In essence, this is what Chicken Jockey has to offer. It combines the art of controlling the economy to raise chickens with a Pokémon-like twist (participating in cockfights and other tests to see who's the chicken in the country). The key is purchasing a chicken you like first, feeding it, and training it hard. Then, once you're out of money training your chicken, you have to use loans, gambling, and whatever other means necessary to keep the economy in your farm healthy.

To win the game, your chickens have to enter races and win the CJA tournament. This is easier said than done, considering you won't get very far unless you treat your chickens with lots of love and train them hard. To give you an idea of just how much these chickens need to be pampered, a "spa and massage" training program is included in the game. Talk about spoiled!

Second, there's a level of interactivity between you and the story as you play this game. Occasionally you'll be able to name chickens. You'll also get all the latest news, including if farmers want to trade chickens with you or if a chicken is sick of a disease and can't participate in a cockfight or race. The factors are all different everytime, so in a sense you don't get the same story twice.

Think of the replay value of this game as the equivalent of raising a virtual pet like a Tomagotchi or a Digimon. Once you've maxed out the chickens, there really isn't much else to do but start a new game. Fortunately the game comes with ten save slots, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to test various strategies.

Another cool feature is the Import/Export feature, which allows players to export chickens from one save file and import them to another save file. This could be the foundation that allows people to "trade" chickens the same way Pokémon fans trade their Pokemon over the Game Boy. The prospect of being able to play a revved-up version of Chicken Jockey online is too delicious, considering it's such an original idea. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Import/Export feature to work perfectly when I tried it here. I'm guessing there might be a glitch or something.

Absolutely key to becoming the top farmer in Chicken Jockey is knowing how to bet. In the first few turns, when the first chicken you buy isn't very strong, it can be very demoralizing to lose a cockfight or two. My advice to you is to gamble against your first chicken until you've developed a winner. Once you have enough money, you can invest in the feed and training to develop your chicken into a champion. Just remember that the chicken loses a little loyalty and determination with every fight it loses.

The chickens you can buy from the market are weak to start, but once you place your purchased chickens in the gym, they become monstrous mega-SuperSaiyan chickens that can basically win every race and dominate every cockfight. I used my first chicken Smackdown to win a ton of competitions, and I always had enough money for chicken feed, obsessive farm gambling, and all other sorts of shenanigans. This game is original, fun, and fresh... if you like strategy games and you've had all you can take of the strains of real-time war, this is the game to download. I really liked this game and I was tempted to overload the game with stars, but at the same time I wished that the game was a little bit longer and there was a little more continuity to the options the game did have. In other words, this game screams sequel like a hernia.

Chicken Jockey Reviewed by QBShire