Here's a fact that will shock you: Chicken Run is 25 years old this year. Yep, the Aardman stop-motion classic was released in 2000, the same year as the likes of Gladiator, The Dark Knight and Avatar.
It was a huge success for Aardman — bringing in some $225 million in box office — and spawned a decent sequel 23 years later in Dawn Of The Nugget.
Skip to 2025 and another stealthy sequel of sorts has arrived.
Aardman and Outright Games have teamed up for Chicken Run: Eggstraction, a stealth game that's available now on — deep breath — Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam and the Microsoft Store.
Shortlist was lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the game — we had to heat up some chicken eggs to get our game code which was a lot of fun — and while it's definitely skewed towards children, it kept this adult who was old enough to watch Chicken Run in the cinema a quarter of a century ago very entertained, while playing alongside a very eggs-citable nine year old.
This is one star-studded game
The first thing you will notice is the calibre of voice talent on board. Reprising her role as Molly is The Last Of Us' Bella Ramsey.
Romesh Ranganathan is back as Nick, while Josie Sedgwick-Davies returns as Fizzle. And in one of the most genius castings in years, Chicken Shop Date's Amelia Dimoldenberg also joins the cast.
Plot-wise, everything kicks off some three months after the events of Dawn Of The Nugget (there's a nice explainer so if you aren't up to date, there's no need to worry) and you have to try and save the chickens from a number of places that they really shouldn't be in, including disused car parks, restaurants and factories.
Each chicken has its own special ability — and you can unlock more special abilities — and while there are a number of chickens in each level, you control one as the leader (or two if you opt for co-op).
There are also two modes you can play: Classic and Story Mode.
As for the gameplay, there's a lot of voiceover throughout which is fun, while you are wondering around each screen looking for a way to collect cogs or corn and save the chickens — there's a count for how many chickens you save, Lemmings-style.
The cut-scenes before and after the levels have been animated to as high a quality as the movies, which shows there's a lot of love that's been put into this game.
Chicken Run: Eggstraction is a lot of fun, offering a way into stealth games for a younger generation. That's not to say the adults in the room aren't catered for either, with some smart scripting and lovely world building within the Chicken Run universe.
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