There is something about classic games from either old consoles or PC/Mac games from the late 80s/early 90s ending up on modern-day systems that make them unique, especially if you had only heard of them but never had a chance to play them way back when. For me this game was one of them.
Originally created by Chuck Sommerville for the Atari Lynx, this game wasn’t like anything I had seen up to that point, given that my bread and butter was action platformers and the like. But then when I got the chance to play a knockoff version of this game on my Aunt’s PC I was hooked.
In this game you play the role of a puzzle solver named Chip McCallahan and you are challenged by Melinda The Mental Marvel – who I can assume is your character’s crush – to solve over 100 puzzles, and if you can solve them then you get to join the Computer Club called The Bit Busters.
The early puzzle stages are very easy so the learning curve isn’t steep at all. Of course, that’s not to say you won’t lose a few times, but that’s part of any gameplay experience. While in the later stages the difficulty does get higher, the game does give you the choice to advance to the next stage without passing the current one if you lose enough times.
Speaking of – how exactly do you pass the levels? Well, it’s simple – collect all the chips in the stage so you can get past the chip socket and then enter the portal to the next stage. What’s not so simple are the obstacles in your path, and there are a plethora of them. From monsters to fire, watery pools, slippery ice, conveyor belts, etc. So it’s quite a challenge, hence the title, but as you progress you will the stages both challenging and entertaining.
So far I’m up to stage 9 as of this writing, but it is a fun title, and it’s one of those games that you can play in short spurts or for a long period of time depending on how you feel. Being able to take this classic on the go as well as on the TV set only makes it more fun.
So if you get a chance, try it out! Oh, and here’s some history regarding the game too. And wow, what a history indeed!
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