Astraware Chuzzle

Review: Astraware Chuzzle


Supplier: Astraware
Cost: $19.95, normally, pre-order price $14.95.
Scheduled for release: 16 Dec 2005
Supplier Web Site: Astraware

Tested on: MDA Compact

VGA Version not tested
Also available for Palm OS (not reviewed)

Astraware announce another game in collaboration with PopCap. 4WinMobile.com are delighted to have received a preview edition for review.

Chuzzle is balls of animated furry fun. They squeak, they snooze, they wink and they explode.

Chuzzle is compatible with QVGA and VGA screens. It requires Pocket PC 2002 or later and can be run on Windows Mobile 5 (not tested in this review).

Installing

Chuzzle has both a CAB installer for direct use on Pocket PC and an exe installer to use via Active Sync. I used the exe which worked perfectly. The game has a large 3965 Kb footprint, but uses that space to provide a lot of effects.

Starting

There is a one screen tutorial to introduce the game, but game play with stylus is so straightforward that the tutorial really isn’t needed. Chuzzle can be played with the D pad, but game play is incredibly slow that way.
Try out before purchase

Trial mode is important for a game costing almost $20. Classic and Speed Chuzzle are offered for play in trial mode. There is a nag screen that imposes an ever longer pause each time it appears. Being able to play these two modes is enough to find out whether you like the game. The nag screen is a good way to limit the trial; by the time it becomes a nuisance you will know whether you want to buy, and there’s no time limit so if life gets in the way you can get back to the game later.




Game play

Game play is by dragging an entire line of Chuzzles up, down, left or right to get three or more of the same colour next to each other, so that they pop like balloons. There are double size Chuzzles, pulsing Chuzzles, rainbow Chuzzles and locked Chuzzles. 4 modes of play offer a choice of fast and furious or laid back and relaxed.


The Classic game mode goes steadily through more difficult levels until no more moves are possible. The Scramble feature offers two extra lives by providing a new screen full of Chuzzles.


In Speed Chuzzle players have to beat the clock to get a new screen full of Chuzzles.


Classic and Speed Chuzzle offer Casual and Expert difficulty levels, so when you’ve got the hang of the game you don’t have to keep repeating easy levels if you don’t want to. There’s a hint feature to help out when you are stuck.


The high score tables in Classic and Speed include an export feature that generates a code to be entered on Astraware’s web site, together with an email address. Astraware then send a confirmation email, and on replying to this the score goes on to the web site. My first attempt at loading a Classic Chuzzle score worked smoothly, but on trying to load a Speed Chuzzle score my email address was initially refused as not belonging to a customer. I just pressed Submit again and the second time the address was accepted.

Mind Bender is a puzzle variation where the aim is to match a specified pattern. The puzzles are not easy.

Zen Chuzzle is a non-competitive mode without locks, where another move is always possible, like the Endless variation in Bejeweled 2.

A handy feature is that the current game (in any mode) is saved on exit and offered again on restart.

Longevity

I’m well and truly hooked on Chuzzle, it’s a fun game. Trophies are awarded for particular forms of game play like popping across the whole board with one colour. The trophy room is a nice addition that will keep me playing to see what other trophies there are. Chuzzle is a line up the colours game in which high scores depend on speed and more on luck than strategy. Even with four modes it is restricted in variety, so I will tire of it one day, but not for quite a while.

I do hope that a battery level monitor makes it into the next release, as it’s very easy to play for a long time. The Chuzzle layout makes the monitor from Bejeweled 2 an obvious choice.

Sound

As each set of Chuzzles explodes they fill up the flask on the left of the screen with a very convincing liquid into bottle noise. On clearing a screen the bottle pops its cork and out fly all the Chuzzles to fill up the screen again. The Chuzzles have a range of noises to fit their actions. Well worth putting the headphones on.
The couple of minutes of music I did listen to seemed OK, but I have to admit to turning the music off on every game I play, and Chuzzle was no exception.

Graphics

All the graphics for Chuzzle are in bright primary colours, like toys for a small child. They have to be bright to distinguish the Chuzzle colours. On my screen the red and orange Chuzzles are too alike in colour making the game slightly hard to play in some lighting conditions.
I had to laugh when I saw that after I put the game down for a few minutes the Chuzzles started closing their eyes and snoozing. There is also an extremely rare Chuzzle with sunglasses.
The font chosen for Chuzzle has a peculiar representation of 4, so that I thought I had somehow got back to level 1 again but this is easy to get used to.






Conclusion
A very compulsive game that is one of the best of its genre. The graphics are good, the sound is excellent, and there are enough variations to keep it interesting for a long time.


For
• Dead easy to play
• 4 game play modes
• Lots of special play features
• Cute visual effects
• Excellent sounds
• Totally addictive!


Against
• Really needs a battery monitor
• Orange and red colours hard to distinguish




4WM Rating 90%