Oh the year 2000 - things were looking so good for SEGA and Sonic Team. Coming from the high of the Dreamcast release they announced three games - The first two Samba De Amigo, Phantasy Star Online - all ended up being great games. The final game was Chu Chu Rocket! A bizarre cat & mouse puzzle game which essentially started the online console revolution.
Chu Chu Rocket is a simple puzzle game - save the Chu Chus (Space Mice) from the Kapu Kapus (Space Cats). Set up on a checkerboard map with set boundaries, you must get the Mice to their Rocket without being eaten or having them fall into a hole - and then onto the next puzzle. The only tools you have at your disposal are a set of arrows you must place on the map, which change the direction of either party.
There are two single player modes - Puzzle and Challenge. Puzzle Mode sets the player up with a level, and a set amount of arrows to place. Once everything is placed, pressing start will get them moving. All the Chu Chus need to reach their Rockets, or you've failed. These levels start off very easy, but end up getting quite difficult the further you move on. Thankfully it's purely grid based - it's a problem to be solved, and you can skip the ones you're stuck on and continue on.
In the original game there were 100 different puzzles to solve, as well as the ability to create your own and upload them to the online server for other people to download. The later GBA version included an additional 2,500 puzzles that users created from the SEGA servers!
Challenge Mode is slightly different to Puzzle mode - instead of placing arrows beforehand - everything is done in real time, and graded on the amount of time it took for you to complete it. In the original Dreamcast release there were 25 Challenge Mode levels - it's more of a test in order to play Multiplayer.
Chu Chu Rocket had a very strong Multiplayer aspect, and was the first major online multiplayer game for the Dreamcast. It played much like Challenge mode, but instead with 4 players and their own arrows and their own Rockets. Each player must try and set up arrows to get more mice into their Rocket, block other player's arrows, or attempt to make a cat go into another player's Rocket.
Special pink mice will pop up randomly during the game and will start a Random power up - this can include upping the amount of mice coming out, replacing all mice with cats or moving all the players around! It's a frantic Multiplayer mash up which anyone can play for a couple of minutes when you're bored - your attention doesn't have to be there for longer than 3 minutes, much like Bomberman.
If this was to come to the XBLA, it should be very close to the original - complete with downloadable levels made by other players. With the current state of XBLA this is the big problem - Microsoft have barred games like N+ or Band of Bugs from level swapping by easy means despite being completely set up for doing so. Hopefully Microsoft will have some sort of infrastructure in place by the time this ever comes out.
One thing that might work well is to have the different arrows be placed not just by the ABXY buttons, but by the right analog stick. The second analog stick hasn't been utilized in many puzzle games outside of Poker Smash, and would really fit the twitch game play Chu Chu Rocket has.
Outside of that, not much else needs to be added. 4-Player Multiplayer worked wonders back on the 56k modem Dreamcast owners were using, and is still plenty of simple, quick fun which can be set up with ease online or at home.
Puzzle games are filling up Xbox Live Arcade very quickly, but there is always room for Chu Chu Rocket. Even if people aren't completely interested or good at the puzzle games, the frantic multiplayer can be fun for anyone.
SEGA have recently started up some non-emulated work in the style of Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm - being released in a few weeks time - but hasn't started any specific in house development. If HTF turns out well (with Stainless redeeming themselves after the terrible Atari ports) they might be someone to look at for this development. Chu Chu Rocket isn't a completely difficult game to make - anyone could pick up the project, really.
Thanks to Dreamcast @ IGN for the images. Respond to this blog post and show your support for such a game, maybe someone with power will see it!
1 comment:
Not that it makes a big deal, but where you state the golden mice started up the roulette is incorrect. Gold mice were worth 50 points while the pink mice with a question mark over their heads were the ones that started the roulette.
Love me some Chu Chu Rocket and really wish it would come to XBLA. Playing it on Gametap sucks because there's no online multiplayer!
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