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Being a weird game isn�t easy. For every successfully weird game like Katamari Damacy,
there are dozens of titles destined to line the bottom of bargain bins for centuries to
come. While many of these titles deserve a place
in gaming purgatory, others deserve a second chance.
Chulip for the Ps2 is one of those games. Developed by Punchline, whose only other game
was Rule of Rose, a survival horror about a young girl�s *** awakening, Chulip
deals with the liberties and constraints of young love, just in a much more cartoony and
ridiculous way. Having just moved to long life town, you play
as a young boy on a quest to kiss the girl of his dreams but before you can pucker up
to your dream girl, she expects you to build a better reputation and a stronger heart,
which you do so by kissing random strangers. Kissing is Chulip�s main game mechanic,
which isn�t simply smooching everything in sight. The residents of Long Life Town
require certain actions or time based requirements be met before you try to kiss he, she or it.
Most residents live beneath the town, designated by small holes and once peaked inside, can
offer clues on what time that resident will appear and how to go about kissing them.
The window of opportunity to kiss a resident can be frustratingly small. If you startle
or kiss the resident too early, you are dealt damage and sometimes have to try the next
day. When the kissing mechanic works the game offers
up plenty of charmingly bizarre moments. Besides kissing residents, the majority of
gameplay is of atypical fetch questing and item collecting. You�ll dig through trash
cans, deliver items, and pick up your fair share of poop. All of this is okay considering
that the way you go about doing so is plenty weird, but it leads to one of the game�s
biggest problems. Traveling between areas can be a tiresome
chore. You�ll wait for a train, watch a cut scene of you boarding said train, and
finally arrive at your destination. Even with items to speed up waiting time, a majority
of gameplay is devoted to waiting more than actually playing.
When you aren�t waiting, you�ll be dying as everything seems to be out to kill you.
Picking up an item, saying the wrong thing, and interacting with objects can deal damage.
So much of dying relies on random factors that it can lead to frustration quickly. Especially
without the option to continue. Thankfully, the game�s plot and aesthetics
smooth over most of these frustrations. From the wide range of weirdos you have to kiss,
to the game�s decidedly ugly art style. Not everyone will dig the game�s weird story
or look but it has an appealingly crude charm to it all that works well.
Like a sloppy wet kiss, Chulip�s execution may falter but it is definitely something
you won�t forget. It offers up plenty of charm and outright weirdness to fill your
weird game quota for the year, and then some.