Chack'n Pop

Overview

Chack'n Pop is a single-screen Arcade game from Taito in which the player is a dexterous bird-like creature named Chack'n. The goal of each stage is to descend to the bottom corner to free a heart from its cage, then head back to the top to stop a little monster from cracking one of Chack'n's eggs. Chack'n is capable of walking along ceilings - sort of like the gravity-switching Captain Viridian of VVVVVV - and can also throw bombs that will eliminate enemies within the radius of their explosions. Enemies appear first as harmless eggs, but soon hatch into tenacious monsters that resemble the Blubbas of Bubble Bobble.

The level design, enemies and other graphical flourishes resemble those of Bubble Bobble, Taito's next big Arcade hit and the game the developers are best known for after Space Invaders. Bubble Bobble honors its spiritual ancestor by reusing one of Chack'n Pop's stages. Like Bubble Bobble, Chack'n Pop also received various home versions after its initial Arcade release, including NES, MSX and Sega SG-1000 versions. It also appears in various Taito Arcade compilations, such as Taito Legends 2 for the PS2.