Developer: PopCap Games. Inc
Steam Release: Aug 2006
Hours Played: 3
Similar To : 10,000,000 / Clickr / You Must Build A Boat
Rating: 3/5 Parsnips
Chuzzle Deluxe is a fun and frantic match 3 game that has the player moving rows and columns of fluffy balls that resemble pom poms with bulgy white eyes. With plenty of pop, squelch and splat there is plenty to like here. On starting the game you are presented with a 6X6 grid of spherical fluffy balls. With your mouse you pull a line of balls along either horizontally or vertically. The idea is to match up three or more balls of the same colour in a cluster. Releasing the mouse activates the move whereby all matching balls disappear in a satisfyingly fluffy explosion as the grid immediately fills up to replace them. As you do this, the bottle on the left of the screen captures and collects all the energy and gets gradually filled up. You go on in this vein until the bottle gets filled which then allows you to proceed to the next level.
In classic mode there is no time-pressure; you simply match up the three balls at your leisure but real men play the speed mode! In speed mode a little green bar moves from left to right as you consider your move. If it reaches the other side before you make a move, a random ball gets locked and you cannot move the line the ball is in. The only way to unlock it is to include it in a cluster of three or more by dragging balls of the same colour to its location. The game keeps locking lines until you are out of moves in which case you'll need to use the scramble feature to reset the grid. You can only use this three times so it's often a case of desperately trying to fill the bottle before relying on the scramble feature. To put a spanner in the works you sometimes get an enormous ball on the grid that takes up the space where four balls would normally be.
The artwork for the menus of Chuzzle Deluxe is designed with 1970s game shows in mind. To a shuffling but catchy beat you are first shown four large circles signifying the four game modes on offer. If you're like me you'll be spending most of your time in the Speed Chuzzle mode. Under these you have a further four smaller, orange circles that give you the bog-standard features like Options, High Scores and the Trophy Room. The High-Score pathway keeps your best five scores in the Classic and Speed mode. Progress comes in the form of aiming to beat those five scores but it's the speed mode that offers the best challenge. Zen mode is for those who want to kick back without a challenge while Mind-Bender mode is the puzzle element of the game. Menus are rock-solid, quick and stable.
The speed mode is definitely the one where you'll spend most of your time and the two different difficulty settings add a touch of variety with expert mode being a worthwhile challenge. Aiming to complete a level before you're out of moves becomes a really tricky problem and will definitely throw you into a mild but invigorating form of panic that makes you appreciate the quality of the game. As mentioned, the five high-scores are really all you get by way of recording progress so it’s really all about popping the pom-poms as quick as you can in an effort to beat that top-score.
With a size of just 9MB Chuzzle Deluxe will install in the blink of an eye and it really is the simplicity of the game that is its strength but the success of the game also has a lot to do with its sound. Successful match ups are accompanied by satisfyingly squelchy explosions and the chuzzles squeak and quiver as you go about your business. The animation of the explosions are also visually rewarding as various messages pop when balls leave behind a flutter of feathers in their wake. To give the balls more character along with that lifelike appeal, the eyes of the chuzzles follow your mouse pointer as you move around the grid. The zippy soundtrack, with its catchy and shuffly beat also adds an extra zany edge to the game so for a satisfying blast Chuzzle Deluxe comes recommended!
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