is a team based version of Chikkin Hunt, alongside Team Deathmatch which provides a 2 vs. 2 alternative to Deathmatch with 1 point awarded for destroying an opposing ship in which the first team to reach 25 points is the winning team.

 

There are special items to collect from a floating sphere dispenser during every map of each game mode which increases the variety of the ship’s arsenal even further such as a missile, targeting defence system turret, a camouflaged mine, a megafield which can be utilised to transform an opponent into a chikkin upon a collision, a temporary speed boost or even a temporary shield.

There are a lot of customisable elements to the character design from the selection of 6 available characters to the colour scheme and design of ships totalling to 18, equipment attached to the ships as well as various modifiers and accessories which makes for a lot of variation in fundamentally selecting a character and ship which appeals to each unique player.

The environment design consists of multiple maps within different themes such as a colourful grassy alpine, a desert by day or by night, a castle, a ravaged city with corroded buildings and more besides which is diverse enough to provide a unique look to each area, while they grow gradually more complicated in the navigation of their route from the location of the ingredients are mostly situated to the destination of the chikkinizer.

The performance during remote play is excellent with the graphics, audio and general function all at the same level of quality as the PS4 version, while being able to participate in split-screen multiplayer during remote play is a standout area of performance as a player is able to use a Vita and up to three other players can use their DualShock 4 controllers which is not a level of compatibility that every game attains to in remote play, although it would have been even better for the Vita to have its own screen instead of still displaying up to four split screens. The control scheme has not been optimised resulting in shooting forwards moving from R2 to the right of the rear touch pad which would have certainly felt more naturally assigned to R instead, but if players get used to utilising the rear touch pad to shoot, then it is otherwise the same comfortable control scheme with the alternative of switching the shoot button back to the right analogue stick.

By default the control scheme is a twin-stick shooter; however the controls actually work best when the turbo fire for the right analogue stick is turned off from the gameplay options menu as the right analogue stick pans the camera angle and shoots simultaneously which can certainly be off-putting, while there are also the abilities to automatically attack enemies which are located behind the ship via the pursuit fire option and target tracking to provide an aim assist. Beyond the minor tweak to the default control scheme the controls feel exactly as they should as it consists of pressing X or L1 to toggle the beam, pressing R2 to shoot forwards, pressing R1 to fire backwards, pressing square to use a special weapon, pressing triangle to honk the horn, changing the direction of the left analogue stick to move the ship, changing the direction of the right analogue stick to pan the camera, pressing the share button takes players to the share feature menu and pressing the options button to display the pause menu. There is no touch pad implementation which could have provided an alternative to moving, shooting or perhaps even toggling the beam, using a special weapon or honking the horn. The light bar flashes white when an enemy fires upon the ship, while the DualShock 4 controller vibrates when an enemy is shooting at the ship or when it  has exploded after being destroyed.

Graphically, Fluster Cluck is cartoon stylised which resonates a charm in keeping with its humour, premise and gameplay as it produces a range of characters, ships and environments in an approach which would be anticipated of a party game to maintain a certain personality throughout.

The presentation of the game is solid with a great user interface across various menus such as the main, career, battle, options, help and various gameplay menus with support for navigation via the left analogue stick, directional pad and face buttons, although it does not include support for navigation via the right analogue stick and touch pad. The background of the main menu consists of multiple characters in their ships positioned closely around the title logo of the game as they attack or evade their enemies.

The audio consists of a voice-over from Sean Crisden who provides a humorous introduction to important gameplay elements, while sound effects include honking the ship’s horn, chikkins clucking when ingredients are delivered to the chikkinizer, shooting at an enemy ship, an enemy shooting back at your ship, deploying the ingredients into the chikkinizer and collecting power-ups, alongside frantic arcade style music. The DualShock 4 speaker produces sound effects such as an uh-oh when the ship has taken too much sustained fire from enemy ships and an explosion when the player’s own ship has been destroyed.

The trophy list includes 8 trophies with three bronze, three silver and two gold trophies. The easier trophies include the Beginner’s Cluck bronze trophy for winning a first Chikkin Hunt match in Battle mode, the Death Matched bronze trophy for winning the first Death Match in Battle mode and the Life Coach silver trophy for winning career mode in coach class during single player which can be achieved on the easiest difficulty and winning all ten matches.

The hardest trophies include the Happy Birthday, Mr. Vice President gold trophy for getting promoted to level 50 as it is the most time consuming, while there are 2 trophies which require multiple controllers including the Friendly Rivalry silver trophy for winning career mode in any class with 2 players, although the second controller can remain idle, alongside the Four Real bronze trophy for completing a match in any mode with either 4 players each having their own controller or a second controller switched between additional profiles, however this still results in 2 trophies that needlessly require a potential of further expense in an attempt of completing the trophy list if you own a single controller and are playing the game in single player. It is estimated that depending upon multiple controllers, skill and a good trophy guide to provide some helpful tips that it would take between 7 to 10 hours to 100% the trophy list.

There are 3 difficulty levels including mild, medium and hot with the major differences being an increased level of aggression and purpose from the A.I. controlled opponents as the player’s weapons inflict less damage on opposing ships, while opponents inflict far more damage on the player’s ship by possessing far more accuracy in comparison to lower difficulty levels and opposing ships are more engaged with the appropriate task such as actively seeking out the location of the next ingredient during Chikkin Hunt rather than just firing at another A.I. controlled opponent and allowing players to continue to streak into the lead as is the case in the mild difficulty level.

Local multiplayer comprises of a split-screen co-operative and competitive experience for up to four players which performs exactly as the single player does in which two to four players are participating in the career mode as competitors, while there is also co-operative multiplayer for two players or competitive multiplayer between both teams of two players totalling to four players in battle mode via the Team Chikkin Hunt and Team Deathmatch variations of the competitive and competitive multiplayer for up to four players in Chikkin Hunt and Deathmatch. However, the lack of a Vita version with cross-play multiplayer between the Vita and PS4 is somewhat of a missed opportunity as is the lack of online multiplayer which could have reflected the local co-operative and competitive multiplayer experience, while there are no online leaderboards which could have displayed how many ingredients had been delivered to the chikkinizer during Chikkin Hunt and Team Chikkin Hunt maps as well as how quickly players have completed Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch maps.

The replayability of Fluster Cluck stems initially from the humour which makes every individual area of the game that much better with a sizable amount of content spanning a career mode across ten maps, a battle mode comprising of Chikkin Hunt, Deathmatch, Team Chikkin Hunt and Team Deathmatch, levelling up by earning XP from from great performances in any match type, local competitive and co-operative multiplayer throughout every mode and map, three difficulty levels and plenty of character and ship customisation which should collectively have players returning to the game.

Overall, Fluster Cluck is an arcade party game with a humorous approach in everything from its name to the video introduction and gameplay which is to be enjoyed by entering the game with an open mind and not taking it seriously. If you are a fan of the arcade and party game genres as well as liking games with humour, then Fluster Cluck will certainly appeal.

Jason Bonnar

Analysis

• Title: Fluster Cluck
• Developer: Loot Entertainment
• Publisher: Loot Entertainment
• System: PS4
• Format: PSN Download
• Cross-Buy: No
• Cross-Play: No
• Players: 1-4 (Local Competitive and Co-Operative Multiplayer)
• Hard Drive Space Required: 590.5MB