Chucks Challenge 3D Review

The gameplay in Chucks Challenge 3D is as a whole is pretty good. I found some of the puzzles legitimately challenging, leaving me to sit there and ponder over the possible solutions. To the games credit, the puzzles are really good. The bulk of the puzzles revolve around pushing blocks around, which  on paper sounds boring and repetitive but Chucks Challenge 3D mixes it up well.

The main challenge of the levels is working out how to get to the portal at the end in order to complete the level. Sometimes to route to the exit is far from clear, leaving the player to try and work it out. This is the thing Chucks Challenge 3D does best, the levels are well thought out and difficult in a good way. I was never so frustrated that I quit the game, I just tried harder to work out the solution.

The controls are a little clunky, as you need to click on the specific block you want to walk to, but that block needs to be in clear vision of the character. So if the location you clicked is behind a wall, you will walk and start pushing at the wall. This wouldn’t be a huge issue if the game had no sections where quick movements are required, however Chucks Challenge 3D has some of these sections and it would take me a couple tries to get them because moving quickly was so clunky. This problem largely stems from the fact that Chucks Challenge 3D is originally designed for mobile, but on a touch screen this problem would still be present.

I almost feel that it would be harder on mobile. Solstice Arena had similar problems in the sense that it was a mobile game that was ported to PC and suffered for it. It’s obvious that a PC and a mobile are different devices, so when a game is ported effort needs to be made to make the game work better on the respective system. The clunky controls for Chucks Challenge 3D could be solved by enabling keyboard movement or even decent controller support. When I tried to plug in my PC controller the game didn’t offer movement through the controller, just in game commands, expecting me to use a mouse as well.

Overall Chucks Challenge 3D has solid gameplay, with well-designed levels and challenging puzzles but I can tell not much effort was put in on the part of controls when porting the game over from mobile to PC.

The graphics in Chucks Challenge 3D are reflective of its mobile heritage. It’s not as notice able as other mobile ports, but the textures were a little low resolution and the models were a bit blocky. due to this however Chucks Challenge 3D will run really well on almost any PC available. The music in Chucks Challenge 3D is not super notable, besides from being a little odd. It suits the strange colourful nature of the game  but I found some of the songs quite annoying.

Chucks Challenge 3D attempts a story, but I really wish it hadn’t. The story is about a game designer, Chuck, who is transported to another dimension by a purple blob who then lets him design levels for the blob to go through. The story was beyond strange and lost my interest very quickly.  There are points in most of the levels that show interaction between the blob and Chuck, which give many attempts at humour which felt awkward and fell flat. Chucks Challenge 3D could have easily not had  story and nothing would have been lost. However as it stands the story that is here is strange and poorly executed.

Chucks Challenge 3D lifespan is really good. With over 100 levels available this game will keep you tided over for ages. The game also has a built in level editor meaning that even after you finish the main levels there is still more to do. It really avoids the ‘puzzle game conundrum’ with the custom maps which is really good.

Overall I would recommend Chucks Challenge 3D if you have $10 you’re willing to spend and like a good puzzle game that will get you thinking, but don’t expect it to blow your mind.

Chucks Challenge 3D is available on Desura for PC, Mac and Linux and is also on Steam Greenlight.