Yeah, the conservation of endangered animals is a worthy cause, but some interstellar vagrant is going the extra mile, or parsec in this case, to bring this crusade to a deteriorating avian planet as the Chain Champ. Since he can't run with his legs and these birds cannot fly with their wings, he feels a deep kinship with them and wants them saved. Due to his physical impairment, the heroic gentleman must grapple his way through various tunnels and caves to recover these vulnerable birds in true action adventure fashion.

With only a grappling hook arm at his disposal, aim shots with the mouse, fire by left-clicking, and left-click again to release Champ from the chain and jump. If your mouse control skills aren't too strong, you can switch the control scheme to use the [arrow] keys for aiming and the [Z] button for firing/releasing. The angle at which your mighty hook shot arm attaches to a surface determines how much Champ will swing and his momentum once you unshackle the chain. The farther the chain travels to hit a surface, the longer it will be for you to hang from and the more movement speed you will get. It takes a certain amount of finesse and timing to successfully maneuver this hapless hero across lakes of lava, grab a precarious zip-line block, and land safely so you can reclaim the fearful birdies. This green Samaritan won't stop until your grappling prowess is top notch or you, well, want to take a break from the plight of the flightless.

The dynamic duo of Todd Luke and Shelby Smith cranked out a top notch indie grapple adventure that mixes a noble theme with a retro pixelart art style you can't help but love. The eighteen small, pixel levels may seem a little lacking for most adventure platformers, but the slowly increasing difficulty will have you re-materializing because you couldn't stick that epic swing past the falling lava. Champ never really learned that you can fire your grapple in midair, but it adds another level of complexity some players will probably have mixed feelings over. The game makes sure to combine all the obstacles thoroughly as you progress so the gameplay never gets stale and fizzles out your immersion into the game. If you don't want to see these birds scorched like a rotisserie chicken, oil up that hook chain arm for some swinging casual excitement.

Windows:
Download the free full version

Mac OS X:
Not available.
Try Boot Camp or Parallels or CrossOver Games.