Chuchel

By: Peter Ingham

Chuchel was a game that had stayed firmly on my radar since its announcement back in 2016 by Amanita Design, the incredibly talented studio behind such wonderful games as Machinarium, Botanicula and Samorost. Unlike their previous games, which were more story focused, tightly paced and often with a sense of purpose or a tangible goal to reach, Chuchel feels like you’re on the most amazing rollercoaster ride of your life and enjoying the sights along the way. And boy, are there some sights to experience in the brief two to three hours you’ll be spending with Chuchel and his cute sidekick!

Right from the get-go, Chuchel happily establishes that it is a minimal game. You start with a selection of characters and a mouse cursor nudging you to click something. And it’s here where the game gently eases you into the mechanics. There’s no fail states in this game and you’re actively encouraged to choose all the options on the screen just to see what animated cute Chuchel (As a little trivia, Chuchel is the Czech word for “a ball of hair and dust.”​) will do next. More often than not, it will lead to something utterly absurd taking place, be it eating a sweet roll and suddenly ballooning to the size of the entire screen or fighting off hoards of sentient teeth and engaging in a battle of wills with an evil version of yourself. Each screen is a constant surprise and a credit to the creative minds over at Amanita Design.

Not only is the variety abundant in the amount of ridiculous options you can cycle through when it comes to dealing with the non-puzzle screens, in which you simply choose an option and watch something happen on the screen, the actual puzzles are engaging and occasionally tricky. There’s nothing here that will feel like you’re banging your head on a wall until the answer arrives, but they do require you to think outside the box to reach the solution. And with a handy hint system built in which gently nudges you towards the solution without spelling it out for the player, there’s no reason why anyone should get truly stuck. That is key to the overall experience. Chuchel isn’t a game that wants to frustrate you with head scratchers as it wants to take you on an experience through a series of increasingly mad events and the puzzles feel like the downtime before you’re thrust back on the ride.

To touch very lightly on the plot, not for sake of spoilers (though, one reveal towards the end was certainly worth having it spoiled for me), but because frankly there isn’t really one. Chuchel and his little, pink rat/mole companion are on a quest to retrieve a cherry from what appears to be a very hairy arm, that occasionally appears from the top of the screen, to snatch victory from our heroes just as they think they’ve won. More often than not, it’s also Chuchel’s partner that is stealing the cherry and running away with it. It all feels very silly and inconsequential, which is exactly what you would expect from a game like this. Of course, it is going to be a turn off for those who expected something more tighter and focused like a Machinarium (and games like that are basically comfort food for me), but the overall pacing, humor and love poured into this I hope would remove fears that Amanita Design have lost their Midas touch.

Also complimenting the game beyond it’s great sense of humor and well-paced, increasingly strange adventures is the art style, which feels very reminiscent of French cartoon shorts I watched as a child. It has a kind of fever-dream feel to it all. Visually, it’s incredibly striking and credit has to be given to the design team for managing to emulate what feels like inspiration taken from decades of cartoons. The soundtrack also is both wonderful and gibberish, which makes the comedy bits even stronger. It suits the tone perfectly and is often frenzied and filled with Raving Rabbids style nonsense speak. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Chuchel and I’d love to see more of these characters and that world. As much as I want to find faults with the game it’s a pretty pointless endeavor. The game has one goal that it sets out plainly from the very first screen and it doesn’t waste your time getting that point across.