Amanita Designs has developed quite the reputation for creating simple games with beautiful hand drawn visuals. Whilst they’ve been active since 2003 it wasn’t until their release of Machinarium in 2009 that they really broke through as a developer. Since then they’ve gone on to release several games in their trademark style, many of which have won praise for their visual design. Indeed I remarked as much in my review of their second full length game Botanicula back in 2012. I gave Samorost 3 a miss, mostly because I didn’t have the time to play through the previous 2, but when I saw CHUCHEL I was excited at the prospect at playing another one of Amanita’s games. However, whilst the trademark visual comedy style remains, this particular game failed to grab me in the same way Botanicula did.
You follow CHUCHEL and his pet/friend/enemy Kekel through a variety of challenges with one goal in mind: to get back that delicious cherry. To do so you’ll have to complete many and varied challenges ranging from simple things like distracting a watchful beast to playing a simplified version of pacman. Each of the panels is filled with clickable items that will react in varying ways, some producing rather hilarious and unintended effects. Solving the puzzle doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get your hands on that cherry though as a disembodied hand, which seems to revel in torturing poor little CHUCHEL, will likely sweep in at the last second and take it away from you.
Amanita’s visual design is as great as ever in CHUCHEL, leaning more towards a child like hand drawn aesthetic than its previous more dream-like works. The backgrounds are usually simple watercolour inspired designs with soft colours bleeding out and mixing together. Items and characters stand out from the background thanks to their hard edges and use of solid, bright colours (with the exception of furry things like CHUCHEL). The design has a children’s book feel to it with each of the levels feeling like it could be a page from one of your childhood favourites. It should come as no surprise that the game has already been recognised by the Independent Games Festival with an Excellence in Visual Art award.
Like their previous titles CHUCHEL is a point and click (sans adventure) game, requiring you to explore the environment by clicking around to figure out what you can and can’t do. For the most part the puzzles are contained to a single panel however there’s a few that take place over multiple, increasing the challenge. You’re quite unlikely to get stuck as the game seems to recognise when you’re taking too long to solve a particular puzzle and begins dropping hints about what you need to do. However there’s a lot to be uncovered should you take your time in solving the puzzles with much of the games content hidden in non-puzzle elements. This is then accompanied by a great soundtrack and excellent foley work which is sure to captivate many players, both young and old.
However unlike Botanicula, which managed to engage me right through to the end, CHUCHEL just failed to grab me. More so than its predecessor I believe CHUCHEL would likely be enjoyed more by children and played on an iPad as the game lends itself well to the platform. Playing it on the PC, whilst far from a bad experience, just feels like its half a stepped removed from how it’s meant to be played. I haven’t yet had the chance to unleash this particular game on any of my nephews or nieces but I’d hazard a guess this is the kind of game that could keep them thoroughly entertained for hours on end.
For me though there just wasn’t enough to keep me coming back to play it. The art and sound design are great but the puzzles quickly start to feel repetitive after a really short period of time. I personally could only play it in ~20 minute bursts before I grew tired of it. Perhaps the lack of even a simple overarching narrative, which Botanicula had, is the key here as there really wasn’t much beyond wanting to see the next scene to keep me going. I’ve barely played it for an hour and I just simply don’t feel like going back to it. Maybe I just need to watch someone else play it.
CHUCHEL is proof yet again that Amanita Design is a master of their style, delivering another gorgeous point and click adventure game that’s sure to delight many. The hand drawn childlike aesthetic is simply beautiful, echoing the kinds of things many us would’ve drawn as kids. Unfortunately the repetitive nature of some of the puzzles combined with the lack of even a simple overarching story made it hard for this reviewer to remain engaged with it long term. Still it’s easy to recognise the quality of the work put into making CHUCHEL and, whilist I might not have enjoyed it as much as their other games, it’s still likely worth picking up even if it is just for the kids.
Rating: 8.0/10
CHUCHEL is available on PC, iOS and Android right now for $9.99. Game was played on the PC with just over an hour of play time and 0% of the achievements unlocked.
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