Flicky review - Sega Megadrive

The strangely names Flicky is a small blue bird who gets his kicks by travelling into cat-infested territory, rescuing defenceless chicks from a fate rather like lining a pussy's stomach.

In order to save the day, Flicky travels around a horizontally scrolling platform environment, collecting chicks that follow his actions. Whole chains of chicks can be collected, all of them copying Flicky's movement until the whole train becomes a bizarre kind of snake. With the chicks safely in tow, Flicky then returns to the portal, helpfully marked “Flicky”, which opens and admits any chicks Flicky's collected. Only when all the chicks are safely stowed away is the level complete.

The cats themselves kill Flicky on contact, but there are plenty of objects the bird-like one collects which are then lobbed to knock them out. Should the cats make contact with any of the chicks following Flicky, the chicks are left behind, and only contact with Flicky again makes them follow him.

There are countless screens of platform-related excitement, along with many bonus levels to test Flicky's skills to their limits!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Okay, you don't need to tell me. Flicky looks and sounds like the worst Megadrive in existence. Its retarded graphics and moronic sound make it appear like a shambling mockery of a sad travesty. But try playing it! One game was all it took for me to become horribly, horribly hooked. Into the games room I repeatedly went, zombie-like until I'd had another fix. Even now I want another go. Its gameplay is just so perfect; a constant test of reflexes as you teeter on a knife-edge between playing it safe and ending up with a rubbish score, or running the big risks and going for the mega-score! It's crazy, I know, that a game so crappy, so laughably simple and pathetic-sounding as this can prove to be more addictive, more challenging and more long-lasting than virtually any other Megadrive game, but it's true. Try it out and see what I mean!

Immediate interest and pulse-racing excitement were not generated in copious quantities when I first saw Flicky being played. However, over the next few days, many people seemed to be “disappearing” into the games room to sneak a quick go. Curiosity aroused, I decided to give Flicky a go, and to my incredible surprise I found myself addicted, despite the truly awful graphics (designed no doubt by some retarded nursery school graduate) and very annoying sound (cutesy tunes have never sounded so utterly nauseating!). Flicky just has a completely brilliant game concept designed to keep you hooked to the console. And though the graphics are pathetic, this means there's tons of memory spare to provide you with many different levels. Most Megadrive games these days are completed in one sitting, but Flicky's different, and provides a truly long-lasting challenge. Buy it!

Have your say about this review

Tris Wicks - 11 Nov 2008, 02:30 GMT

Every time I start playing Flicky I have difficulty putting it down. What's even weirder is that this is a retro game disguised as a REALLY retro game. It's great. It would have made Namco proud if they came up with this.

illdog - 20 Jan 2009, 20:02 GMT

An audio/visual abortion - my mates and i thought that was one of the greatest descriptions ever. Flicky is great tho, the playability still stands up today.

Dan - 25 Feb 2009, 17:02 GMT

Great laff but come-on, it wasn't THAT good. I conned a bird (how appropriate ;) ) mate of mine into swapping it for her copy of Alisa Dragoon, n I defo got the better end of the deeaaaooooooow.

Yianni - 24 Dec 2010, 00:24 GMT

I had this game and I loved it.

Simple yet addictive, my brother and I competed to see who could finish levels the quickest.

Classic.

James - 30 Oct 2012, 20:41 GMT

Played this for the first time today, its flicking amazing!

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