"Just one more chip to go...Uh oh, better get away from that blob..."bummer" NO!!!!!!!!"

If you have bought a Windows computer in the last 10 years, no doubt you have heard of Chip's Challenge. If you have not, then luckily the game is available for download at numerous websites, just search for Chip's Challenge on Google. I downloaded this game, and I had a blast. Okay, now lets start with a few of the bad points.

You are a guy named Chip, who wants to join this computer club called the Bit Busters. But Melinda the Mental Marvel, the club owner, tells you that you must prove yourself worthy of the club, so you have to go through 149 levels, collecting chips, and going around obstacles, and avoiding enemies to make it to the exit square. We all know it is kind of hard to make a good story for puzzle games, but even I could have made a better story.

The graphics are very simplistic. Everything on the ground is tiled. There are seven types of tiles you will come across. There are the gray tiles, which is normal floor, nothing special will happen to you. Next is the Force Field, which is white in the background with green and block arrows pointing in the direction you will go when you step on it, unless you have suction boots. Alone these are fine, but when they are all together in all sorts of directions (ex: FORCE FIELD) it will make you dizzy. It did for me. Next is the fire. It has a gray background, but it looks just like a campfire. You will lose the level if you step on one, unless you have the fire boots. Next is the ice. This one has a light blue background, and has a white sparkle in the middle. If you step on this, you will fly in the direction you stepped on it, unless you have the ice skates. Next is the water. The water has a darker blue background, with dark blue waves. You will lose the level if you step on this, unless you have the flippers. Next is the dirt. This one is just one color, an ugly brown. Enemies can not cross it, unless you step on it, it will turn into gray tiles, which the enemies CAN cross. Lastly is the gravel. It is darker gray with black dots. It is just like gray tiles, except enemies can not cross it.

There are also four types of shoes you may or may not need to collect during the level. First there is the suction boots, which will let you cross force fields without going everywhere. Then there is the ice skates, which will let you cross ice without sliding every which way. Next is the water flippers, which will let you swim across the water. Lastly is the fire boots, which will let you step on fires without burning to death.

There are also two options on changing the colors for the whole thing. You can keep it color, or if you want to pretend this is the 1940s, you can change it to black and white, however, this is REALLY ugly, so I suggest highly to keep the color on.

The sounds are virtually non existent, but what is there can be annoying. There are two background music's playing throughout 149 levels, so you will be hearing one background music for 75 levels. Obviously this will be annoying, but you can turn the sound off. There are also a sound for when you run into a wall ''Oof''. Next is the sound when you lose ''Bummer''. There are a few more sounds, but a lot of these sounds will get annoying pretty fast, so you should probably turn off the sound while you play.

Alright, now onto the good points of the game.

The gameplay is extremely addicting. There are 149 levels to play. Most of the time, you will be collecting chips so you can open the chip socket or sockets to access the exit square the enter the next level. But other times, you will have to go through really big mazes which can take you all day to complete (take DOUBLEMAZE, even if you know where to go, it will still take 5 minutes minimum). Other times you will have to build bridges, cross force fields, run away from all sorts of enemies, such as blobs, teeth, and the other numbers of enemies like that. There can be over 150 enemies in one level (take BLOBNET for instance).

The controls are very simple to get used to. You can use the mouse by clicking to the square you want to move to. But I highly suggest using the keyboard, which will allow for more maneuverability, and a much higher chance of escaping the enemy. You just have to use the arrow keys to move in that direction.

The challenge in this game is through the roof. This is perhaps the toughest game I have ever played. The first 8 levels are ''lesson'' levels, which allow you to get used to the controls, and how to do everything, like using teleports, moving blocks, making bridges, etc. etc. But after that, you are on your own. After each level, you are given a password so that if someone accidentally deletes your game (you can not have more than one game saved at one time.), you can start back at that level. But the challenge may be the only reason this game is popular, because a lot of the other parts of the game are flawed. But going through 149 levels of this, that is seriously very tough to beat. But there are very good FAQs and Strategy Guides out there, even right here on GameFAQs.

The replayability of this game is very high, because of the addiction that this will cause you. But this game is not for the faint of heart. If you hate challenging games, you will absolutely despise this game, like some of the bad reviews this game has given. But I hate challenging games, yet I still love this game. A few reasons you will want to play again may include improving your score, also there is a rumor that 6,000,000 is possible (A guy edited the file and made it so the finish was right next to him, and he got 6.1 million, so it might be possible), but you will have to go ungodly fast to make that though.

Fortunately, this game does not need any money whatsoever. All you need to do to experience this great game, is to go to your local search engine and input Chips Challenge. Webpages full of downloads and strategy guides will pop up. So the final line is if you are a huge puzzle game, and you are looking for a new game, then Chips Challenge is definitely something to look at. If you hate challenges though, you will probably hate this game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/03