Chip's Challenge Hercules

Fumbling around with chips through a labyrinth full of traps and villains — that's Chip's Challenge Hercules. We're pushing aside the original Chip's Challenge and instead getting something that dressed up the original game in the story of an ancient Greek hero. You're looking at the screen from a top-down perspective, and the task stays the same: navigate through a level, collect all the chips, and reach the exit without getting caught by enemies or triggered by some sneaky mechanism.

Classic puzzle-platformer formula that anyone who looked into MS-DOS in the nineties knew well. You move through rooms full of pushable blocks, locks that require you to find the key, and enemies that patrol the maps according to their routines. You have no weapon, no jumping ability — just movement in four directions. All the strategy lies in observing when to make your move so you don't get crushed.

The Hercules version suffers from what plagued all cut-rate clones: it tries to be original but falls short of the real Chip's Challenge. Visually it's modest, the sound is something you'd rather ignore. Controls are straightforward — arrow keys and you're done. The problem is that without charismatic graphics or a story, you're left with just bare mechanics that are already familiar. The levels drag on, sometimes it's clear what you need to do, other times you're stumbling around the maze aimlessly.

For its time, it was a way to get a classic on more computers without licensing headaches. Hercules (or however it was spelled) bears the hallmarks of a forced Theme Park game — take something known, swap the skin, sell it as new. It aged quickly and without grace. Anyone who fell in love with the original will be disappointed. Those who only know Chip's Challenge by reputation might peek here out of pure curiosity, nothing more.

Today, it's not a choice you should make. If you want a logical maze with a crouched protagonist and devious locks, go for the original. Hercules is just a pale copy in a tunic that you can play in your browser if this category appeals to you, but nothing will stick in your memory except wondering why you started this instead of the real deal.