Chack'n Pop

About Chack'n Pop

Chack'n Pop (1984) is Taito's single-screen arcade platformer starring a yellow creature with stretching legs who throws grenades to free hearts, the spiritual forerunner of Bubble Bobble with its Monstas and Mightas.

Chack'n Pop in Depth

Chack'n, a yellow creature with extendable legs, makes his way through single-screen mazes, walking on floors or ceilings but not walls. He climbs steps and high walls by stretching his legs until he is tall enough to pass. He throws hand grenades to his left or right, with separate buttons for each direction, which explode after a moment into a cloud of smoke that kills Chack'n if he is caught in it. Solid walls block his way until he frees the hearts locked in cages with his grenades. Monstas hatch from eggs to obstruct him, with a bonus at the end of the level for destroying all of them or none, and each screen's time limit is marked by a Mighta pushing a boulder along the top of the screen.

It is considered a spiritual predecessor of Bubble Bobble because of its similar structure and shared characters, as the Monstas and Mightas became common enemies in that game. Chack'n and other characters have also made cameos in Taito's Ben Bero Beh, Bubble Memories and NY Captor.

Making Chack'n Pop

Taito bought the rights to Sakai's game and developed the arcade version, with Sakô on character and level design and Jun Ishioka on programming, releasing it in Japan around April 1984. Sakô felt it flopped in Japanese arcades because of its difficulty, but the home ports, especially the Famicom and MSX versions, sold much better and made it one of Taito's "top IPs". Taito also ported it to the Sharp X1, PC-6001 and PC-8801, and Sega made an SG-1000 version. The arcade game is included in Taito Legends 2, Taito Memories and Taito Milestones, the Famicom version came to the Wii and 3DS Virtual Console, and Hamster added it to Arcade Archives. Retrospective views have been mostly negative: Retro Gamer said it "wasn't a great platformer" because of its complexity, PC Zone said it "isn't much fun", and HonestGamers called it "best forgotten", though Kotaku Australia recommended it to Bubble Bobble fans as a very different game.