Chick Flick
- Pong
Mouse
Keyboard
Flash
Chick Flick is a pong Flash game released on April 6th, 2006[1] by Nitrome. It is the first Nitrome game that supports multiplayer.
Players take control of squirrels with a trampoline that help prevent baby chicks from falling. The goal is to get the chicks safely into their nest.
The game was originally made to be released as a mobile phone game, but it was later rebuilt in Flash.
Descriptions[edit | edit source]
Nitrome.com 1.0
Use the mouse or left and right arrow keys to move the trampoline across the bottom of the screen. Bounce the chicks into the safety of their nest![2]
Nitrome.com 1.2
Save the baby chicks by bouncing them back into their nest![3]
Nitrome.com 2.0
Use your trusty trampoline to bounce the chicks back to the safety of the nest.
Controls[edit | edit source]
Single player controls[edit | edit source]
The player can choose from two control methods.
Mouse controls:
Mouse - Move the squirrels
Keyboard controls:
Left and right arrow keys - Move the squirrels
Two player controls[edit | edit source]
Mouse - Move red squirrel
Left and right arrow keys - move grey squirrel
Gameplay[edit | edit source]
In Chick Flick, the player controls two squirrels holding a trampoline that have to bounce chicks into a nest or nests located in the level. Other objects will fall from the sky and can be bounced into the nest for extra points. Levels usually have an exclusive hazard or interactive object that hinders the player from bouncing chicks into the nest.
If the player lets a chick fall on the ground, they will lose one heart, and the game ends when all hearts are lost. Some items immediately cause an effect if they land on the player. After ten chicks are safely bounced into the nest, the player is given the option of continuing to the next level or to bounce more chicks into the nest.
Levels[edit | edit source]
Level 1[edit | edit source]
This level has a simple nest placed in the middle of the level. This level is set in a peaceful hill-laden area, with mole heads seen sticking out of the hills. The central hill the player is on has a tree, at the bottom of the leafy green part of the tree being the interactive nest.
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Level 2[edit | edit source]
This level is set in an Egyptian-style tomb. Around the bottom of the tomb are various golden objects, with hieroglyphs on the walls of the tomb. Noticeable is a wall in the tomb, that shows the outside. Sleepwalkers from Sandman appear on a hill of sand, among several other cacti. The nest is placed simply in the middle of the room, in the hands of a cactus. Whenever a chick enters the nest, a stone slab will come out of the wall or retract into it.
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Level 3[edit | edit source]
Rather than one nest, there are two nests as well as three thumper bumpers. The background features cards, dice, tracks and three bunnies drinking from a glass, of which one is a waiter.
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Level 4[edit | edit source]
Some sticky candy-like objects are placed on the sides of this level, of which the chicks either get stuck on or bounce farther off when hit. The background is sparsely decorated with candy.
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Level 5[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
The squirrels save chicks on a conveyor belt, with buttons on either sides of the wall. When the chick bounces off the side of the wall, it may hit a button, which could activate the conveyor belt, making it harder to reach chicks in the opposite direction. The scenery features molten metal (which looks like lava) and the pipes have a radiation symbol on them.
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Level 6[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
The nest in this level has rocket boosters and hovers above ground. When a chick is bounced off a rocket booster, the nest will move the direction it was hit, so accuracy is essential. The background is decorated to look like a space ship.
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Level 7[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
Three icicles hang on the ceiling in this level. The third time that a chick hits an icicle, it will fall and briefly immobilize the squirrel. The icicles regenerate when a chick lands in the nest.. The background features many ice sculptures and is made to look like an ice cave.
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Level 8[edit | edit source]
Incomplete section
This section is incomplete. You can help by adding the missing info.
The nest is featured on a tree in a graveyard, with ghosts of dead chicks flying around. If a chick hits a ghost, the ghost will disappear and the chick will either bounce or go through it. Some ghosts, if too close to the squirrel, may stun it briefly.
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Bonus Level[edit | edit source]
When a player has completed all the levels, a bonus level is unlocked at the end of the game. The level is continuous and has no actual ending. Nuts fall from the top of the level, and the player's goal is to catch as many of them with the trampoline as they can. Game play continues until one of the nuts finally hits the ground.
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Interactive objects[edit | edit source]
- Moving stones - Slabs of stone that show up and retract at random times.
- Thumper bumpers - Circular objects that bounce off objects.
- Candy - May stick any objects it comes in contact with or may bounce them off.
- Buttons - Change the direction or stops the conveyor belt.
- Icicles - Stuns the squirrels if it falls on them.
Pickups[edit | edit source]
Occasionally, pickups fall from the sky, of which the player can use to score extra points or gain an extra life. Some of the pickups simply need to be caught in order to achieve the points, while others must be bounced into the nest.
- Acorn - Grants 25 points when caught in the trampoline.
- Worm - Worth 100 points.
- Bomb - The player must take 10 or less bounces to put this into the nest. Putting it in scores the player the number of bounces left multiplied by 10. The bomb will explode if the player drops it, or runs out of bounces, costing the player a life.
- Hot Air balloons - This is rarely seen during game play, but can be bounced into the nest to earn 500 points.
- Egg - An egg must be continuously bounced until it hatches, of which the player must quickly put into the nest.
- Hearts - When it lands on the trampoline, the squirrels will be given one extra life.
Credits[edit | edit source]
| Design | |
|---|---|
| Programming | |
| Music/FX | |
| Testers |
|
Beta content[edit | edit source]
Present in the game is a small image of a green circle. This green circle may be the remnants of an unused object that could be bounced, as in Chick Flick, although objects that can be bounced appear as one sprite, the actual sprite is arranged by placing the object's face on a coloured circle, and this green circle is about the same size as the Hot Air balloons. As such, this green circle may be what is remaining of a removed object that could be bounced.
Present in the game is an image of the chick counter. Oddly, this image implies that it would be used for a level with fifty chicks on it, although this counter nor a level that requires fifty chicks is used in the game, this possibly hinting at an unused level.
What is possibly two early versions of stars (seen when the player is injured by an icicle) can be found in the code of the game. One of these stars has a white center (the used versions lacks a white center), while the second unused star is smaller and slimmer.
The green sphere
One of the possible early stars
One of the possible early stars
The chick counter that requires fifty chicks to complete the level
Music[edit | edit source]
The music for Chick Flick was composed by Lee Nicklen, and it was originally composed on MIDI format, using the General MIDI sound bank[4]. Out of the eight tracks commissioned, two were used in the final product. The music for the game was made available for listening on Kayotix[4], Lee Nicklen's website, with the tracks that made it into the game being watermarked so that the listener would have to purchase the songs through Nitrome's Shop to listen to them without interruptions. The music was later made available to stream for free in Soundcloud[5].
The naming of the tracks may differ between Kayotix and Soundcloud.
| Official links | File | Heard in | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kayotix | Soundcloud | |||
| Menu Theme | Menu Song | Menus | The track available on these websites is missing a section at the end that can only be heard on the in-game version | |
| Main Game Theme | Main Song | Levels | The track available on these websites has an additional section at the end that is cut from the in-game version | |
| Menu Theme - (Alpha Track Version 1) | Extra Song 5 | |||
| Main Theme - (Alpha Track Version 2) | Extra Song 1 | |||
| Main Theme - (Alpha Track Version 3) | Extra Song 2 | |||
| Main Theme - (Alpha Track Version 4) | Extra Song 3 | |||
| Main Theme - (Alpha Track Version 5) | N/A | |||
| N/A | Extra Song 4 | |||
Cameos and references[edit | edit source]
Nitrome cameos[edit | edit source]
- Hot Air - Hot Air's head appears as a rare pickup.
- Sandman - Sleepwalkers appear in Level 2 of Chick Flick on the background.
Cameos in other Nitrome games[edit | edit source]
- Sandman - The squirrels and a chick appear in some levels.
- Gift Wrapped - A wrapping design features chicks.
Cameos outside Nitrome games[edit | edit source]
- Classic - The squirrels and a chick make an appearance in the skin.
- Party - The brown squirrel and a chick make an appearance in the skin.
- Nitrome 2.0 - The squirrels and a chick make an appearance in the skin.
- Twitter advertisement - A chick makes an appearance in the advertisement.
- Shop - An inflatable ball modeled after a chick and a giant toy brown squirrel appear in the banner of the site.
Cultural references[edit | edit source]
- The name of the game is a reference to the slang term chick flick, which refers to the film genre catered specifically to women's interests.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
Logos[edit | edit source]
Logo as seen on the slider animation
Icons[edit | edit source]
Nitrome 1.0 icon
Nitrome 1.2 icon
Nitrome 1.5 icon
Nitrome 2.0 icon
Search engine thumbnail
Screenshots[edit | edit source]
Slider animation
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- While the Nitrome 1.2 icons and the Nitrome 1.5 icons usually featured a screenshot of the game, Chick Flick's icon in both versions featured a screenshot of the original mobile version instead for unknown reasons.
- This game and Hot Air are the only Nitrome games that could be played with the Flash 7 Player.[2]
- Chick Flick was Nitrome's first game made in vector art, even though the original mobile version was made with pixel art. [6] Nitrome would not create another game with vector art until Super Leap Day, released over fifteen years later.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Nitrome.com October 4th 2006 - News: 06-04-06 - Chick Flick [Date is written in Day/Month/Year format]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Nitrome - Chick Flick, 15 June, 2006, retrieved 11 September, 2024.
- ↑ Internet Archive Wayback Machine: Nitrome - Play Free Online Games, 16 November, 2006, retrieved 11 September, 2024.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Chick Flick site on Kayotix
- ↑ Chick Flick playlist by one of Lee Nicklen's accounts on Soundcloud
- ↑ Nitrome blog: Memory Lane: Chick Flick!
| v • d • eChick Flick | |
|---|---|
| General | Chick Flick • Chick Flick (mobile) • Cosmic Cannon • Squirrels • Nest • Trampolines |
| Interactive objects | Moving stones • Thumper bumpers • Candy • Buttons • Icicles |
| Points | Chicks • Eggs • Bombs • Worms • Acorns • Hot Air balloons • Hearts |