What the heck does "ChuChu" mean?--ChuChu Rocket

"What the?" Was most likely your first thought when/if you saw this game in stores. I mean just look at the title and cover art, nothing could be weirder. After the initial scare, you probably just passed this game up thinking "It's probably just the latest THQ game". Well, let me tell you, you are missing out on one of the best puzzle/action games ever.

ChuChu Rocket is certainly a unique game. It's not just a puzzle game like Tetris, etc. but it also has elements of action and strategy in it. The point of the game is to get as many ChuChus (little mice who run all over the screen) into your rocket. You do this by placing up to 3 arrows--up, left, right, down--on the playing field to create a path for the ChuChus to get into your Rocket. There is a fun, but brief 1 player puzzle game mode, but the real show stealer in the multi-player mode where you can play online or offline with up to four players each with their own rockets and arrow laying abilities. An added strategy to the multi-player modes are the Kapu-Kapus (big brown cats). If you lead one of these suckers into your friend's rocket, their ChuChu count goes down severely. The person with the most ChuChus when the time runs out is the winner.

The graphics are, well, nothing that couldn't be done on PlayStation or Nintendo 64, but they're still as good as you can get with a 2D puzzle game. The sound effects are sharp, especially the satisfying chirp of ChuChus entering your Rocket. The music is completely forgettable, but not annoying.

The coolest aspect of ChuChu Rocket is that it's the first Dreamcast game to feature online play by using the Dreamcast's built-in 56k modem. And the best part is that it's free--as long as you have an internet ISP that is not AOL. Like every online game, there is Lag (the delay between the button press and the actual action), but it's usually only about a 2 second delay. Although at times the lag can be anywhere from 5-20 seconds rendering the game unplayable. Thankfully this rarely happens.

I have played ChuChu Rocket extensively enough to tell you that it's not a game I'm going to stop playing any time soon. If you do not have an ISP or someone you play games with often, it's still worth the $29.99 purchase price for the decent one player mode. The bottom line is that ChuChu Rocket is one of the best games on Dreamcast.</b>