Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad, iPad, iDevice Apps, Reviews
Seller: Sega America
Requirements: iOS 3.2 or later
Compatibility: iPad (also available for iPhone and iPod touch)
File Size: 16.8MB
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Price: $6.99
Age Rating: 4+
Despite owning a Sega Dreamcast, I never owned ChuChu Rocket. Was it also available for GameBoy? I never owned that, either. My only experience with the game was a Flash version online somewhere, but that was enough. The hyperactive energy and intriguing puzzles stuck, and I was ecstatic to see it’s been released for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch even though I doubt I’d ever played it for more than half an hour.
ChuChu Rocket is one of those games that works on multiple levels, even if you can’t really explain any one of them. I mean, you’ve got the name, which is just great, but then you’ve also got dozens of these weird (but adorable) ChuChu alien mice things who need to get into their rocket ships to get…somewhere. I don’t know if it’s ever explained, and I don’t care.
Then you’ve got these equally weird alien cat things called KapuKapus that are trying to eat the space mice, I suppose. The puzzles surrounding these creatures are all object/timing-based. In each level, you’re presented with walls that block the ChuChus’ path. When they hit a wall, they’ll turn. You’re also given one or more arrows to place on the game grid. When the ChuChus hit the arrow, they will go in that direction. Get the ChuChus caught in a loop or any sort of trap, and you lose that level. Get the ChuChus eaten by a KapuKapu, and you lose that level. Get them safely to their rocket ship and they blast off to another round.
The difficulty of the puzzles progresses across 140+ levels, and you’ll eventually reach the point where solving them is as much trial and error as it is skill. You’re not really penalized for getting a level wrong, you just start over again.
But the iPad brings in something new to keep it all fresh and frantic: four players on a single iPad. Each player gets a corner, and although that makes the grid smaller and the arrows harder to place, it’s still a lot of fun even if you can’t make sense of what’s going on most of the time. Not only do you need to get your ChuChus to the rocket first, but you need to do so while your “friends” send the alien cats your way and random specials either help or hurt you. The action’s insane, but in an endearing way.
If you’re worried about that many people huddled around your iPad, ChuChu Rocket! HD also has WiFi multiplayer. Hopefully, when GameCenter hits the iPad, it’ll support that, too.
As I mentioned earlier, I never played the Dreamcast version. The online Flash version was easy enough to control with the mouse, but I can’t imagine there’s a better way to play this game than via touchscreen. Getting started is simple, it’s quitting that’s difficult. The combination of the manic energy, the clever puzzles, the bouncy music and the insane pacing makes for one of the oddest games ever to reach…well, we’ll say cult status.
There are numerous games with this style of gameplay now available on Apple’s iDevices, but none of them are quite like ChuChu Rocket, and probably never will be again.
Appletell Rating:
Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »
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