Chu Chu Rocket (Sega Dreamcast, 2000)

Chu Chu Rocket is a unique puzzle game based around mice (the Japanese word for mice being chu) who must escape from rampaging cats (or the Kapu in this game) by boarding a rocket for the moon. The game looks, sounds and plays as bonkers as the concept of the game sounds on paper.
 
As the player your role is to guide the hapless Chu to their waiting rocket ship and freedom while at the same time keeping out of harms way of the Kapu who are trying to eat them. The game takes the form of an overhead perspective with a tiled grid floor and the Chu enter into the playing area from a number of specific spawning points. Onto this floor you can place one of four directional arrows, up, down, left and right. Should a Chu or a Kapu touch one of these tiles they will then walk in the direction indicated. The aim is to guide into your rocket while keeping the Kapu from entering your rocket, as they will of course scoff the Chu they find inside. On being killed you see the Chu soul ascending to mouse heaven with little angel wings.
 
Where it gets interesting and challenging is that you compete with three other players (either human or AI of varying grades of difficulty) and you compete within the time limit to amass the most Chu inside your rocket. The first player to win 3 rounds will blast their Chu triumphantly to the moon. The trick then is to guide as many Chu to your own rocket while diverting the Kapu to the rockets of the other players. This then requires the right combination of tragic planning in where you place the cursors and quick reactions. Often you will have to decide between directing Chu into your own rocket or directing Kapu into your opponents rockets. In addition to this there are two specials of Chu that can emerge onto the play area, these are the Golden Chu which are worth the same as 50 individual Chu if you can bag them and "special event" Chu with a question mark above it's head that when secured will cause one of a number of special events to take place. The special events in question are "Mouse Mania" (Chu will swarm into the play area in continuous streams for a limited time) "Mouse Monopoly" (the collecting player will suck up all the Chu currently on screen) "Cat Mania" (Kapu will swarm onto the screen for a limited time) "Cat Attack" (this launches a Kapu directly into the rockets of the other three players) "Everybody Move" (players rockets switch places) "Place Again" (the action pauses and all placed tiles disappear from play) and "Slow Down" (where everything on screen begins to move in slow motion). A voice actor who sounds like they have inhaled helium announces each of the special events as they take place.
 
In addition to the multiplayer battle mode there is a single player puzzle mode where you have to guide your Chu from their starting point on the grid to designated exits and avoiding roaming Kapu by placing tiles in the correct order. Once placed and the Chu set off the tiles can't be replaced. Depending on how you did the Chu will either make it to the escape exit or they will all be scoffed and you will have to try again using a different placement. Each course gradually becomes more challenging to figure out as you progress. Originally players were able to create their own puzzles and put them online for other players to download onto their VMUs.
 
Graphics are clean and neat but very basic, though they do have a distinctive art style and timeless quality. Graphics were deliberately kept simple as originally this game was intended to be played online using a slow dial-up modem. The servers for this game will have been out of use for a great many years by now of course. Sound effects though limited suit the cartoony and eccentric nature of the game very well as does the high tempo and frantic audio track. There is essentially one main music track that plays over and over again on a loop during the 4 player battle mode and while well composed and fun this can be somewhat annoying after a while of listening to it. Different music plays for some of the special events as they occur in the game and the music track for the one player puzzle game is consists of a more relaxed and calming track as you take time to decide where to place your directional arrows.
 
Chu Chu Rocket is a fun and novel puzzle game well worth owning for the Dreamcast if you enjoy puzzle games of this kind. Given that this game was originally bundled with the system as a freebie there are many copies available for pennies so there isn't a good reason not to own this game if you have a Dreamcast. While online play is no longer available you can still play against up to 3 friends if you own enough controllers to spare.

Recommend this product? Yes