With its unique sense of humor, Definitely Not Fried Chicken is a business sim game with a dark sense of humor that takes jabs at corporations while you grow your own business empire making something that is definitely not fried chicken.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to run your own fried chicken restaurant? Maybe you’ve always dreamed of running your multi-million-dollar enterprise in the bustling city? Well, Not Fried Chicken might be exactly what you’re looking for. Kinda. This quirky business simulation game is developed by Dope Games and published by Merge Games and is filled with dark humor and wacky situations where you’ll certainly be cooking up something.
You see, you begin your journey in Definitely Not Fried Chicken as the newly hired manager of a fried chicken restaurant. You have been hired by a gentleman known as the Major to help get his business running again after all his past employees mysteriously quit for some unknown reason. The Major then explains to you all the things you need to do to run a business, such as creating and completing an efficient production line and building rooms to meet your workers’ needs. Wow, that was easy. Then right after that, the Major thanks you for your fantastic work and then promptly fires you.
You see, that’s the thing with Definitely Not Fried Chicken, it’s a business sim with a twist, and that twist is that you’re making… definitely not fried chicken. After your sudden newfound unemployment, you are approached by a man named Mr. Attorney. He explains that he needs someone like you to run and manage a business that will produce a certain type of “product”. That product includes various drugs and other illegal substances.
Definitely Not Fried Chicken is less a business management game and more a drug production management game, which is technically a type of business, but that’s beside the point. When in the game, you will have to create a drug production line and hire workers who will harvest, package, and deliver your product to clients. The more you make, the more your business will grow, but so will your notoriety. You will need to hire guards to protect your product and business from rival gangs and competitors.
In Definitely Not Fried Chicken, you will also have access to facilities that will let you upgrade your business and improve your product production. These facilities are the University, which will give you better technology for product development. The Gun Shop will allow you to buy better weapons for your security guards, as well as traps that you can set up on the perimeter of your properties. Finally, there is The Junkyard, which allows you to upgrade your delivery vehicles.
Great! You now have everything set up, you’ve got a vehicle for deliveries, a few bat-wielding security guards, and some loyal workers. Now it’s time to start making drugs, well, not yet. You see, right after you have set everything up, the Major catches wind of you starting your own new business and sends thugs to kill your workers and destroy your means of production. In Definitely Not Fried Chicken, you aren’t the only rooster in this coop, and you’ll have to stay on your toes if you want to beat the competition.
Rival businesses aren’t the only thing you will have to worry about. You see, your business isn’t exactly the most legal organization, and it definitely won’t go unnoticed for long. That’s why you will be able to set up a cover-up business to disguise your illegal comings and goings from the authorities. For example, disguising a meth lab as a laundromat or a weed farm as a chicken restaurant. You need to do this because if you don’t, you risk paying a fine and having your business shut down.
Not Fried Chicken is a game that doesn’t take itself very seriously. In the game, you will find a wide range of quirky characters who are all a not-so-subtle jab at certain businesses and their unethical practices in achieving their goals. For example, the Major, who is an older gentleman wearing black-rimmed glasses with white hair and a red apron, only talks about chicken and abuses his employees. Does that sound familiar?
This unseriousness is carried over with the game’s visuals, which are a mix of simple, clean, flat colors with cubic characters and environments. This visual style is meant to emulate the simplistic cleanness of the corporate work environment …and it’s been paired with horrible bloody violence.
Not Fried Chicken is filled with funny gags that will either leave you laughing or dazed in confusion by their sheer ridiculous nature. From weed-obsessed astronauts to a gang of wedding planners, the game is filled with a wide range of silliness. While these gags are a great highlight for the game, they are sadly the only really enjoyable part of it. You see, in between these funny moments, the rest of the game is quite monotonous because even with all the parody and absurd humor. Not Fried Chicken is, at its core, still a business sim, and it is one that, without the gags, doesn’t stand out that much.
Even though the game is meant to parody the aesthetics of mega-corporations and their clean and sterile nature, the game somehow can make them appealing. A great example of this is with the game’s soundtrack, which is a nice mix of chill vaporwave and login screen jingles, which, while being very catchy, helps make the game’s slower moments feel far less tedious, which will happen a lot more often than necessary.
This isn’t to say the game is boring; it’s just a lot slower than what most people would be used to, especially if you wanted to play the game for its humor. Not Fried Chicken succeeds as a great business sim, but sadly, the game’s gags happen too infrequently to break up the monotony.
All in all, Definitely Not Fried Chicken is an excellent business sim that is sleek and stylish with its surprisingly catchy soundtrack and clean cube-styled visuals. However, its gags, while hilarious, don’t happen as frequently as they should, meaning players who came expecting quirky humor will soon find themselves quite bored waiting for the next gag or punchline.
