Do you remember rock and roll radio? Oh, wait, sorry, I usually have the Ramones playing while I type reviews. Do you remember Chip’s Challenge? I don’t. It was a tile-based puzzle game from about 24 years ago that was apparently developed by a guy named Chuck. He is, all these years later, sucked into a video game and Chuck’s Challenge was the result. A couple of years later we get Chuck’s Challenge 3D, which is the subject of this review.
What is a tile-based puzzle game? Go from one area on a playing field to another with environmental obstacles that are based on square tiles, with the elements to overcome those obstacles are on other square tiles. Travel from one tile to the next, overcome the obstacle by having a button pushed, a lever pulled, a crate moved, whatever, and get to the level’s exit within a given time period to be awarded a gold, silver, or bronze medal for your efforts. This also unlocks the next level to get through.
It sounds far more complicated than it needs to be, and it sort of is, but starting out is incredibly easy enough and that’s part of the charm of Chuck’s Challenge 3D – it sucks you in and ramps up the difficulty so that you suddenly have sunk a few hours in before you feel the need to walk away in frustration. By that time you’re addicted and want to come back with a brilliant idea on how to get past the level and then suddenly a few more hours have passed.
Chuck isn’t the purple creature going through each level, but instead is the human developer behind Chip’s Challenge. The purple guy, Woop, abducts Chuck from vacation to have him create new levels for him to go through. It’s a bit self-referential which might put some people off, but it is done in a light-hearted manner that doesn’t take itself seriously and is fun.
Conveyor belts, gates, fields of ice and creatures that will “kill” Woop are only some of the obstacles that need to be overcome. Most of the time it is pretty obvious what needs to be done, but executing on those necessities is the challenge. Ha. Get it? Because the name of the game is… oh, never mind. The point is for most of the over 100 levels you’ll know what you need to do, and if you don’t make it through it is only a matter of practice or a few runs with trial and error. Thankfully Chuck’s Challenge 3D doesn’t artificially ramp up difficulty more than necessary. This isn’t to say Chuck’s Challenge 3D will be easily mastered, but instead to say it isn’t needlessly frustrating.
Once players get through the over 100 levels in the game there is a section to create a level. This level editor isn’t something I played around with too much, but it was rather easy to navigate and use. This of course adds to the number of levels as user generated content is able to be uploaded and shared.
Visually Chuck’s Challenge 3D is bright, clear and the music is decent too. It doesn’t take much in the way of system requirements and is easy to play for just a couple of levels or for a couple of hours at a time. For the price there’s more than plenty of game to be had and well worth purchasing.