Chuchel – Quirky cartoon comedy adventure with a cherry on top

Adorably grotesque. That is how Chuchel’s peculiar art style can be summarized. It’s completely at odds with Machinarium’s cartoon steampunk wonders or Samorost’s alien designs, sometimes looking like it is drawing inspiration from tons of weird memes that we all know and… love?

But one thing I know for sure: Chuchel is an Amanita Design game. This is a comedy adventure game with strange characters and a charming duo that spends most of the duration fighting over a cherry. Sometimes they overcome their differences and cooperate, but in the end it’s a story filled with humor and deception. Chuchel and Kekel will go to any lengths to grab that sweet cherry, but man, why don’t they eat it when they have the chance, instead of caressing, hugging it, bragging about it? First world problems, I know.

Instead of a proper, full-fledged adventure, Chuchel plays out more as a series of short clips. It’s just like those older adventure games where you must use your brain to look at the screen, click everywhere and eventually solve a puzzle, then it’s off to another area and to discover what to do, and so on. It somewhat reminded me of Gobliiins in that aspect, but in Chuchel you don’t control other characters besides the titular one, although you can use some of them for your own resolves. Thankfully, the game tries to spice up things with twitch-based puzzles, flappy bird-style levels and a lot more – in fact, for its extremely short duration (two hours), Chuchel has a lot of variety on offer and feels like it’s a much bigger game.

Perhaps then, even though it is over so quickly, Chuchel can get a bit repetitive. I wouldn’t recommend you to finish this game in one sitting, as it could drain the effectiveness of the package, and Chuchel’s frequent cries of rage and frustration can be a bit grating on the ears. And with so many good design choices, I wasn’t too keen on the frequent showings of the Chuchel logo – sure, the first time was a well-placed introduction to this oddball character, but I was left scratching my head as it happened a handful of times more during the entire game. Why?

Chuchel is part adventure, part action. While some sequences only require you to press a specific point to see a usually funny or unexpected reaction, this game actually includes some puzzles for you to figure out. In classic Amanita Design style, some of these have no logic whatsoever to them, being a matter of trial and error, of studying the cause and effect in this weird world. A few of them, on the other hand, require your best memory skills, and I can say that the game strikes a nice balance between wackiness and actual puzzle-solving. Some of the puzzles will leave you scratching your head for a while, but Chuchel has this undeniable charm and accessibility that makes it perfect to play with your young son or daughter. They will enjoy it for sure.

It also works as a sweet tribute to old-school games. You’ll find yourself going through some pretty original renditions of classic games such as Tetris, Pac-Man or Space Invaders, but it’s all very brief and perfectly integrated with the overall theme of the game. It doesn’t feel tacked on for the sake of it, but more like a natural part of such a slapstick game.

I did have a few minor gripes with it, though. One of them is due to the essence of the game itself – being a comedy adventure, you can expect a myriad of little animations reflecting your actions, and these can sometimes go for too long and become tiresome when you’re clicking around, trying to make sense of a particularly unnerving little puzzle. Yes, you may find a couple of these in Chuchel, and while you’re trying to sort the order of things or even make sense of the objects and their purpose, you’ll have to endure some animations for longer than you wanted to.

Setting out to make a comedy adventure is a task that I don’t envy. Humor is a very sensitive area to focus on, as what can be extremely funny for one person may be considered lame for another. Chuchel wasn’t laugh-out-loud funny for me, but it did manage to make me smile for most of its duration, and on a couple of occasions it genuinely made me chuckle. It’s not a massive success but it is a daring design that paid off, and the often-brilliant characters and situations can provide a lot of fun for both adults and children – there aren’t many games capable of having that claim to fame.

Amanita Design has delivered another oddity, a short game that will bring a smile – or more – to your face. The strange, dreamlike visuals almost look like they came from the mind and coloring markers of a 7-year-old, conveying this surreal innocence and ingenuity that is rarely seen in videogames. The trippy music adds wonderfully to the mix, an otherworldly soundtrack that is as impossible to label as it is to hate – you’ll find yourself moving your body along with the characters more often than you would expect.

Chuchel is a triumph, a game that defies expectations and will surprise you, amuse you and even challenge you a couple of times. This could only come from the minds of a talented indie studio, and beyond its simple and deceivingly childish looks, lies a bold and extremely original game for players of all ages.

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