The Hero is the unnamed, player-controlled protagonist in the Chicken Invaders franchise. He deeply hates the Chickens, however really loves food that includes chicken meat, like chicken burgers and chicken wings. We always see him pilot his M-404 PI, but we don't know how he really looks like.
History
Chicken Invaders
The design of the ship in Chicken Invaders
In the first game, the Chickens attempt to conquer and invade Earth. The Hero witnesses this and drives the chickens away. He attempts to eat later, but the Chickens come back with another plan almost instantly.
His spaceship back then used the rear weapon pods as its exhausts. The available colors for the engine were red and blue. The ship also uses a green version of the Ion Blaster as its default weapon.
The Next Wave
The hero's M-404 PI in The Next Wave
Side view of the hero's M-404 PI in The Next Wave
In this game, the hero repels the second attack of the Chickens and confronts the Mother Hen Ship. The Mother-Hen Ship manages to escape twice, but on the third encounter, the Hero removes its eggshell barrier and destroys it, securing Earth's safety again.
The design of the spaceship isn't too different from the one seen in the first Chicken Invaders, except for that now the entire M-404 PI is darker with a dark gray tip and dark gray tips on the tail wing, and that the windshield of the spacecraft is now orange instead of blue. The ship also now uses the red Ion Blaster as its default weapon. The side view render of the ship uses a brighter paintjob.
The christmas edition does not affect it.
The artwork for the logo uses the design from Revenge of the Yolk.
Revenge of the Yolk
The Hero's M-404 PI in Revenge of the Yolk
The third game involves the Chickens creating a weapon of mass destruction known as The Yolk-Star™. After going through the entire galaxy, the hero manages to return to the Solar System and destroys it.
In this game, the spaceship's design has been changed completely. Instead of using the rear weapon pods as exhausts, the M-404 PI uses a single triple-exhaust built into the back of the ship, which can move it across thousands of light years very quickly. The tail wing extends out further, the windshield is now red, the area behind it is wider, and the spaceship has some blue markings painted on it around the windshield and in the pods. The available colors for the engine are orange, blue, green and violet.
The editions do not affect it.
Ultimate Omelette
The hero's M-404 PI in Ultimate Omelette
The fourth game again has the Chickens trying to destroy Earth. This time, they built a machine called the Egg Cannon (a.k.a. the Vitelline Molecular Propulsor, as mentioned by Hen Solo). However, after the hero goes through several portals and explores many galaxies different from his own, he manages to get back to the Solar System just in time and destroys the Egg Cannon.
This game didn't change the Hero's M-404 PI a whole lot. The windshield is now purple, the weapon pods and the tail wing are more detailed, the markings it had earlier are now gray, and it uses the Boron Railgun as its default weapon.
The editions change the whole ship's paintjob and base's color appropriately (Christmas - red, Easter - green, Thanksgiving - yellow).
This game also is the only one to allow you to control a different ship. Once you spend 1000 Keys, you're able to play in Hen Solo's Millenium Hatchling. The only visible difference it has on weapons is that it makes your starting Boron Railgun orange.
Cluck of the Dark Side
The hero's M-404 PI in its default colors as seen in Cluck of the Dark Side
In this game, a chicken-built spacecraft known as the CK-01 Henterprise spews feathers near the Sun that block sunlight from reaching Earth to freeze it over. Luckily, the Hero manages to blow the feathers away using the Humanity's Greatest Fan, and later destroys the Henterprise.
This game saw a lot of changes done to the hero's ship. The most important change that happened in this game is that the M-404 PI's design can now be customized. As for the default ship setup, the tip of the ship is no longer darker again, however the entire ship is as dark as it was back in The Next Wave. It has some blue markings on it near the cockpit, on the tip, and on the tail wing. The windshield has also a yellowish color. The engine is blue on default settings.
The editions change the default paintjob's colors (except for the base) appropriately (Christmas - white/red, Halloween - red/green).
You have a dozen options to customize:
- Base - Base color of the spaceship. 42 colors are available.
- Cockpit - Color of the ship's windshield. 30 colors are available.
- Engine (outer) - Color of the engine's outer part. 24 colors are available.
- Engine (inner) - Color of the engine closer to its center. 26 colors are available.
The options below need to be first unlocked for 30 keys each.
- Fuselage - Color of the fuselage's paintjob. 42 colors are available.
- Fuselage paintjob - Pattern of the fuselage's paintjob. 5 patterns are available.
- Weapon pods - Color of the weapon pods' paintjob. You have 42 colors for it
- Weapon pods paintjob - Pattern of the weapon pods' paintjob. 5 patterns are available.
- Tail wing - Color of the tail's paintjob. 42 colors are available.
- Tail wing paintjob - Pattern of the tail's paintjob. 5 patterns are available.
- Paint density - The visibility of the paintjobs. 5 options are available, from 0% to 100%.
- Shininess - Shininess of the ship. 5 options are available.
Overall, this allows for 1.82034216 x 10^14 different combinations.
Universe
Chicken Invaders Universe will be the first game not to include the Hero as a playable character, and it's unknown if he will even appear at all.
Trivia
- According to InterAction studios, the original model for the Hero's spaceship was based off of Paul Moller's M400 SkyCar. The name of the ship, which is M-404 PI (which has been revealed here), is also based off of it.