Chu Chu Rocket

Nobody does crazy games better than the Japanese and Chu Chu Rocket is all kinds of crazy! But good crazy, the fluffy type you can share and play with. And seeing as this was the Dreamcasts first ever online puzzle game it was most definately most fun when shared.
It was developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega in 2000 and was given away free (thats correct FREE) to players in Europe if they sent their details to DreamArena, the Dreamcasts online home hub, which was a major thumbs up to this quirky little puzzler.
Essentially all the player had to do was get the ChuChus (space mice) into rockets before the KapuKapus (space cats, obviously) could chomp down on the frightened critters. You led them with down/up/left/right arrows (configured on the joypad buttons) and played against three opponents either computer controlled or, and this was the BIG FIRST, against other humans who could be anywhere in Europe. Chalk up yet another first for Team Dreamcast.
I shall put my hand up here and admit that although I owned ChuChu Rocket back when it was released, shamefully my copy was hardly played. I was too enthralled by the fighters and shooters on offer at the time but Ive picked it up again and after hammering it last night I must say I should really have paid more attention first time around. Its such a cool game! Very addictive and looks wise it hits the spot too, all candy colours and a 'bubbly' kind of feel. As I watched the Chuchus run in terror from those pesky KapuKapus I thought to myself, 'this looks great!' Even in the day of next gen gaming.
I don't care that others think this has a 2D look, they're wrong. Simple as that. And this sells for a measly £1 on auction sites and if you were to ignore it at that price then you would be wrong too. Fabulous fun.