Far Cry 6's Brutal Mini-Game Is Turning Heads

Just before the release of "Far Cry 6," fans discovered that Ubisoft's latest sequel includes a controversial mini-game that pits chickens against each other in "Tekken"-esque matches. It's a surprisingly well thought-out cockfighting game that hits the same beats as its more humanoid counterparts. However, some people feel that the game as a whole is in bad taste.

Content creators like Widdz uploaded early footage of how the cockfighting mini-game works. Players choose from a select screen of feathered fighters with unique designs, from colorful and fluffy crowns to bald heads. Next, players make the birds fight by using moves reminiscent of modern fighting games, including short-range, long-range, and jump attacks. Birds can also dodge using certain inputs. Meanwhile, Rage Bars fill up as your fighter takes damage or misses attacks. When the Rage Bar is full, you can unleash a "Gallo Super" — your high-damage ultimate attack. 

These roosters might not have a long list of combos or specials, but they have enough skills to play footsies and incorporate other similar fighting game tactics into gameplay. Still, the problem stands that this mini-game is offensively detailed to some onlookers.

Many netizens defended the decision to include the cockfighting mini-game, while others argued it was harmful to do so. After all, cockfighting is a controversial real-life sport that trains chickens to fight each other, sometimes to the death.

"I think Americans don't realize that cockfighting is a thing in Latin America," a Puerto Rican commenter wrote. "Yes, it is cruel, but that is our reality." They suspected that Ubisoft wanted to accurately replicate that part of Cuban culture, and thought that it added to the dystopian setting of Yara, the fictional nation ruled by Giancarlo Esposito's Antón Castillo.

However, the realism didn't sit well with many Twitter users. More than a few people expressed their reluctance to buy "Far Cry 6" based on the cockfighting minigame. At least one commenter called the whole thing "gross."

Others chose to ignore the moral ramifications of a cockfighting mini-game and make fun of it instead. "Ubisoft should release this as a standalone title and call it 'Chekken,'" one Twitter commenter wrote.

For what its worth, the mini-game doesn't kill or gravely injure any of the roosters in a lifelike fashion. One might expect some nasty scuffs or even lethal wounds, but in "Far Cry 6," they seem to brush off the losses and even go round-for-round — much like actual fighting games.