| ChuChu Rocket! | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Sonic Team |
| Publisher(s) | Sega |
| Director(s) | Yuji Naka |
| Producer(s) | Yuji Naka |
| Designer(s) | Takafumi Kaya |
| Programmer(s) |
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| Artist(s) |
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| Composer(s) | Tomoya Ohtani |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast, Game Boy Advance, iOS, Android |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Action puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
ChuChu Rocket![a] is a 1999 action puzzle game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for the Dreamcast. The objective is for the player to place arrows on a board to lead mice into escape rockets while avoiding cats. The game features single-player modes in which a player must save all the mice on a board, and a multiplayer mode in which players battle to collect the most mice.
Directed and produced by Yuji Naka, ChuChu Rocket! was developed to test the Dreamcast's processing power by displaying many characters at once, and also to test the online functionality of the Dreamcast and Sega's servers, as it was the first Dreamcast game designed to make use of online. The knowledge gained from the network portion of the project helped Sonic Team in their development of Phantasy Star Online (2000). When it arrived in the United States, Sega held an online tournament where players could battle against Sega and Sonic Team employees. In PAL regions, it was given free to subscribers of Sega's online gaming service Dreamarena. Although Sega's online services have long shut down, the game can still be played online via private servers.
ChuChu Rocket! was a commercial and critical success. Critics praised the chaotic and addictive multiplayer and the simple and cute Japanese aesthetic. Sega's network gaming service received some criticism for lag. ChuChu Rocket! was ported to the Game Boy Advance as a launch game, and gathered interest as the first game published by Sega for Nintendo hardware. It was later ported to iOS and Android; both of these versions were delisted from their storefronts in 2015.
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