The June edition of the Japanese GBA magazine features an interview with Sonic Team's Yuji Naka (president) and Takafumi Kaya (main planner). Tendo Box ran the translated interview but here’s an excerpt:

GBA: Why was Chu-Chu Rocket your first GBA game?

Y.N: We wanted to make Sonic for GBA, as it's

Sonic's tenth anniversary, however, upon hearing of the one cartridge/four player option, we tried to make a game that would accommodate this feature. Then we realized that Chu-Chu Rocket would meet this need.

GBA: So it was decided at this point?

Y.N: Yes, that's right. We started making it as soon as we received our development kits. Our schedule was very busy at this point, but we proceeded in order to meet the March 21st deadline. It was important to make an impact, as we (Sega) had just joined the GBA project. If we hadn't made the deadline, we would not have released it.

GBA: You must have had a really hard time developing it.

Y.N: That's right. We didn't simply want to move Chu-Chu rocket from the DC to the GBA, so we added as many unique elements as we could. In the end, it was worth doing, but time was always chasing us. We considered the target market for the hardware, so we used hiragana (the first of three alphabets Japanese children learn) and changed the game speed.

Check out the rest of the interview on Tendo Box.

(Thanks to our pal Mikey Veroni of Tendo Box for the head’s up!)

Last updated: 03/22/2001 by Max Lake

It has recently been revealed that the GBA Link Cable will only provide limited four-player support when only one cartridge is used. However, it turns out that the GBA version of Chu Chu Rocket will be one of the few games that will allow full four-player support with only one copy of the game. It's possible that this is due to the simple nature of Chu Chu but it's still pretty cool -especially as 4 player support via one cartridge is looking mighty weak indeed in other GBA titles.

Last updated: 03/14/2001 by Mike Sklens

News about the game's controls has been released. Placing arrows has been changed. On the Dreamcast, there were 4 face buttons and each one placed an arrow in a different direction (up, down, left, and right). But, the GBA only has 2 face buttons. Here's what Sonic team has dreamed up to fix this problem.

1. R (right shoulder button) is the right arrow; L (left shoulder button) is left; B is down; A is up.

2. Hitting the A or B button several times which rotates through the different arrows.

3. Holding down A, then hitting a directional button to lay down an arrow.

Also, 3 new effects will be added into the game. In Chu Chu Rocket, special "?" mice trigger effects on the playing field.

1. Kitten mania: many little kittens the size of mice will run around, you lose one mouse for each kitten you take in.

2. Stealing mania: everyone except for the person who got the "stealing mania" starts losing their mice - allowing anyone else to grab them as they fly out of the rockets.

3. Nighttime: the whole screen turns black except for the area around your rocket.

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   Last updated: 02/08/2001 by Mike Sklens

   Wow, more features to sink your collective teeth into. The game will also feature a level creation mode as speculated. On top of that it will feature a "graphic creation mode" to create your own graphics. It is unknown which graphics you can change though. It will probably be the graphics of the tiles on the floor. It would be too hard to create moving characters with the simple graphic software.

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   Last updated: 02/01/2001 by Mike Sklens

   Screen shots have been released of the game. The text is in Japanese but you get the idea. The playing field is unchanged from the Dreamcast version. They both have a 9 x 12 playing grid. Apparently, the Game Boy Advance version will feature over 2,500 puzzles created by Dreamcast owners of the game. The game has been confirmed for 4-player support with 'downlink' so only one cartridge is needed. It will be Sega's first game as a third party and will retail at the Japanese launch for 4800yen.

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   Last updated: 01/31/2001

   Chu Chu Rocket is one of those simple yet addictive puzzle games. The game was created by the legendary Sonic Team and first published on the Sega Dreamcast. The premise is novel. The idea is to get the little mice (the Chu Chus, if you will) in to the rocket. You do this by placing panels down on the ground that tell the Chu Chus to turn that direction. If they hit a wall the automatically turn right. So, get the Chu Chus in the rocket, sounds simple right? It would be, if it were for the evil cats (the Kapu Kapu) that try to eat the Chu Chus. The game is insanely addictive and you can find yourself playing it for hours.

   In the Dreamcast version, there are a few modes of play. There are 2 basic modes, battle and puzzle. In the battle mode you and up to 4 other players/computers compete to see who can get the most Chu Chus, which pour out of mice holes I guess, into their rocket. You can place a panel in any direction (up, down, right, left) you want but you may only have 3 panels down at one time. If you place a 4th panel, the first panel disappears. The panels also vanish after a certain amount of time or if a Kapu Kapu walks on them a few times.

   In the puzzle mode you have to get all the Chu Chus that are on the board into the rocket(s). You cannot lose any Chu Chus. You are give a predetermined set of panels that you may use to do this task. You can place the panels down and then turn on the action and see if what you tell the Chu Chus to do works. The Dreamcast version also features a puzzle editor that lets you create your own puzzles.

   The Dreamcast version also features Internet play. You can log on and play with 3 other players over the Internet. There are very few lag issues, due to the simple graphics of the game.

   For the Game Boy Advance, I’m expecting something similar to the Dreamcast version. The network mode may not make it though. I’m almost positive that the puzzle and battle modes will make it in though. The puzzle editor is a probability. I only see one real issue with this game. The controls may be a bit difficult. I assume that A and B will be used for placing left and right panels and L and R will be used for up and down panels. This poses a problem because according to Nintendo Power the L and R buttons were not designed to be accessed at all times, they are there for more secondary functions. It still boggles me why on earth there aren’t 4 face buttons but there’s nothing that will change that now. We’ll just have to learn to adapt.