It's a good sequel.

Step aside, DNF, we may have a new record for longest delayed game sequel.

So for anyone who's not an old fart like me who actually played Chip's Challenge 1 back in the day of hamster-powered processors, when sound cards were just being adopted and Voodoo cards were an upper class luxury, it was pretty much one of the de facto standards for puzzle games of the day. You've got block pushing puzzles, switch-toggling puzzles, enemies and hazards to avoid, ice tiles that you can't control yourself on, and some interesting interactions between tiles such as dirt blocks defusing bombs or making bridges across water. These are all strung together in increasingly sadistic ways to make levels with some legitimately puzzling elements, and a LOT of trial-and-error.

Chip's Challenge 2 picks up pretty much where we left off, with 200-ish new puzzles (all designed in the 90's) and a few tutorial levels explaining old and new mechanics; enemies can eat blue keys, green keys are good for multiple uses, and a brand new ♥♥♥♥ move: bombs that need to be turned into chips to be collected. Where the game *could* have benefited greatly from the massively increased average desktop resolution these days, it has instead opted for retro authenticity (or perhaps engine limitations) to keep its tiny visible area of the playing field, enabling a lot of "♥♥♥♥ you" moments that you could not possibly see coming the first time. To its credit, there is now a level select function rather than all those awful passwords.

It commits an unfortunate number of what are now considered cardinal sins of the puzzle genre (including a number of awful action-based levels), there's as much butt hole puzzle design as legitimate puzzle design (new pieces like the randomized teleport were literally invented purely to frustrate you), and its best shot at success is riding on the coattails of 25-year old nostalgia, but for being $5 and coming with a level editor and the first game, I think it gets a pass.

This game have stayed unreleased for a really really long time, Chuck Sommerville released a teaser video nearly ten years ago showing how CC2 looked like, but due to trademark problems could not release the game at the time as badly as fans wanted it. The game does look a bit dated as it was developed during a way different time, but the new puzzle elements is hugely appreciated and it's a timeless game at the same time.

There was chuck challange, and as much as I enjoyed it, I thought it was way too focused on small mini puzzles rather than the bigger levels of chips challange. Chips Challange 2 seems to have a mix of both, which I appericite and also seem to have way way more levels than both the original chips challange and chucks challenge. Some people don't like the more action focused levels, but that is one thing missing in chucks challange that I actually liked from Chips challange.

Interestingly the game is bit of a mix between Microsoft's version and the original Lynx version with the new game elements added on top. Chuck Sommerville wasn't too fond of the Microsoft version, but it's nice to see it's being acknowledge to a degree here as the game feels familiar to those who grew up with the supposedly inferior MS version. I kinda prefer the Lynx version highschooler look to Chip than the young kid that chip looked like in Microsoft's version anyway.

Gather round, children, and let me tell you a tale of the wonderful Silver Age of computer gaming. Back when the biggest memory hog in a Windows machine was Windows itself and any games worth their SoundBlaster salt had to be run under raw DOS, Microsoft had the brilliant idea to gather various tiny games and market them as the first productivity killers along with Solitaire. In between nascent classics like Minesweeper, Freecell and Pipe Dream, already-classic Tetris and dark horses like Skifree, the Windows Entertainment Packs featured a port of a Lynx game: one head-banger of an action puzzler called Chip's Challenge.

Chuck Sommerville started work on Chip's Challenge 2 nearly immediately. Development finished around 1992, and then nothing happened for 23 years, because when a company and a trademark love each other very much, everyone else gets screwed.

What this means is that you have under your eyes a precious uncut gem from the early days of casual gaming. No precious "demographics" here: breakneck action levels follow brain-busting puzzles with no discernible pattern. No Undo key if you misstep off a bridge into the drink, surely you have 15 more minutes to get this level right - unless you want to wimp out and skip the level, but then you won't be able to get a high score! Oh, and make sure to remember what blocks have deadly traps underneath them: perhaps you might even have to TAKE NOTES. (For the younger members of the audience, taking notes is like a wiki only you can access - try it, it's fun!)

Overall, this is a game whose flaws should be manageable by the fans of the New Puzzlers like Sokobond and SpaceChem, and an invaluable experience for anyone interested in a minor but shining piece of history of gaming.

I first heard about this game after it was put on hold in the early 2000's, and I remember being very upset about it. Being a vivid fan of the first game, it is no surprise that I sat waiting, ready to play, when this game was finally released. Now, about halfways in, I have decided it's time for me to give my thoughts about this game.

For those few who haven't heard of or played the first game, the concept is something along the lines of tile-based puzzle meets action-adventure. There are blocks that can be pushed around like in Sokoban, elements with different properties, items to help getting around in the elements, hazards, various different kind of enemies, teleports, and of course various keys and doors (including the iconic chips/chip socket). The goal is to get through the obstacles and reach for the exit. Most levels have a time limit as well.

This sequel adds a whole lot of new elements, including Melinda as a female second protagonist (with different properties than Chip), wires/logic gates, misc. items unrelated to the elements, several-characters in a level, and the ability to drop items. There is also a ton of new tiles and puzzle-elements, too much to go into detail about here. Most of these additions are very welcome, but with so much content to choose from a great amount of care should be taken by anyone designing levels.

As of gameplay, this game plays it oldschool (it's based on a game from 1989 after all). Like arcade-games of the 80's, it has no mercy if you do a fatal mistake: When Chip or Melinda dies, you'll be forced to restart the level from start. Although puzzle-games nowadays are often associated with casual gaming, this game is far from it and requires a great deal of attention and precision. It plays very well, and anyone familiar with the first game will instantly feel right at home (or at least after changing the controls to the arrow-keys).

One of the biggest strengths of the first game was it's mostly stellar level-design. It had a great balance between room-sizes and and room-content, and much of the game feels like it's actually located inside an actual place. It also has great consistency, and for the first 80 levels or so it often feels like an adventure. It's like you cannot wait to see what's behind the next corner. This second game... Not so much.

To be honest, the level-design of the second game is overall average at best. Don't get me wrong, a handful of levels are indeed excellent, but there is a fair share of levels that are absolutely awful. One particular level where you have to rely on guesswork comes to mind. Some other levels require flawless play to be completed within the time limit. In general it feels like just a big compilation of individual levels and it never really catches the same consistency and feeling of adventure the first game had. In my opinion the level-set would have benefited from being cut down to the 100 best levels.

Still, this game is saved by it's built-in level editor (if you went for the bundle or added it as DLC). With this you can make your own fully-fledged levels and play levels made by the community!

Last, the presentation. The game looks very good, and the tile-set has a feel somewhat similar to the old Microsoft Windows port of the first game. Help-text and title-text at the start of a level might be a bit hard to read at times, but it's no big deal. Over to music and sound. The sounds used are sampled from the original Atari Lynx version of the first game. Quite a nice touch, and it sounds just right. The music, is on the other hand a collection of Scott Joplin piano pieces. As odd as it might sound, it actually works quite well! Only issue is that the sounds are quite a bit louder than the music, at least on my computer.

My final verdict is: If you like the first game, you should absolutely get this (even if only for the level-editor). If you hate the first game, you'll probably hate this more, and if you have never heard of the first game you might want to give the re-release of that a try before trying this one out.

I started playing the Windows version of Chip's Challenge way back when I was five years old. It took a good three years to beat the game, but they were three very enjoyable years. Shortly afterward, around 1997 to 1998, I discovered a small online community dedicated to the game, which was buzzing about a potential sequel. Sadly, by the time its development was finished in 1999, the sequel never saw the light of day due to publishing problems. So that should give you an idea of just how much time fans have been waiting to see this game. In the meantime, the CC community grew and started developing its own official fan-made sequels to the original game in lieu of CC2, and CC developer Chuck Sommerville released a successor to his original called Chuck's Challenge.

I'm happy to say that it's been worth the wait. Chip's Challenge 2 builds upon what made its predecessor great by adding lots of new game elements that fit right into the existing ones and providing players with a variety of new and innovative challenges. Much like the aforementioned fan-produced level packs for CC1, the official levels for this game were also built by fans back in the '90s - some of the first custom levels ever to be produced. Because of the lack of an audience for custom levels (and the lack of levels in general), some of the level design here can feel a bit hit-or-miss, particularly toward the start of the game. But it's certainly more hit than miss, and the variety with design styles and gameplay types is welcome. And yes, for anyone wondering, the game does not include anything quite as long as CC1's infamous "On the Rocks" or "Pain." In fact, a lot of the levels seem designed specifically to avoid CC1's pitfalls (overly homogenous and lengthy challenges), though they can often veer in the opposite direction with ultra-short time limits. Still, it's refreshing to see these smaller challenges mixed in with the epic campaign levels, and the concepts featured here don't wear out their welcome quite as much as those featured in CC1 did there. Some of them even feel like precursors to what would later rock the gaming world, like yellow teleports and their Portal-esque functionality.

A game with this many elements may seem daunting, but they are introduced at a very reasonable pace. Unlike CC1, the tutorials for this game are not all packed together at the beginning but are spread out instead, leaving enough time to re-introduce the familiar stuff while slowly mixing in the unfamiliar. The game also does a decent job of exploring the new elements without going terribly overboard on difficult uses. Some players may be frustrated by the full application of the new elements not being entirely explained off the bat, but exploring the extent of their use in the later stages can be very, very satisfying. By the time you solve level 200, the game's declaration of your "puzzle master" status will feel quite well-earned.

If you purchase the bundle for this game - and there's really no reason not to - you'll get the original CC1 and the editor for this game, with which you can create your own devious and fun challenges. Perhaps one of the most welcome elements are the bonus flags, which allow more power to designers to create levels that can be accessible to all skill levels: go the easy route for completion, get the bonuses if you're a real daredevil. I'm really excited to see what the online community for this game will create.

Perhaps the only other drawback that some players may complain about here is that much of the game's interface has gone relatively unchanged over the years, with only a few minor adjustments to the menus, bug fixes, etc. You can't increase the size of the editor window, at least as the game stands at launch. There is no checkpoint system. It really does feel like a game from the late '90s, but don't be fooled by the simple interface and graphics: if you're a puzzle fan, the challenges are still loads of fun today and will keep you coming back for more.

(8 out of 10)

Full video review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udggMQ-mc-c

TL;DR It’s worth giving Chip’s Challenge 2 a play. Just go into it expecting a game from over twenty years ago, and the trappings (or lack thereof) that come with such a thing.

Well here’s something I never thought I’d be reviewing. Chip’s Challenge 2, the official sequel to Chip’s Challenge! The original was first released for the Atari Lynx in 1989, but eventually saw increased popularity due to its inclusion in the Microsoft Windows Entertainment Pack in 1992. If you’d like to know more about that one then I’ve got a full review video covering it, so let’s move right along. Chuck Sommerville, the developer of Chip’s Challenge, had pretty much finished developing this sequel back in 1991. But there was a problem: the publisher, Epyx, had gone bankrupt. Many of their assets were sold to a Christian media group, Bridgestone Multimedia, and they not interested in bringing the game to market. Sommerville tried to release it on his own, but Bridgestone would only continue to negotiate if he handed over a large undisclosed sum of cash upfront. He was never able to afford this, further attempts to renegotiate the rights went ignored for years, and the game was forgotten. In fact, Sommerville said “I generally thought the only way Chip’s Challenge 2 was ever going to see the light of day was by having my wife leak it on the internet on my death.” In the meantime, he developed and released Chuck’s Challenge, which I also reviewed in the past, but it was more of a stand-in for Chip’s Challenge 2 rather than a true sequel. Finally, in April of 2015 it was announced that the rights to Chip’s Challenge had been granted to his company, Niffler Limited.

Has it been worth the decades-long wait? Well, yes and no, as that depends on how hardcore a Chip’s Challenge fan you are. Personally I was psyched to finally be able to play this thing that was long considered vaporware, if only for the curiosity factor. But as with so many things that languish for such a long time, it’s normal to be a bit disappointed in the result. Chip’s Challenge 2 is a game that acts like it just emerged from a 25 year coma, not stopping to consider what decade it’s in. As a result, it looks and plays just like a game from 1991, complete with MIDI-quality music and low-res graphics that can’t even be scaled up to modern resolutions. Now, I think that I prefer it this way myself, in the sense that in such an unusual case I want the original artistic intent to be preserved. But being that it’s released on Steam in 2015 with a price tag putting it in the territory of far beefier games, it’s not going to be an easy sell to everyone. That said, it really is a proper, enjoyably tricky sequel to the game from 1989, and if you still enjoy Chip’s Challenge, it’s well worth checking out.

For starters, the look and feel of the game is highly familiar, falling somewhere between the Atari Lynx game and the Windows 3.1 game in terms of aesthetics. I can easily see this being exactly how Mr Sommerville originally envisioned the game back in ‘91, and it’s just cool to be able to see this finally step out of the shadows. But it’s a bit of a let-down that it’s such a barebones program, with only the most basic of options, and certainly nothing like the ability to play at a scaled-up widescreen resolution. The game window is restricted to the same play area as it was originally, which is fine I suppose, but it would be nice to have the option for some art around the edges instead of just black space, or at least to be able to play it full-screen. And even though it’s a Steam game, you can’t use the Steam overlay, and achievements are an old-school pop-up dialog window straight out of Windows 95. Okay, actually I kinda dig that, so whatever. The graphics tiles and design of the levels are all awesome though, and there are 79 additional features to play with, consisting of new game elements, abilities, and monsters. In some levels you can even play as Chip’s companion from the first game, Melinda the Mental Marvel. She not only looks different, but can access certain areas Chip cannot, and has different strengths and weaknesses. But even with all the new textures and logic, the basic gameplay remains. It’s a top-down, tile-based logic puzzle game, with a timer and a goal for each level. There are a number of chips to collect, which are often in plain sight, but grabbing them quickly enough is another story. Two hundred of these levels await you this time, created by a number of talented designers, but the goal is always to reach the swirly exit tile by way of logical object manipulation. The new items, tiles, and enemies make for some absolute mind-benders, with things like dynamite, railroad tracks, electric wires, logic gates, and bandits. But again, it really is just more Chip’s Challenge with very little in the way of evolution. If anything, it feels more like an expansion pack, and there’s nothing wrong with that I guess. It’s just that I feel it could have also done a bit more to appeal to gamers of 2015, instead of just those of us from the early 90’s who never got their fix. Things like the inclusion of puzzles that are totally action-based, or are nothing more than sadistic mazes, are incredibly grating, same as they were in the first one. The aggravation these incite could have been avoided: for instance, Chuck’s Challenge 3D included a rewind feature that made playing with game logic a breeze, but no such feature is on offer here. Again, I can understand keeping the original game’s integrity intact, but I also would just like to enjoy this with some new, optional features to get past the parts that didn’t age as well. It does let you skip levels at will, but sometimes I’d rather just retry from a certain part than punk out on the entire thing.

Oh well, it is what it is, and what it is is a game for a niche audience of Chip’s Challenge fans and retro puzzle gamers. The fact that it is now purchasable at all is a serious accomplishment, and I’m seriously happy to see it. I’m not so happy about the barebones nature of it, being a 2015 release and all, but I can also excuse it in a special case like this. I’m also not happy about the level editor being an extra piece of DLC, ugh, I could have done without THAT bit of modern gaming business practice. But if you get it alongside the original game on Steam, you get everything for five bucks at the moment, so it’s not a big deal. If you’ve been curious about the sequel, or have never even tried the original, it’s worth giving Chip’s Challenge 2 a look. But just go into it expecting a game from over twenty years ago, and the trappings, or lack thereof, that come with such a thing.

Waited 20 years for this game.

10/10 Would Bummer Again

It's Chip's Challenge 2, and I enjoyed it enough to play through the entirety all at once.
Took over 13 hours. Totally worth it.

Anyway, everything from the original returns here, as well as a huge pile of new elements that, though overwhelming at first, are definitely introduced at a reasonable pace. Some levels have time limits a bit on the short side for their puzzle (often these are bowling ball on rail puzzles) and there are quite a few more short time limit levels in the game: though these are more straightforward, where the time limit merely adds to the challenge rather than frustrates by running out of time *right* as you're approaching the finish.

For the most part, the level design is spot on, especially with the yellow teleport puzzles. It'd have been nice to have less "blow up the block with a bowling ball" moments, especially with no way of knowing what you'll get under the block. There are some annoying parts of otherwise great levels (the very end of "Venice" exists purely to make you replay the entire very long level if you don't know it's there), and a few levels that I definitely didn't enjoy (170, 171, 172), the majority were very fun. Some interactions could have been stood to be explained in their lessons (bowling ball+clone machine=wait, why does that do THAT), as well.

There's also a level editor, and I look forward to seeing what the community produces. That alone should add a significant amount of playtime.

As if that wasn't enough, there's tremendous depth for optimizing score (and times!) with the bonus flags, time bonus, and timer pickups. The biggest complaint there would be needing to idle for over 3 days for an extra 1.5 million points on the final level (no, seriously) which ruins this aspect for me for now, but should that be fixed this is yet another facet that will definitely bolster the playtime. (Update: This has been changed, in large part to me talking directly to Chuck about it. The Crazy II wait has been dropped to a mere 3 hours, which though long, is reasonable. Apparently it was originally 3 years...)

So, do you like puzzles? Get this game.
Did you like the original? Get this game.

$5 for this, the editor and the original game is a steal.

10/10 Would Bummer Again

An amazing game with an amazing mod community that has stuck around despite the game having 25 years of IP troubles.