GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Excellent
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 12/13/1999
- Updated on: 04/28/2000
- Released on: 02/29/2000
Controlled madness is what great puzzle games are made of. When frenzy is harnessed then unleashed - that's where the competition is fiercest and the moments tensest. The rewards are also the greatest. Sonic Team has tapped into the power of the ancient animosity between mouse and cat, added a dash of technoamphetamine, and wrought Chu-Chu Rocket - the most violent game senators won't try to ban - upon the world.
You might be skeptical. It's natural for everyone but the rabid niche to look askance at these characters - the delirious orange bubble of the neko (cat) and the pasty, panicked blobs of the nezumi (mice) - and wonder what Sonic Team is wasting its time on when it could be making sequels to Sonic Adventure or NiGHTS. The answer is: the best multiplayer puzzle game we've seen in years. The presentation might be simple, and the game might lack the bells and whistles we crave from that still-shiny Dreamcast, but the solidity of this game cannot be denied.
The premise is simple.It should only take you a few moments to learn this game, which is the hook of all great puzzlers. The playfield contains rockets (a target) and a generator (which releases mice). The point of the game is to shuttle mice into your rocket, and when the time runs out, the person with the most mice wins. How do you accomplish this? You lay arrow tiles on the ground, and any character walking across an arrow tile will immediately switch direction and go the way it points. While mice contribute to your score (which is, in fact, just the number of mice you have in your rocket), cats detract from your score by consuming a percentage of the mice in your rocket. Cats will also eat any mice in their path. Mixing it up even more are the mystery mice, which are pink in color - whenever they enter your ship, a random effect occurs. The mouse or cat population might skyrocket, for example, or the rockets might switch places - not to mention that things might slow down, speed up, or freeze momentarily; cats might be given to the three unlucky competitors who had not picked up the pink mouse; or that other random circumstances might happen, accompanied by the high-pitched voice of a girl screaming her lungs out.
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ChuChu Rocket:
