{"id":1268,"date":"2024-04-05T19:00:05","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T23:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/reviews\/?p=1268"},"modified":"2024-04-06T16:38:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T20:38:43","slug":"chuck-rock-issue-48","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaminginsurrection.com\/reviews\/index.php\/2024\/04\/05\/chuck-rock-issue-48\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Rock \u2014 Issue 48"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Mediocre pre\u00adhis\u00adtoric origins<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nDinosaur plat\u00adform\u00ading mechan\u00adics does no favors<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For what\u00adev\u00ader rea\u00adson, I used to be enam\u00adored with Chuck Rock. Maybe it was the col\u00ador\u00adful graph\u00adics, or it was the \u201ccharm\u00ading\u201d plat\u00adform\u00ading. What\u00adev\u00ader it was, it isn\u2019t here in mod\u00adern gam\u00ading and with crit\u00adi\u00adcal hind\u00adsight now, I can safe\u00adly say it should have rolled back under the rock it slith\u00adered from.<\/span><\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much to the thread\u00adbare bedrock of Chuck Rock. You, Chuck, are a pre\u00adhis\u00adtoric meat\u00adhead who isn\u2019t capa\u00adble of more than a few words and grunts. You\u2019re tasked with retriev\u00ading your kid\u00adnapped wife, Ophe\u00adlia, from your love rival, Gary. You tra\u00adverse through six stages, gut bump\u00ading dinosaurs and oth\u00ader crea\u00adtures, lift\u00ading heavy rocks to solve puz\u00adzles and eat\u00ading var\u00adi\u00adous foods to replen\u00adish your health. Occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly, you\u2019ll fight a boss who tries to keep you from your beloved and eat you. Just about every\u00adthing is hos\u00adtile and there are many nat\u00adur\u00adal obsta\u00adcles threat\u00aden\u00ading you on the journey. <\/span><\/p>\n


\nIt seems, how\u00adev\u00ader, that no one men\u00adtioned that the actu\u00adal game\u00adplay was the real threat here. For starters, noth\u00ading does any\u00adthing well. Chuck is lethar\u00adgic and aim\u00adless with\u00adout a true sense of pur\u00adpose. I get it, he\u2019s a cave\u00adman, but that gim\u00admick falls flat fair\u00adly fast. He\u2019s a chore to con\u00adtrol in a hop \u2018n\u2019 bop that\u2019s aping Super Mario World, and it\u2019s aping the ter\u00adri\u00adble parts while try\u00ading to be cute. <\/span><\/p>\n

While the graph\u00adics are nice, know\u00ading what\u2019s a haz\u00adard and what is use\u00adful isn\u2019t the eas\u00adi\u00adest to dis\u00adcern. Some items blend well, and some ene\u00admies look like they could be help\u00adful items. It\u2019s a shame con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ading the graph\u00adics are clean and deeply hued with a com\u00adic book ink feel. Chuck has a nice sprite and match\u00ades well with the con\u00adcept as do the dinosaurs. How\u00adev\u00ader, while they look nice, noth\u00ading nice can be said about the sound\u00adtrack. It\u2019s monot\u00ado\u00adnous and bor\u00ading, and there\u2019s noth\u00ading that stands out. It\u2019s bor\u00ading and goofy, much like the game\u00adplay and the con\u00adcept, which does noth\u00ading to endear any\u00adone look\u00ading for a nice sol\u00adid ear\u00adly Super Nin\u00adten\u00addo or Gen\u00ade\u00adsis platformer.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we have here is a fail\u00adure to cap\u00adi\u00adtal\u00adize on an estab\u00adlished plat\u00adformer. Mario set the stan\u00addard a year ear\u00adli\u00ader with the excel\u00adlent stan\u00addard-bear\u00ader Super Mario World. Core should have tak\u00aden a look at that and emu\u00adlat\u00aded what they saw. They did\u00adn\u2019t, and we\u2019re stuck with some\u00adthing that, while cute, is nigh unplayable in some spots and a chore in oth\u00aders. Let\u2019s be glad that with a bet\u00adter dis\u00adcern\u00ading eye, I learned to leave some games in the Stone Ages.<\/span><\/p>\n