I'm as guilty as anyone of harbouring games on my hard drive for years on end, telling myself that I'll pick them up again 'any day now', but inevitably leaving them to gather digital dust (LA Noire: 3 years and 78 days). But there are a few games that earn their long-term residency on my rig, because I know it's a few months at most before I bundle enough people over to my place to play them. One of those is Ultimate Chicken Horse.
The delightful 2D platformer is a perfect party game, as you and up to three friends lay down traps and obstacles on a level, then try to outrun and outlast each other on your terrible creation as it becomes increasingly perilous. Now, developer Clever Endeavour Games has announced Ultimate Sheep Raccoon, which ports that whole 'put shit all over a stage to screw your friends while trying not to screw yourself' formula over to bike-racing.
It's basically Excitebike or Trials (or a modern, cooler successor to those that I'm not aware of), but where the levels are designed by a bunch of drunken pals, and where sheep, raccoons, and horses are the riders.
While the original game took place on a single screen, it looks like the action is full-on side-scrolling this time, and the game will support up to eight players which should amplify the chaos nicely. You'll be able to do tricks as you're catapulted into the air, earning you extra points, use jetpacks to leave your friends in the dust, while obstacles like spikes, bouncy mines, and uhhh, "laser-emitting TVs" will invariably turn once-empty tracks into impassable nightmares.
Ultimate Sheep Raccoon currently has a vague '2025' release window on its Steam page, but if you're looking to flesh out your party game collection in time for playing with fam and friends over Christmas, then you can't go wrong with grabbing Ultimate Chicken Horse, which is currently on sale for $5 (£4) on Steam until December 19.
