Review
Release Date: 06.11.2001
Platform:
Game Boy AdvanceDeveloper:
Sonic TeamPublisher:
Sega of America, Inc.Reviewed by
Christian Kontul on 4.29.2003
| Review Rating: 8/10 | User Rating: 8.14/10 |
Tsubabababa!
ChuChu Rocket is back! Sonic Team’s addictive puzzler took Dreamcast owners by storm when it was released in early 2000 … At least, the gamers who bought it. Excluding the challenging and fun single-player modes, ChuChu Rocket supported online competition for up to four people. In fact, it was the first DC game to allow contests across the internet in North America. Even the annoying lag couldn’t keep folks from challenging friends and strangers over the Dreamcast’s dial-up connection.
With the Dreamcast gone, Sonic Team hopes to keep Chu-Chu Rocket alive on Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance. And boy, does it ever. With over 2,000 single-player stages, multiplayer matches that require only one cartridge, and create-a-level and character options, CCR will have anyone occupied for a very long time.
The game’s setup is deceptively basic. The player has to lead helpless space mice, ChuChus, to their ship before they die. Besides obstacles like walls and pits, there are space cats, KapuKapus, who try to gobble them up. Both the mice and the cats have a distinct way of moving, too; they go straight ahead until they hit a wall, then they turn right. So it’s up the player to put the ChuChus on the correct path by means of tiles that have arrows on them. These make the creatures go up, down, left, or right.
In ChuChu Rocket, there are two different means of doing this. Puzzle Mode provides a limited number of arrow tiles that point in prearranged directions. Before the action even begins, the player has to arrange the arrows on the board to guide the mice into their rocket. After they think they’ve got everything set, hitting a button puts everything in motion. If it’s right, the ChuChus enter their ship and blast off; if not, there are an infinite number of chances to get it right. Challenge Mode and multiplayer games, conversely, have gamers placing tiles on the fly. Challenges have levels set up in a similar manner to Puzzle Mode but now with tasks that have to be met, and the player has to put arrows down as the mice and cats are walking around in real-time. Versus games don’t have any goal to accomplish except to have the most mice in your rocket at the end of a match. There are areas that release mice and cats, and people have to set arrows to guide them to their ships. By leading cats to an opponent’s rocket, they’ll lose mice and there are special ChuChus that change the contest’s status. In addition to playing against three friends, it’s also possible to challenge the computer in multiplayer games. There are even varying degrees of difficulty to choose from.
All the boards from the Dreamcast version have been included, as have hundreds of fan-made stages that Sonic Team has handpicked specifically for the portable game. That’s a lot of levels, and some of them may have most people stumped for a long time. However, if these aren’t enough, gamers can even make their own and trade them across the Game Boy Advance’s link cable. The visuals imitate their console brethren’s look remarkably well; if you’ve played ChuChu Rocket on the DC, this won’t come as much of a surprise. It wasn’t the most intense graphical experience, to say the least. Still, on the GBA, Sonic Team manages to create some cool 3D-looking affects thanks to the hardware’s sprite-morphing abilities.
Additionally, ChuChu Rocket has a very cool presentation that acts off of its quirky premise and one-time ‘net compatibility. For instance, the “Help” option allows players to “connect” to a database where one can find all sorts of tips for playing the game more effectively and “download” characters created by the developers. It even features Sonic Team’s homepage URL and e-mail address.
Everything about ChuChu Rocket screams polish. It’s obvious that Sonic Team put a lot of effort into making this a handheld title that everyone could, and they’ve one-upped the Dreamcast installment in almost every way … Except for control. Unfortunately, the Game Boy Advance doesn’t have four face buttons like the DC’s controller, so the creators had to make adjustments to match the portable’s specifications. There are three formats for the Challenge and Multiplayer modes; do yourself a favor, and switch it to the “Pro” setting. The other two don’t come close to providing the necessary response level that is necessary for playing this game competitively. Even after making the proper adjustments, it doesn’t feel as comfortable as you might hope.
Most people should be able to adjust to the clumsy handling, though, and will certainly have a blast with ChuChu Rocket. If you’ve never been able to get into puzzle games, CCR may be able to change your mind, with its fast-paced multiplayer matches. For those who have whittled away hours with Tetris or Super Puzzle Fighter, you can’t miss this one.
