Irv #3: Chickapig

Our beloved Irv once again returns, this time with a strategy game as tricky as it is…bizarre: something an octopus can appreciate!

Presenting Chickapig–a “rogue rook” style barnyard game, where you lead your merry band of mutant livestock in a quest to escape the barn through their team’s colored gate, all while bumping into obstacles along the way.  

Along with your rookish “chickapigs”, you also have haybales (which act as movable obstacles), good fortune “daisy cards” which you can draw when rolling a two, the dreaded “Pooping Cow”, which leaves…you know, and the bad fortune “poop cards” which you get when your pieces step in it.

Some have called it a chess-like game for kids, including a quote from the box.

“Chickapig is better for kids than chess because it introduces chess-like thinking, but in a fun, light-hearted way.”

–Judah Brownstein, Former 12th Grade National Chess Champion

Irv agrees.  “Just like chess, its about knowing how fully utilize all the tools given to you: especially the Pooping Cow.  Oh, sure, you can win without it, but as your skill grows, it becomes a personal challenge to get them out as fast as possible…and send your opponent into as many ‘patties’ as possible.”

Irv chose this game, not only because of its twisty, yet fun strategic elements, or its simple, stylized artwork, but to bring awareness to the plights of…

…The poor creatures…undergoing such terrifying experimentation…at the whims of the hideous marriage of mega corporations and rogue government agencies?!

What?!

Um, Irv seems to be under the misapprehension that these creatures actually exist.

“This game is nothing more than an attempt to numb your minds to such horrific experimentation: today, it’s nothing more than a game, but, tomorrow, you will see chickapigs in farms across America!  It will be just like the Sharktopus Incident of 2010!”

(Image Source: https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Sharktopus)

Irv, of course, is referencing the schlocky sci-fi monster movie Sharktopus, which is not only fiction, but features extremely cheap CGI effects.

…Oh.  Apparently Irv doesn’t know what CGI is.  That answers so many questions.

“But, fortunately,” continued Irv, “These agencies have made a fatal error!  They were foolish enough to list the home of these unfortunate creatures on the side of the box!  So, I’m happy to announce that Be Game Social will be sponsoring an expedition to Charlottesville, Virginia to expose the horrible crimes against the poor Chickapigs, but to free them and release them into the wild!”

(Note: Be Game Social is NOT sponsoring any such trip, nor does it acknowledge the existence of actual “chickapigs”...or “Sharktopus”, for that matter!)

In the meantime, if you like wacky games with just the right amount of strategy and silly characters, check out Chickapig by Buffalo Games and Puzzles.