ChuChu Rocket was the first big puzzle title released for the Sega Dreamcast console. It was designed by the creative forces at Sonic team, and enthusiasts of the system quickly flocked to it. The problem? The Sega Dreamcast was largely a failure in the home market. Worse yet puzzle titles (like this one) have always been better suited for handheld gaming, and at the time Sega didn’t have a portable system on which to release it. Chuchu Rocket deserved a second chance. Thankfully it got one. This was one of the first games Sega released on another manufacturer’s console. In this case the Game Boy Advance, and ChuChu Rocket was actually a launch title. This enhanced port had some cutbacks, but to make up for this Sega included some new content. Does this port to less capable hardware stand up to it’s console counterpart? Let’s take a look.
The premise in ChuChu Rocket is a bizarre one indeed. This puzzle game takes place in outer space where you have a series of white and blue mice that are trying to escape various hazards to reach their rocket ships and blast off to safety. What are these hazards, you may ask? These include things like pitfalls and of course the big scary orange cats that are actively seeking them out to eat them. The thing is you don’t directly control these mice. This is where the puzzle elements come in to play. These little guys wander on their own until they hit a barrier at which point they turn to their right and continue onward. The only direct control you have is in the placement of arrow tiles. When a mouse (or cat, for that matter) touches one they immediately turn and walk in that direction.
It’s not as easy as it sounds. Thankfully you can continue endlessly and keep trying again. There’s no real game over in ChuChu Rocket which may sound lame, but it’s not. You’re going to lose. A lot. You watch the action unfold but thankfully are given the option to speed up the otherwise slow paced action to see if the mice all reach the ship faster. This is done by pressing the R button, but you can also stop the action and start over by pressing L should you decide your strategy isn’t going to work. ChuChu Rocket is based entirely on trial and error. Most puzzles have just one way to win, but I’ve found a few that offered multiple solutions. ChuChu Rocket is ultimately rewarding to play, and it’s just as fun as it was on the Sega Dreamcast in my opinion.
If the game sounds simple that’s because it is. This is however one of the reasons the title works so well. Anyone can jump right in and figure out the mechanics with little to no instruction in just minutes. ChuChu Rocket is, after all, an overhead view single screen 2D puzzle game. The fact that it’s not based on twitch gaming or fast reflexes, and instead in planning and strategy makes it incredibly accessible. It also gets incredibly challenging in the later stages of which there are plenty. What’s nice too is that the difficulty ramps up gradually. At first you won’t have to deal with the devilish orange cats, and have only a few mice to guide to safety. Later on the screen will be full of the innocent little guys with multiple baddies wandering around at once. That’s not to mention the various landfills speckled throughout the terrain.
What’s more is the fact that this tiny little cartridge is packed full of content. There’s more to do and see here than even on the exponentially bigger Dreamcast disc. The original version had one hundred puzzles for single player mode, but it also had an online feature where you could download user created stages. The Game Boy Advance obviously could not go online. To make up for this Sonic Team included literally thousands of these homemade levels here in this GBA edition. That’s staggering particularly for a handheld release. There is enough content here to keep you busy a good long while. I’ve put many hours into this one and have yet to complete everything. As far as launch titles for the platform go this is the most feature rich one of the bunch.
Even the frantic multiplayer mode made the cut. This is a real time battle to gather as many mice as you can into your own rocket ship. The action never subsides or slows down as you deal with an onslaught of incoming mice competing to add them to your own scoreboard. The cats are also present here, and should they touch your ship you lose a huge number of points. You and the other human players you’re against can freely place directional tiles and must do so in order to scoop up the most mice within the time limit. What makes this mode particularly interesting is that it’s a download play title. This means you need only one cartridge, four Game Boy Advance systems, and enough link cables to connect them all to each other.
While the bar of entry isn’t as low for multiplayer in the Dreamcast edition I’m still happy Sega didn’t scrap the whole thing entirely for this pocket version. Furthermore you can also still create your own puzzles, and share them via the link cable as well. As I’ve already said ChuChu Rocket is ridiculously content rich. The final feature included here is that you can create your own character avatars. This is mostly used for multiplayer. To be perfectly honest I’m not the biggest fan of this feature nor have I made extensive use of it. Still, I’m not one to complain about optional content. I’m sure someone, somewhere found it interesting in some capacity.
One of the big concerns I initially had was with the graphics. It’s no secret that the Game Boy Advance is not nearly as powerful as the Sega Dreamcast in any capacity. ChuChu Rocket was no powerhouse on the home console and was mostly sprite based. Thankfully not much fidelity was lost in the transition. The sprites look almost the same as they do in the home version. The only big change I’ve noticed is that the rockets are now rendered in sprites instead of polygons. That’s not a big trade-off and I couldn’t be bothered to care much. ChuChu Rocket is a decent looking game by GBA standards. It’s impressive that Sega shrunk it down so effortlessly.
What’s more is that the bright graphics are very well suited to the dark display of the Game Boy Advance. The soundtrack on the other hand doesn’t hold up as well. The redbook audio allowed for high quality music on the Dreamcast disc. The GBA simply wasn’t up to the task of re-creating it perfectly. The audio has some static issues here, and the bleeps and blips try hard but can’t quite manage decent renditions of the classic tracks. I was pretty disappointed with the music but I didn’t expect to be impressed in this category given the archaic hardware. At least the title theme still sounds decent with it’s electronic beat and drums.
