Chu-chu Rocket! (GBA)

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-- General Info --
Title (Japan)
   Chu-chu Rocket!
Title (USA)
   ChuChu Rocket!
Title (Europe)
   ChuChu Rocket!
System
   Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Developer
   Sonic Team
Genre
   Puzzle
ESRB Rating
   E

-- Release Info --
Japan
   March 21, 2001
USA
   June 6, 2001
Europe
   December, 2001

-- Game Credits --
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Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Chu-chu Rocket!

Notice: This page is out-of-date and is no longer being maintained. Some of the information may be erroneous and the writing may be embarrassingly bad. Proceed at your own risk.

-- Gameplay Info --

As mentioned above, Chu² GBA is almost a direct port of the Dreamcast original. The core of gameplay is identical -- to get the scoop on that, check out the DC Chu-chu Rocket! page. From this point, I'll just be covering the GBA-specific changes and enhancements.

The first big issue you'll face, unsurprisingly, is control. Without the handy-dandy 4-button setup of the DC controller, placing those mofoing Arrow Panels becomes a whole new monkey. The game offers three different solutions; unfortunately, all three suck:

Rotate A/B -- Place an arrow by pressing A or B, then toggle its direction by repeating the button press. A rotates clockwise, B rotates counterclockwise.

A & + -- Hold down the A button then place an arrow by pressing the corresponding direction on the D-pad.

Pro -- A button places an up arrow, B button places a down arrow, L button places a left arrow, and R button places a right arrow. It takes some getting used to, but the Pro setup is the most functional of the three layouts. You can get by in the Puzzle mode with the Rotate A/B setup, but for the Battle and Stage Challenge modes it's Pro or nothing.

Here's a rundown of the 9 different options available at the main screen:

Help -- Like the DC version, it's a quick and easy visual tutorial on how to play the game. Interestingly enough, Sonic Team went with a web site theme for this one, with additional hints and instructions being unlocked each time you access the "page." The last thing you'll access are additional character "downloads" to use in the actual game. The Chao and Pians are gone, but you can go with the cows & UFOs theme, the new balloons & pins theme, or the new snowmen & fireballs theme. Or, if you're feeling creative, mix & match them any way you please.

4P Battle -- Biggest addition (and I do mean biggest): Kapu-kapus actually get larger as they eat mice. If a hefty mammoth cat whose chowed down on a Chu-chu feast finds his way into your Rocket, expect to lose beaucoup Chu-chus. Also, in addition to the eight roulette events from the DC original, five new ones have been added, two of which take advantage of the fact that each player in the GBA version has his own personal screen:

Chu-chu Fever Special (Mouse Mania Special) -- The hatches only produce slow-moving golden 50 Chu-chus
Koneko Fever (Kitten Mania) -- Mouse-sized Kapu kittens will spew forth from the hatches, each taking a single Chu-chu from the rocket in which they enter.
Steal Fever (Stealing Mania) -- Chu-chus escape from everybody's rockets back onto the stage, an opportunity that could completely turn the tables for a losing player. Halfway through the effect, an Everybody Switch is automatically performed.
Yoru (Night Time) -- Every player's screen blacks out except for a 2.5 square radius around his/her rocket
Hide Winner (Blindfold the Winner) -- Makes the Chu-chus and Kapu-kapus invisible to the player in first place.

Team Battle -- Identical to the Dreamcast version. Four players split into two teams to try and outdo the other pair.

Stage Challenge -- The premise and presentation are identical to the DC version, there's just one catch: you won't have a second player giving you a hand this time. You've got to complete each given challenge in realtime within 30 seconds all by your lonesome, and yeah, that's as difficult as it sounds and then some.

Puzzle -- Identical to the DC version with a big, fat addition. The original 100 puzzles are all present and accounted for, but somebody at Sonic Team actually took the time to select and include 2500 of the best user-made puzzles posted online from the original DC version. That's a bitchin' assload of puzzles.

Let's create a stage -- Like the DC version, you can create your own Puzzle mode stages. Unlike the original DC version, you can now create 4 Player Battle, Team Battle, and Stage Challenge levels as well. Three new ways to be diabolical! Schwing!

Let's create a character -- Brush up those old Mario Paint skills and get artistic to create your own Chu-chu and Kapu-kapu animations pixel by pixel.

Exchange Data -- This is where you connect your GBA to a buddy's to show off the stages you've made in "Let's create a stage" mode and the characters you've concocted in "Let's create a character" mode.

Options -- Identical to the DC version, right down to the five language settings (Japanese, English, French, Spanish, and German).

-- Behind the Screens --

Development on Chu-chu Rocket! GBA actually began before Sega's "platform agnostic" strategy was announced. Naka was on-hand for the public unveiling of GameCube and Game Boy Advance at Space World 2000, and his postings to the Sonic Team official website seemed to hint that he had more than just a passing interest in the consoles. He had special plans for the Game Boy Advance: after researching and discovering that Sega had no new handhelds planned (no Game Gear 2 or anything), he determined that the GBA would not be direct competition for Sega in any way. That was reason enough for the Team to set about preparing support for the system, but they wouldn't have to keep the fact under wraps very long: just a few months later, Sega dropped the bomb, the point on the pencil of history broke, and the future of gaming was forever altered. Chu-chu Rocket! was at the Game Boy Advance's side for both the Japanese and US system launches. And that, children, is the sound of history being written.

Along with the game's release in Japan came a unique contest: upon completing all 2500 user-made stages in the Puzzle mode, a special password was displayed on screen once (and ONLY once). For those who had the time and patience, the password was their entry into a contest where the grand prize was a trip to Florida to see the Kennedy Space Center.

Written content and original graphics copyright © 1997-2005 Jared Matte. Hosting and administration thanks to Nathan Tsui. Chu-chu Rocket! characters, logos, and images are trademarks of SEGA Corporation. The GHZ is an independent fansite and is not affiliated with SEGA Corporation.