Hidden Bonuses

   As with many games these days, ChuChu! has it's share of hidden modes and characters. As with many games these days, these modes and characters didn't stay hidden for long. The modes and the methods of uncovering them are listed below:

   In the battle modes of the game, you will find three variations of ChuChus. The first is the normal blue and white ChuChu, which is by far the most common variety. Next is the pink and red ? ChuChu, which, upon reaching a rocket, will randomly select a different game-play option. Finally, the rare gold 50 ChuChus are worth, as their name implies, 50 regular ChuChus.

   The board set-up is pretty simple as well. First off, in the top left corner, is a timer. Beneath that is another timer, but one that is measured in rockets instead of seconds. At the bottom of the screen is either a row of counters (battle modes), a list of available arrows (puzzle mode), or nothing (stage challenge mode). The rest of the screen is filled with a 12x9 checkered grid that serves as the main playfield.

   Of course, every good game needs catchy names for its characters, and ChuChu Rocket is no exception to the rule:

   Upon clearing the final stage, you'll be treated to a lovely credits roll, followed by a Chu-Chu telling you "Thank you!", and the announcement of the additional mode/character.

   As with Sonic Team's other Dreamcast game (Sonic Adventure [International]), ChuChu Rocket! contains a folder accessable by Windows computers. Inserting the game disk into your PC CD-ROM drive, and accessing the contents of the drive will reveal a folder titled 'extras' (as well as three text documents that have very minor info in them). This folder contains two more folders: '1240x1024' and '800x600'. Each of these folders contains 8 ChuChu Rocket! wallpaper images. Note that 1240x1024 has a different aspect ratio to 800x600, so the former images contain a bit more of the picture.

   Also, something that is more fun than anything else... If you leave ChuChu! sitting idle for a while while in Homepage (Internet) mode, instead of the screen darkening, then the random colors starting (as the Dreamcast normally does when it has been idle), one of the very cool ChuChu screensavers will start. The first screensaver features rows upon rows of the little mice appearing on your screen, then disappearing, over, and over... The second screensaver features the game's namesake, the ChuChu Rocket, moving toward you on the screen and disappearing, only to be replaced by another rocket. There may be more screensavers tucked away within the disc, but we'll let you find those for yourself...

    Finally, Sega has once again chosen to let the English regions down. ChuChu Rocket's original Japanese release included a set of controller stickers that can be used to keep track of which controller is which; the stickers include groups of blue, red, yellow, and green stickers, and thus one group of stickers for each team. The stickers are for placement on the controller port plug (the odd-shaped stickers, for those who have them) or the controller itself (the longer stickers). Even some other bonus stickers were included just for fun. Of course, in normal fashion these stickers were dropped from the other releases, including the North American one.