Game Boy Advance

ChuChu Rocket!

Overall, Chu Chu Rocket is a fantastic game. I’d certainly rank at one of the top 5 puzzle games of all time; it’s up there with Tetris, Tetris Attack, and Puyo Puyo. If you are a puzzle fan, you must own this game. If you’re not a puzzle fan, this game is still great and I highly recommend it. It’s an excellent way to kill time. Just don’t play it too much, or you’ll start having Kapu Kapu’s chase you in your dreams!

Vi tyckte att Chu Chu Rocket var genialt när det kom till Dreamcast 1999. Frågan är om det inte gör sig ännu bättre på Game Boy Advance.

Whether you've played the title or not, I first suggest you switch the default controls to allow you to place and rotate your arrows more quickly. Then I'd say you'd better forget you're playing this on the GBA, 'cause the vivid colors, music, and most importantly the manic pace, are all in place. The only thing that may hold this one back for fans is that some of the mazes are from the DC version. I still enjoyed it, and I suggest you do the same. Just remember, if you're losing, it's not their fault – the mice's stupidity is all your own.

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.

Of course any Dreamcast owner would have received the 128bit version for free and yet here is the GBA version at £35. Yet that is only a minor gripe because with all the modes making it future proof and the usual Sonic Team & Sega magic shining through Chu Chu Rocket is one game you must own.

It’s unfair to keep comparing the game to Tetris when all they have in common is the puzzler genre. Chu Chu Rocket is a unique and wholly satisfying game in its own right, and a worthy first effort from Sega.

Chu Chu Rocket holds up well in its conversion from Dreamcast to handheld so well, in fact, you have to wonder if it wasn’t conceived as a portable game first. In this 2D puzzler, four players (computer and/or link-cabled humans) race to collect scurrying mice by placing arrows on the playfield, thereby directing the lil rodents into your goal. Random events, like all mice being replaced by evil cats or player targets suddenly swapping, keep things hectic. Chu also has a puzzle mode for single players, along with a level builder.

In light of the discontinuation of the Dreamcast, ChuChu Rocket--one of the first games available for the Game Boy Advance--is the first result of Sega's decision to focus on developing and publishing software for other platforms. It's a fairly unassuming puzzle game and, as such, perhaps not what you'd expect from Sega's first venture onto a Nintendo console. Nevertheless, even though it's basically a direct port of the original game for the Dreamcast, ChuChu Rocket is actually very well suited for the Game Boy Advance--it's the closest thing to Tetris that's currently available in the US. It'll take you a little while to get used to the controls, but once you do, you'll find that ChuChu Rocket offers a lot of value and a lot of fun for moments or hours at a time, for one to four players.

Si à l'époque de sa sortie sur Dreamcast, Chu Chu Rocket avait su m'emballer, je ne retrouve pas du tout le même fun sur cette cartouche GBA. Mis à part le fait que le titre devienne payant (rappelons qu'il était offert avec la console de Sega), c'est surtout la jouabilité qui m'a gêner sur ce jeu à la durée de vie pourtant monstrueuse.