Ultimate Chicken Horse asks a simple question: what if the people trying to kill you were also the ones building the level? Clever Endeavour Games released the party platformer on PC on 4 March 2016, then brought it to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in December 2017 and Nintendo Switch on 25 September 2018.
It is a multiplayer game first. That is not a footnote. Unlocking characters and levels requires playing the main modes, and those modes are multiplayer only.
Trailer, via Clever Endeavour Games.
Build the Trap, Then Survive It
The flow is the hook. Each round, every player places one block or obstacle on the course. Then everyone races to the flag on the far side. Place something that stops your friends but not you, and you score. Place something that stops everybody, and nobody does.
Points come from achievements inside the round, not just from finishing. Reach the goal first and you are paid. Set a trap that catches someone and you are paid. If nobody reaches the goal, or if everybody does, the round pays out nothing.
Matches end two ways: first to a set number of points, or whoever leads after a set number of rounds. A round runs about a minute.
What the Animals Get
You play as a chicken, a horse, a sheep, a raccoon and other animals, drawn in a cartoony style over a funky soundtrack. The block library is large enough that levels rarely repeat. There are 15 levels with distinct features, and you can build and share your own.
Cross-play ties PC, PS4 and Switch together. Challenge levels post global best times across all platforms, so a run on one machine can be measured against a run on another. Online and local play both support up to four players, and local includes split screen. There is also a shared controller mode, which lets two people play off one controller or one keyboard.
A Party Game That Needs a Party
Here is the honest cost. Ultimate Chicken Horse is thin alone. Challenge levels can be built and played solo, but the progression — characters, levels — sits behind the multiplayer modes. Buy it for a quiet evening by yourself and you have bought half a game.
The two ways to play are not the same product.
| Local play | Online play | |
|---|---|---|
| Players | Up to 4, split screen | Up to 4 |
| Cross-platform | Not stated | PC, PS4, Switch |
| Best for | Reading the room | Global best times |
Local puts everyone in one room, where you can see the face of the person who just walled you off. Online opens the wider player pool, and the challenge times keep the courses coming.
Where It Lands
Ranked by what actually decides whether you keep playing, the priorities run like this:
- Three friends in the same room. Split screen, one screen, maximum noise.
- Three friends online. Cross-play across PC, PS4 and Switch still delivers the same trap-laying argument.
- Shared controller mode, when you have one keyboard and two people who want in.
- Solo challenge runs, which are real but cannot unlock characters or levels.
The design does one thing exceptionally well: it makes the person beside you the level designer. That is a real idea, not a gimmick, and it is the reason the game has held a player base since 2016.
The weak point is structural, not accidental. Solo players are locked out of the content that matters. Everything else the game offers, from the block library to the shared controller mode, assumes other people are in the room.
None of that breaks it. Ultimate Chicken Horse is a party platformer that understands its own joke. Bring three people. If you cannot, wait.
7.9 of 10, from an IGDB critic aggregate of 5 outlets.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
