"Chack 'n' Pop" - NES/Famicom

----- Introduction -----

This is one of my least favorite Famicom games of all time as far as I know at the moment, so apologies. I'm gonna give it a fair try, though.

Chack 'n' Pop is supposed by some, according to Wikipedia but with a [citation needed], to be the spiritual predecessor to Bubble Bobble, which is an awesome, fun game. Apparently the little robots from Bubble Bobble appear in some unused sprites for the arcade version of this game.

If you hadn't guessed by me saying that, Chack 'n' Pop was made by Taito. The arcade game actually released in 1983, so this 1985 port is a little late to the party. And to be honest it looks like the arcade game doesn't look like anything amazing, so the Famicom port should actually be on point, I expect.

Let's see if they meet my expectations.

Time to get chack'n' and/or poppin'.

----- Playthrough -----

The main premise of Chack 'n' Pop is pretty straightforward. You play as a weird little hump of a guy who's main ability is dropping hand-grenades. Make no mistake, these are hand-grenades, they explode with a pretty wide radius and will body your character or anyone within range when they go off. Drop 'em and run.

Aaaa- AAAAAAAA! I'm gonna get PTSD from this.

The other ability that Chack'n' has at his disposal is attaching to ceiling for reasons that are not clear to me. I guess he has suction cups for feet or something, I don't really know, but at any rate if he's within jumping distance of a ceiling, he has no trouble jumping up there and staying.

I guess this is just, like, where I live now.

The main loop here is that there are some hearts trapped around the stage in cages on every stage. Your job is to blow the cage up with your hand-grenades so the hearts can fly up and break the brick walls blocking the exits, so you can leave. In the meantime, some angry floating ghost whales will try to eat you(?). I didn't say it made any sense.

Also, you have to do it before the little hooded guys at the top push the green egg off the ledge and break it, because for some reason that's bad, and Chack'n' will literally die if it happens.

That was my breakfast!
I may as well lie down and die.

The only other thing you need to know is that if you beat the level without killing anything, you'll get a 20,000 point bonus and an extra life. If you kill everything, though, you'll get a 5,000 point bonus... I'm just saying.

Or you can just kill some things and get nothing. The value of that depends on how much you like to kill.

I couldn't beat the game, again, but once more I provide you with a lovely longplay if you'd like to see every stage.

----- Review -----

Innovation:

Does the game show anything not yet seen on this system/ever before?

I'd say the whole 'dropping a bomb and running' thing is at least new on Famicom. We'll see it make a return with Bomberman, obviously, but for now Chack 'n' Pop is the only one to experiment with this on this console.

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Spitting Rage:

Does the game make you want to tear your own organs out of your body?

It's pretty difficult to squeeze by the enemies, but I guess that's part of the point of the game. The completionist in me wants to complete every level without killing anything to get the extra life, but I usually lose several lives trying to do so. It can also be frustrating trying to time a bomb placement to defend yourself; I seem to fail pretty frequently, but that's really just my fault for being bad at the game. And at games in general.

I may as well lie down and die.

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Intuitive Design: 

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

I didn't really figure the scoring thing out on my own, with the pacifism bonus-- but I imagine if you liked the game enough to try it, you'd figure it out eventually. Since you're given only one power though, and that's bombing things, it seems like it would be intuitive to just assume that you wouldn't be penalized for using it.

Other than that, I don't think there's too much to be confused about. You'll figure out the heart thing as soon as you bomb one of those cages, and when you see it slowly float up and hit the brick wall and destroy it, you'll know what it's for. The exit is also clearly labeled.

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Satisfying Gameplay: 

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

Not very, to me, but I never liked the bomb 'n' wait thing that was popularized by Bomberman. I don't think I'm strategic enough for it, to be honest, so it might also be a personal failing. I also find trying to move up and down stairs frustrating, because Chack'n' loves to get stuck to the ceiling constantly.

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Game Depth: 

How deep/long is the game?

According to the longplay, there's 10 levels in this thing before it repeats, which is honestly a pretty good amount of content if you're enjoying it, for an NES game.

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Sound Design: 

How's the sound?

It's fine. There's really not much here by way of music, and the sound effects are basic, but they get the job done.

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Graphics:

How's it look?

About as good as the other early 80s arcade ports we've seen so far. It seems like these designers were having a hard time straying away from the safety of 'colorful objects on black backgrounds'.

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Personal Chord: 

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

No, I really still don't like it. I definitely played more to write this than I've ever played of it before (I usually turned it off before even finishing the first level in the past), but Chack 'n' Pop still holds little personal appeal for me.

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Should You Play: 

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

I'm gonna say no, but I feel like I might be a bit biased because of the kind of games I like. This game is just really slow and unsatisfying to me. I'm sure there are people who would like it, but this just ain't it for me, chief.

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