Chips Challenge: Ace Edition

Chips Challenge: Ace Edition is a retro action(?) puzzle game who takes its style from its namesake, Chip’s Challenge, a game with most of the same mechanics from a bygone era of PC gaming. It doesn’t borrow every element of the original and some mechanics are new. It has its own puzzles, but some are throwbacks to existing ones.

Let’s Talk About Assets!

The majority of it is straight out of Chip’s Challenge. I can’t remember if the original had music or not (I haven’t played it since I was little), but any parts of this that aren’t from the old game are from RMVX Ace. The death animation is the most notable difference, meaning it’s very true to the source otherwise. It’s using the graphics just fine so I can’t really complain, but it’s also using them the same way they were in the original, so I can’t really compliment it either.

Let’s Talk About Story!

There isn’t one. You’re Chip and you have to pick up all the computer chips to complete the stage. You win when you complete all the stages. There’s no other motive; only the sheer struggle for dominance over hazard-ridden diabolical mazes.

Let’s Talk About Gameplay!

This game succeeds in the same ways as the original, so it feels like more of an homage than its own thing. At its core, these are all navigation challenges. There are a certain number of chips on each stage (though some have none) and you can open the exit portal when you have them all. Monsters and traps will interfere. Sometimes there are color-coded locks and keys. Special floors require special footwear to cross, like flippers for swimming in water, but crossing a Thief tile will remove all your gear. There are various other puzzle objects like push blocks, teleporters, colored buttons, and more.

Each puzzle is generally centered around one gimmick or mechanic, though some combine them as well. Apart from figuring out how to collect all the chips in each stage, there’s a time limit to beat. Some stages are a serious race against the clock while others are more generous. If you enter a no-win situation, you can reset at the press of a key, but the time limit would also eventually end you.

Although it’s been decades since I played it, I think I recognized some of the puzzles from the original, but I could be mistaken. I think most of them are unique to this game, so it’s not like they were only copying from it. There are only 20 in all so it doesn’t take long to play, and I found them generally palatable. A couple of them were overly-tedious, such as the stage full of push blocks where you need chips from underneath every block, and it’s easy to screw yourself over with a single bad push. Otherwise, they were fine and remained fairly simple.

As far as new mechanics go, one was that enemies could be turned into chips by colliding with fireballs. This was only used once, and I’m not sure it needed to happen again. Another was Chip Jr., where you find a clone of yourself whom you need to guide to a specific place, but who lags behind you and can be defeated by hazards (which means Game Over for you). It’s nice to see some true originality in it so it doesn’t feel like a custom level pack or something. Incidentally, a level editor could’ve been cool.

Let’s Wrap This Up…

This game is okay for what it is. I doesn’t exactly push the concept so much as exist as its own spin of it. The original can be found on Steam for free these days, so I’m not sure if I would recommend this over that. Still, if you’re nostalgic for Chip and want some new stages or you’re just looking for a light puzzle game to pass the time, this title can do it for you. I give it a…

3.5/5


Chip fears no bug, bandit, burn, bite, or bomb.