Retrospective: ChuChu Rocket! for Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance

During the brief success of the Dreamcast, I was absolutely enamored with it. I, like many others, picked up mine on 9/9/99 and played Sonic Adventure for hours on end, beating it with every single character. ChuChu Rocket!, was another fantastic Dreamcast game that fascinated me with it's simple yet brilliant retro-style action/puzzle gameplay and smooth cartoony futuristic graphics. I still remember talking with friends at school about playing it online that night, something practically unheard of on consoles at the time. Blast off with me and escape those ravenous KapuKapus as I explore ChuChu Rocket! for Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance...

In ChuChu Rocket! typical gameplay involves saving the day by placing arrows strategically on a tiled floor to show mice the way to their rocket, while avoiding/deterring some hungry cats. Yes, I said "rocket". These are space mice and cats, or "ChuChus" and "KapuKapus" as they are called in the game.

Both the mice and cats respond predictably to obstacles by turning right when running into a wall, following corners and following arrows placed by the player. They will follow these rules even to their own demise, so quick and smart placement of arrows is vital. The game's single player has several fast-paced challenge stages with varying objectives as well as literally thousands of puzzle stages (most of which were added in the GBA version from the Dreamcast version's online community) that give you more time to think.

Of course, while the single player is fantastic, the multi player is absolute madness... in a good way. With support for up to 4 players simultaneous (human or AI), players must scramble to place arrows leading mice to their own rockets while sabotaging their opponent's plans to do the same. The game play continually changes-up during matches, keeping things hectic and fresh. The icing on this adorable little futuristic cake of a game is a fully featured level editor as well as a character editor (found in the GBA version).

The game was originally made by Sonic Team for Sega's Dreamcast and was one of the first games with online multi player on a console to be fairly popular. Unfortunately, the game's popularity was probably damaged by the Dreamcast's tragic fate, though the system is still adored by many. Luckily, the game later got a significantly updated Game Boy Advance port with 4 player link-play support, several added features and thousands more puzzles. It was the first Sega game released on a non-Sega system after Sega left the game hardware market. Yes, both the Dreamcast and the Game Boy Advance versions are firsts.

All we need is a DS version and/or a Wii version. The game is perfect for Nintendo's systems. Let's get moving, eh Sega?

For more information, see Wikipedia and MobyGames.

By the way... A mobile phone port(?) of ChuChu Rocket! also exists and, unless I'm mistaken, only supports single player.