Game of the Day 1/16/2016: Chulip

[celerystalker]

8421Chulip for PS2 was pretty poorly received by the US media, but I liked it. You play as a young Japanese boy who has met the girl of his dreams. He wants to kiss her underneath a magical tree with a face, which will ensure their eternal happiness. However, he needs to win her over by writing a love letter with a magical stationery set, and the only way to get that is to kiss every man, woman, child, ghost, alien, and animal in town. They won't be so easily smooched, though, and require the solving of some sort of puzzle to get your window. It's not entirely unlike Animal Crossing in feel, but has an extra layer of weird to make it a truly strange experience.

I think this was initially a GameStop exclusive near the end of the PS2's mainstream popularity. It came with a walkthrough in the manual. Any fans?

[Aussie2B]

I love Chulip. It's undeniably kind of cumbersome to play (the walkthrough helps a ton), but that almost contributes to its charm even more. Its atmosphere, weirdness, humor, art style, music, etc. all make it a totally unique experience in gaming. I tracked down a copy of its soundtrack too, for that matter. I'm still a little bummed that I got stiffed out out of the preorder keychain and was given some dumb Sonic wristband and God of War demo instead. Yes, I actually preordered Chulip, haha, almost certainly the only person who did so at that GameStop. I had been following it for a while through localization. It really seemed like it was going to turn into vaporware, so it was a pleasant surprise that it came out in the US in the end, though I'm certain all the time it took didn't help its sales any.

I may have been writing for an extremely niche magazine at the time, but at least this member of the US media gave it a favorable review. :P

[celerystalker]

Heheh, I love it as well. My brother and have played it a ton over the years since it came out, and it goes from insane to sweet to haunting pretty effortlessly. Is there an archive of your review? I'd love to check it out.

[Aussie2B]

Not as far as I'm aware, unfortunately. The existence of Video Game Collector magazine as a whole is kinda forgotten online. I *think* it may have been in issue #7, but don't hold me to that, haha. It was a short review so I couldn't go into any great detail, but I recommended it on the basis that it's quirky and charming and fun to play because of that, even if the gameplay can get a little frustrating at times and the puzzles occasionally too obtuse.

[celerystalker]

Not as far as I'm aware, unfortunately. The existence of Video Game Collector magazine as a whole is kinda forgotten online. I *think* it may have been in issue #7, but don't hold me to that, haha. It was a short review so I couldn't go into any great detail, but I recommended it on the basis that it's quirky and charming and fun to play because of that, even if the gameplay can get a little frustrating at times and the puzzles occasionally too obtuse.

Hmm... I probably have that issue. Homework!

Edit: Turns out I did have issue 7, but it wasn't there. Must be 6, 8, or 9, as I have the rest, even issue 1/2 and the King of Kong issue. I know Shawn, who used to print it, and Jason, who used to be price guide editor, who I haven't talked to in a very long time since Trade n Games' web business really took off. I bought three of my arcade cabinets from Shawn actually... super nice guy in my experience. Always remembers me from buying GI Joes at his old store some 15 years ago.

[Gameguy]

Kind of an odd plot to this game. To win the heart of a girl he likes, he needs to become a sex offender to everyone else in town.

[Emperor Megas]

I think I had 2 copies of the game and sold one. I could be mistaken, but I think that one of the copies was bundled in a three pack of budget PS2 games in Walmart. Again, I could have it confused with another title, but I know that I still own a sealed copy of it. It's just another causality of the backlog, but I might move it up since it was mentioned here. That's as good a reason as any to pick what's next in the queue.