Pop 'till you drop (Chuzzle Deluxe (PC))

Member Name: Lunah_C

Product:	Chuzzle Deluxe (PC)
Date:	12/04/07 (266 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Hugely entertaining

Disadvantages: Will keep you busy for hours.

Chuzzle Deluxe is one of those wonderfully addictive PC Games. I was introduced to these little critters about a year ago and have been captivated by them ever since. It is a very straight forward game and one you can play for five minutes or five hours which makes it an ideal time filler, or waster, depending on how you look at it. So what are Chuzzles?


*~*~*What are Chuzzles*~*~*

Chuzzles are small balls of fur with googly-eyes. They come in a variety of colours, red, yellow, blue etc and also a rainbow colour. You might even be lucky enough to spot some of the ones sporting glasses that pop up from time to time.

As you move the Chuzzles in the game, you will hear them giggle and squeak. Leave your cursor on their nose and they will start to scowl at the irritation, eventually they will sneeze, sending your cursor flying across the board. If it lands on another, they too will sneeze and send it flying again. Maybe it is sad, but sometimes just watching this can be as much fun. your cursor about.

Move the rows and columns too fast and their eyes will roll as they become quite dizzy.

If you repeatedly click on a small Chuzzle they will eventually sneeze and all their fur will come off, and if you do the same to a Super Chuzzle they will give out an almighty burp! None of this is important to the game, but helps to give them character and draws you into their world.

The eyes play quite an importance in the game. Most of the time they will follow your cursor, but occasionally one of them will dart it's eyes towards the Chuzzle you need to move. But stay alert as it will only be a brief glimpse. So how do you play?


*~*~*How do you play*~*~*

There are four different games on Chuzzle Deluxe, however the main one is Classic. Classic Chuzzle is a very easy game to play. All you have to do is group three or more Chuzzles of the same colour together by sliding rows and columns up and down and back and forth. When you do, they will pop. Nice eh! Each time you do this successfully, you will gain points. At the same time, the googly-eyes, all that remains, go into a bottle on the left hand side of the screen. When the jar fills up, you go up to the next level. There are ways to gain extra points. Group more than three Chuzzles (known as combos) and you will get a flashing Chuzzle….no, not that type! Pop this one and it will explode with force, popping other nearby Chuzzles. Get enough combos and you will get an oversized Chuzzle. These explode in a similar way but can also slightly hinder as you are unable to move one row singly if it contains this Chuzzle. Later in the game you will also get rainbow coloured Chuzzles. Team these up with others of the same type for mega points. If you get stuck you can request a hint, always handy, but it will cost you some eyes. Whilst the bottle will never completely empty, it obviously takes you that bit longer to reach the next level.You keep moving them about until you can make no more groups. When this happens you can scramble. This sends the Chuzzles in all directions. You can have three scrambles per game and then time is up. This game is known as Classic Chuzzle. Since it is relatively easy it can go on for some time. Fortunately the game automatically saves. When you open up the game next time, you will be given the chance to continue this game or start a new one, but it will wipe out the former.

If you are after something a bit quicker, there is speed Chuzzle. This is played in the same way except as you play, a timer goes across the bottom of the screen. Each time it reaches the end one of the Chuzzles is padlocked. This means that row and column cannot be moved. The padlock can only be removed if you pop that Chuzzle, so moves are a little more strategic in order to keep these ones at bay. Being somewhat harder, the game can be over much quicker, but just in case, this game auto saves too.

There are two other games to play on Chuzzle Deluxe. These are Zen Chuzzle and Mind Bender. Zen Puzzle is exactly the same as Classic Chuzzle but has unlimited Scrambles so it is a never ending game. Each time you fill the bottle, a Chuzzle will emerge, for every five you get you will be rewarded with magic, apparently.

Throughout these games you have the opportunity to obtain trophies. There are twenty six to collect, and are awarded for anything from using no hints to popping 100,000 Chuzzles to clearing the whole board in one go. The last one can only be given when you have received the other twenty five, so you could be playing for quite a while.

The last game is completely different. This time you must arrange your Chuzzles into a pattern. This pattern has to match the one shown on the left side. They start off really easy but soon start to get quite tricky. These tend to be the type that you spend hours trying to figure out, and finally give in. The next day you come back and at first glance realise the solution.
All these games will not only automatically save but if you start doing something else on your PC, it will also automatically pause. If left too long the Chuzzles will even fall asleep.
So, it all sounds good, but what if I am colourblind? Well, they have thought of that.


*~*~*Options*~*~*

Here you have a chance to set the game to your desires. Firstly, you can put it on colourblind mode. Which I think is a really nice extra touch. Each different coloured Chuzzles now also has a symbol on it's head. So you would simply match the symbols to play the game.

You also have the option to adjust the volumes of the background music and FX. The background music is not too bad, I have heard worse. It is repetitive, but is slightly catchy too.

The FX just has to be left on. Half the fun is listening to the Chuzzles as you tickle and tease them. There is also the very realistic sound of the bottle filling up as the yes go flying in. The game would not be the same otherwise.

You can also swap from window to full screen and set your screen size. But the best bit is the custom cursor. There is nothing wrong with pushing and pulling the Chuzzles with a little arrow, but the fun is tripled by using the custom cursor….a little star wand!


*~*~*Finally*~*~*

I love this game and so do my husband and our children. It is complex enough to keep my brain active and alert but simple enough for them to use. (Did I really say that!). Several people can enter their names and each persons' games save separately, which saves any squabbles as to whose trophy is whose. You can however compare scores on the high score table that includes everybody that has a player profile.The game can either be played on the internet or downloaded to your hard drive. As with most games, you original download a trial version and then after a set time you need to purchase the full version. I downloaded from PopCap games, but there are a number of sites offering free downloads so it is possible to receive the trial version a few times. However I obtained a full version so have been able to play to my hearts' content, or you could say I have popped till I dropped!

Summary: A very addictive game where you have to group together 3 or more coloured chuzzles to make them pop.