Choo choo! It’s Chu Chu Rocket. A Dreamcast puzzle game from 1999 that was bloody well FREE with the console. Well, huzzah!

The History of Chu Chu Rocket

Well, this is actually an action puzzle game. Action! Developed by the Sonic Team of Sega, Yuji Naka directed the deceptively simple romp.

The game is partly famous as it’s an early example of online play. And it was the first Dreamcast game to use this feature.

It all works by placing arrows on a board. These arrows lead mice who rush onto the screen into the direction of the arrow.

The aim is to avoid the cats on screen who’ll, yes, gobble down the poor SOB mice. Behold the thing in action!

Compared to other popular puzzle games at the time, such as Tetris and Columns, this is far more colourful and complex.

It has more of a Bubble Bobble feel. Or with the more recent Tetris 99, where you’re up against 99 other players across the world.

This means Chu Chu Rocket is fast, frantic, and pretty darned addictive. As the best puzzle games tend to be.

There can be up to 100 sprites pelting around on screen at once and you have to guide them all to safety. So, that’s pretty tough going.

Throw in the online multiplayer options and with ChuChu you’ve got a pretty hectic and enjoyable puzzler.

As a little minimalistic game for the Dreamcast, it does have a solid place in the console’s history. And that of online multiplaying history!

The Series Cheeps on With ChuChu Rocket! Universe

Before we did our research for this post, we had no idea there was a new one of these things.

But sure enough, ChuChu Rocket! Universe launched in 2019 to bring the ChuChu world back to life.

It’s a mobile game and is available on Apple Arcade only. So we haven’t played it. But it looks like good fun!

Not a shoddy revival at all, more an adaptation of the concept. Huzzah!