We love all sorts of games. Sometimes it is hard to cover a game in our traditional review style that’s why we have tidbit-style reviews. These shorter reviews cover games that deserve attention too but simply don’t fit our good, mixed, and bad template. In addition, they get a monthly summary article to give them even more reader attention!
Chipmonk! | 73%
Publisher: QUByte Interactive
Developer: Niemi Bros Entertainment
Chipmonk! plays exactly as you’d expect from a beat ’em-up, you keep going right until the next enemy wave shows up, then you defeat them, and continue doing so until you get to a boss, getting to the next level after defeating it. You can move around, attack, grab enemies and items to throw, run, kick rocks at enemies, and use a special ability. Enemies can also run, grab and throw you, which may result in them damaging their allies. You will need to remember that you not only have a limited number of lives, but a limited number of continues as well. There are three characters you can play as, and they have different stats and looks, I chose to play as the quickest of the bunch, as I almost if not always favour speed over strength.
There isn’t any kind of story to the game, you simply spawn and start the gameplay with no information at all, not even a tutorial, but this being a beat’em up, it’s very simple to understand how to play, so this isn’t really a problem.
There’s a good variety of different enemies you will be fighting, and they are all animals like chipmunks, mice, badgers, raccoons, porcupines, beavers, moles, and squirrels among others. They will have different weapons, that can’t be picked up, and even armour, making Chipmonk! quite a fun and different game, at least in that aspect. You can also find some special flies that show up for a limited time who drop either a mushroom that charges your special bar a bit, or acorns to restore your health when you defeat them. You can find a different-looking mushroom that one enemy can also throw at you that will invert your movement controls or confuse the enemy that picks it up, as well as a cherry that makes you considerably faster for a limited time. You will be playing through all seasons, each containing two levels, different appearances, and different enemies, and co-op is an option.
Apart from the classic game mode which I’ve already talked about without mentioning its name, there are two other game modes, one being a 1v1 mode which you can only play if you have someone to play with, and the other one being a one-life-only game mode where enemies will keep coming at you at a fixed placed until you can’t take them anymore.
The soundtrack is pretty basic and old-school, very reminiscent of old beat ’em-ups. The visuals do their part well enough, they do look good and also fit the atmosphere the developers were aiming for. Finally, the menus look extremely basic, but they do work, so I don’t think there’s much to say about them.
Chipmonk! is a classic beat ’em-up that adds a couple of simple things to the formula, with two extra game modes, and a funny concept where squirrels are warriors for an unknown reason, it’s good enough to have a little bit of fun alone or with friends.
Hi there, I’m Gabriel Colombo (Hence my reviewer name), I live in Brazil and I’ve been gaming since I was around 5 years old. Xbox became my main platform on the Xbox 360 era, before that I had played a bit on PC, Polystation (basically a skinned SNES), PlayStation 1 and 2. I really enjoy to experience immersive worlds, but I also enjoy playing silly games to have a laugh or just have fun.
