Originally posted on June 3rd, 2014. This was my first ever review!

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Having come out on iOS devices a while ago, Chubbins was a fun little game with a big problem: It didn’t work well on those devices! With it being on WiiU, along with a new TIME ATTACK mode, will this port be a good addition to the WiiU Eshop, the same store with great games like Mega man X2 already out? Let’s see.

Title: Chubbins

System: Nintendo WiiU (Eshop)

Price: 5.99

Release date: 6/5/2014

The main game/story

Well… There really isn’t one! With the exception of a ending cutscene that only hints at a potential story, there isn’t really one. The game stars a bunny, who I am not sure even has a name (Or if he is named Chubbins after the title), and he must make it through lots of hazards in order to reach a glowing orb at the end of each stage, before fighting a boss every 8 levels.

Graphics

People got upset when this game was announced, claiming the graphics to be ugly. While I don’ think they are the best, and sometimes seem like a late Sega Saturn game, I think it looks nice most of the time. The 3D models look super smooth, and most of the backgrounds are quite nice! The boss designs are rather cool, too. My personal favorite is the Hawk in world 3.

Gameplay

This game plays a little differently than the standard indie platformer. You can’t jump in this game! You can only move left or right, using the ZL, L, ZR, R or D pad to do so. Instead, how you maneuver is by landing on blocks that automatically bounce you up. Some bounce you higher than others, and these are indicated by the speed of the arrows on the blocks.

There are two difficulty levels in this game, and they are Soft mode and Hard mode. This is where I’ll say this right away.

Don’t let the game’s cute character fool you.

Don’t.

I mean it! Because this game is insanely difficult, even on soft mode. Luckily due to the simple nature of the game, it’s mostly the player’s fault for any mistake they make. Most of the time. Soft mode adds checkpoints which help out a lot. However, you may still get frustrated by those levels in world 4 with very few checkpoints, or when you constantly run into the same obstacle.

While the obstacles you dodge is standard for these games, with spikes and enemies, there is a little change to mix it up. In some levels, there will be a green or orange vegetable that will change your bunny to Green or orange, respectively. As one of these colors, you can go through spikes of the same color without dying! However in soft mode if you pass a checkpoint and die, you’ll lose the color. But still, it helps open up alternative paths that can add to the replay value! Speaking of replay value, the new time attack mode allows you to play any stage except boss stages (Which is a bummer), on hard mode in as fast of a time as possible. The worlds also have their own timer if you want to keep a record of your best times for that, but I prefer the individual stages.

I never really found any particular obstacle unfair, except for one. There is this irritating raccoon enemy that bounces up and down repeatedly, and most of the time it’s very hard to avoid unless you are lucky. Besides that, however I didn’t have much problems. Some hazards like the moving water are cool to look at, as well.

Glitches

Now to point out glitches I found for the developers to take note of. These won’t affect the score as they are minor.

When I was in world 3, I paused the game and left for a few minutes. After unpausing and turning on the music, it started to make this irritating screeching noise that sounded like a broken radio. I had to restart the game to fix it. Nothing major but not recommended for headphone users.

And the next glitch I encountered in world 5 was a glitch where if you repeatedly mash the pause button to avoid obstacles (AKA Pause buffering), and touch the obstacles the same frame as you pause, it’ll soft lock, making you unable to do anything except change displays. This can get annoying for people as it may happen on accident if someone wants to take a break and they happen to do so on that frame.

Music:

Not much to add here. After a while it gets irritating as it’s mostly simplistic. Though the boss battle theme is VERY good to the point it’s ipod worthy. I wish more songs in the game were like it

Conclusion

In the end, I think Chubbins makes for a decent WiiU Eshop addition. At a reasonable price just above NES VC games, the good challenge as well as the time attack mode adding replay value by posting to miiverse, I think it’s worth picking up for those who like simple yet challenging games. I give Chubbins an 8 out of 10.

Thanks to DAHKU for giving me a review code