Software:Chulip

From HandWiki
Short description: 2002 video game
For the Ai Otsuka single, see Chu-Lip.
Chulip
North American cover art
Developer(s)Punchline
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Yoshiro Kimura
Producer(s)Yasuhiro Wada
Hiroshi Suzuki
Designer(s)Norikazu Yasunaga
Programmer(s)Shinji Ichiyama
Artist(s)Ryuji Nouguchi
Writer(s)Yoshiro Kimura
Composer(s)Hirofumi Taniguchi
Platform(s)PlayStation 2
PlayStation Network
ReleasePlayStation 2
PlayStation Network
Genre(s)Adventure,[4][5] Life simulation[6]
Mode(s)Single-player

Chulip (チュウリップ), stylized as Chu♥lip, is an adventure/simulation video game developed by Punchline and released on October 3, 2002, in Japan by Victor Interactive Software for the PlayStation 2. After numerous delays, the game was released in North America by Natsume Inc. on February 13, 2007, as a GameStop-exclusive title. It was released on the PlayStation Network as a "PS2 Classic" on December 4, 2012, exclusively in North America.

Chulip puts the player in the role of a young man who has just moved to a new town and next door to the girl of his dreams. Although she wants nothing to do with him due to his family's poor economic status, he decides to write her a heartfelt love letter. When the letter is stolen, it is up to the protagonist to travel around the village and retrieve all of its pieces. The gameplay of Chulip revolves around improving the player's reputation with the citizens in order to access all parts of the town. To do this, the player must impress each member of the community and then kiss them.

Chulip was directed by Yoshirou Kimura, a former employee of Love-de-Lic. Kimura wanted the game's focus to be on kissing in public, a more Western-accepted custom, within a Japanese setting. Chulip suffered dismal sales, while its overall critical reception has been negative to average, sometimes mixed. Most reviews cited the game's quirkiness and charm as its strong points yet criticized its tedious gameplay mechanics. The game has gained a small cult following.

Plot

Chulip opens with a dream sequence in which the unnamed male protagonist kisses the girl he loves under the talking "Lover's Tree" on a green hill. The dream takes its course and the tree ends the sequence saying they lived happily ever after.[6] However, once the protagonist wakes up, he and his father are just moving into Long Life Town, which appears very much like a small, Japanese village. Coincidentally, the girl of his dreams lives in this town, but she flatly rejects him due to coming from a very poor family.[4] Taking his father's advice, the hero decides to kiss the odd citizens of the town in order to strengthen his heart and improve his reputation. En route to doing so, he also resolves to write a love letter to his crush. When this treasured set of papers is stolen, he must search Long Life Town for the missing pieces.[4][6] The hero's journey involves numerous bizarre incidents that lead him to cheating his way to the top of a major corporation, making contact with aliens, and acting as a defense lawyer in court.[4] Once the three pieces of the love letter (the ink, paper, and pen) are collected, he writes and mails it to the girl. The game's ending shows the two meeting and kissing beneath the Lover's Tree, as the protagonist had dreamed.

Gameplay

The player (center-left) successfully kisses an NPC. The player's health is located at the top-left of the screen.

Chulip is an adventure/simulation game[4][5][6] in which the player must improve the hero's reputation in the community of Long Life Town by kissing its various citizens. The player's health is represented by a number of hearts. To gain more hearts, the player has to find and kiss other characters in the game.[4][6] Finding out how and when to kiss other characters is a puzzle in and of itself. The game and each of its non-player characters (NPCs) follow a 24-hour day schedule. In the daytime, many of the NPCs of the game walk around the streets. To succeed in kissing an NPC, the player is required to wait for the correct time where they will be happy and press the corresponding button.[6] The player must sometimes complete a certain task for that NPC in order to achieve the kiss condition. Choosing the wrong time to kiss will often result in the player getting hit and losing health. Exploring Long Life Town presents the player with numerous environmental hazards discovered by trial and error.[6] For instance, attempting to use the town's playground equipment or being suddenly shot at by the night-patrolling policeman will cause instant death.[7] One mission ends in the player being struck by lightning, removing more than ten hearts and resulting in a game over if the player does not have sufficient health.[5]

Some denizens of Chulip only come out of their underground apartments through holes in the ground at certain times of the day. If the player looks through these holes, clues are given in regards to when they come out or when to kiss them.[4] After an NPC comes out of the ground, the player has a very limited opportunity to give them a kiss. If the player successfully kisses enough NPCs and returns home to sleep, the hero's father will recite his progress and the Lover's Tree will give the player more hearts and an improved reputation if he advances.[4][6] Secondary to improving his reputation, the player must track down all the pieces to the "Love Letter Set" by traveling throughout Long Life Town.[4] As the story progresses, the player gains access to new areas of the game world via train, which include many more underground residents and hazards. Saving takes place in various bathrooms.[6]

Development

Chulip was developed by a team of 12 to 14 people at Punchline.[8][9] The game took two and a half years to complete after its initial planning; one year and three months were devoted to programming.[9] Director Yoshirou Kimura started work on the project as he helped his colleagues at Love-de-Lic finish that company's final game, Software:L.O.L.: Lack of Love.[9] Production of Chulip began in the earliest days of the PS2, making it a challenge for the development team who only had experience with the original PlayStation. Kimura valued his team members' opinions and ideas while working on it. "It was challenging and interesting at the same time to program a game for a new console," he stated. "We were definitely eager to see what we could do with it."[9] The original idea for Chulip came when Kimura visited Western countries and saw couples kissing in public, a custom not often performed among Japanese people.[10] Kimura came up with the game's title after attending a party in Tokyo. As the intoxicated partygoers talked about video games, they began to humorously say "chu-shite" (lit. "kiss me"). The title Chulip is a play on words: a cross between chu (the Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of a kiss) and the English word lip, as well as the Japanese rendering of the word tulip.[6][9]

Kimura eventually spoke with Marvelous Entertainment's Yosuhiro Wada about creating a game mixing a "flare of Moon and Japan a little while ago (say about 40 years ago)".[9] Kimura wanted Chulip to be localized to show the world certain aspects of Japanese culture and "all the kind of interesting stuff that you can see every day".[10] He also wanted to display a real, modern truancy problem for Japanese students with the game's cast of underground dwellers.[9][11] Norikazu Yasunaga designed many of the game's mechanics. According to Kimura, "for efficient procedure, [Yasunaga] set it up so that the personality and the characteristics for each NPC had to be one-by-one".[10] The character designs were done by Ryuji Nouguchi, who used items from Kimura's personal scrapbook and "made them funny".[9] The musical score to Chulip was composed by Hirofumi Taniguchi, another former member of Love-de-Lic.[9] The soundtrack was released by King Records in Japan on a single disc on November 22, 2002. Songs 35 through 44 represent the "Tsurukame Movie Soundtrack", consisting of music for each of the game's short films, while songs 45 and 46 are bonus tracks.[12]

Publisher Natsume Inc. licensed the game for a projected North American release in early 2004.[13] The game was then shown at the Electronic Entertainment Expo that year. Natsume Inc. realized early on that it would be an extremely obscure title and thus planned on releasing it at a low retail price.[14] The game was delayed, and Natsume Inc. assured that it would be released sometime in 2005.[13] After more delays, Chulip was ultimately released in North America on February 13, 2007, the day before Valentine's Day, exclusively to GameStop stores.[1][15] The North American version was supposed to feature updated graphics and an "accurately meticulous" translation of Japanese text.[13] Natsume Inc. claimed that Punchline's busy schedule resulted in such a long delay for the localization and that it also prevented them from making any graphical changes.[1]

Reception and legacy

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings57%[16]
Metacritic57 out of 100[17]
Review scores
PublicationScore
1Up.comC+[5]
Famitsu32 out of 40[18]
Game Informer3 out of 10[19]
GameSpot6.0 out of 10[4]
IGN6.0 out of 10[6]
PSM3 out of 5[20]
X-PlayStarStarStar[21]

Chulip received mostly average critical scores upon its release in North America. The game currently holds a 57% on the aggregate websites GameRankings and Metacritic.[16][17] The ambitious gameplay of Chulip has been almost universally criticized. Ray Barnholt of 1UP.com, Ryan Davis of GameSpot, Micah Seff of IGN, and Gus Mastrapa of X-Play all labeled the often-unclear progression presented to the player as "frustrating" and "tedious", requiring an excessive amount of patience.[4][5][6][21] Mastrapa summarized, "Since the game is on 24-hour clock a missed opportunity means having to wait until the next day to take another crack. Add the fact that your inexperienced, young avatar can die from heartbreak, resulting in a 'game over' screen and the loss of unsaved progress and you've got a recipe for annoyance."[21] Barnholt, Davis, and Seff did positively credit Natsume Inc. for the inclusion of the mini-strategy guide.[4][5][6] Despite faulting the "indistinct objectives", Davis found gratification in successful kisses. "The whole kissing thing is absolutely fantastic in concept," Davis stated, "And there's something unsettling about your character's encouraged promiscuity."[4] However, Game Informer writer Ben Reeves described the game as one of the most poorly designed games he has ever played due to its lack of in-game direction and frequency of game overs.[19] In January 2008, Game Informer listed Chulip as one of the worst games of 2007.[22]

Reviewers have praised Chulip for a charming presentation, quirky characters, and absurd, Japanese humor.[4][5][6][21] Admitting that the game had some blurry or pixelated textures and cramped environments, both Seff and Davis noted the peculiar art style of Chulip to be aesthetically pleasing.[4][6] Seff specifically found the game "surprisingly easy on the eyes" and to feature unique character designs, "wacky" dialogue, and an art style comparable to other titles like the Mother series and Katamari Damacy.[6] Davis was amused by the script and the townsfolk's gibberish speech, and was satisfied with largely a cappella soundtrack.[4] Seff was unimpressed by the game's audio, remarking the music as "entirely boring".[6]

According to Media Create information, Chulip sold only 6,645 units during its first week of release in Japan.[2] Despite such low sales, Chulip was re-released in Japan two separate times, first as part of the "Victor the Best" selection on April 24, 2003, and second as part of the "Super Best Collection" on July 6, 2006.[23][24] Many of Chulip's key development members and their design philosophies were carried over to the 2009 Wii game Little King's Story.[10] That year, Kimura stated that he would like to make a sequel to Chulip.[25] He was also contemplating creating a version set in an American location such as The Bronx with a protagonist that is African-American, Caucasian, or some other ethnicity.[26]

Despite initially low sales, the game has been reappraised in the West as a hidden gem in the PlayStation 2's vast library. Its unique atmosphere, interesting characters, exploration of social themes, and distinct Japanese flair have garnered it a small cult following.[27]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Spencer (January 19, 2007). "Natsume Clarifies the Fate of Chulip". Siliconera. http://www.siliconera.com/2007/01/19/natsume-clarifies-the-fate-of-chulip/. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Famitsu staff (October 18, 2002). "【ゲームソフト販売ランキング TOP30】集計期間:2002年9月30日～10月6日" (in Japanese). Famitsu (Enterbrain). http://www.famitsu.com/game/rank/top30/2002/10/16/120,1034779313,8248,0,0.html. Retrieved March 27, 2011. 
  3. ↑ Chen, Grace (December 4, 2012). "PlayStation Store Update". Sony Computer Entertainment. http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012/12/04/playstation-store-update-268/. 
  4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 Davis, Ryan (February 23, 2007). "Chulip for PlayStation 2 Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/adventure/chulip/review.html. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Barnholt, Ray (February 16, 2007). "Chulip Review from 1UP.com". 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. http://www.1up.com/reviews/chulip. 
  6. ↑ 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 Seff, Micah (May 5, 2007). "Chulip Review". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/770/770523p1.html. 
  7. ↑ Gudmundson, Carolyn (15 February 2007). "Chulip PS2 Reviews". GamesRadar. Future plc. http://www.gamesradar.com/chulip/. 
  8. ↑ Staff. "1997 Japan Media Arts Festival Digital Art [Non Interactive Art] Excellence Prize hana". Agency for Cultural Affairs. http://plaza.bunka.go.jp/english/festival/1997/degital_none/000289/. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 1UP Staff. "Sealed With a Kiss". 1UP.com. Ziff Davis. http://www.1up.com/features/sealed-kiss. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Sheffield, Brandon (April 16, 2008). "Q&A: Marvelous's Kimura Talks Chulip, King's Story". Gamasutra. UBM plc. http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/18262/QA_Marvelouss_Kimura_Talks_Chulip_Kings_Story.php. 
  11. ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly staff (October 2004). "Chulip (Natsume)". Electronic Gaming Monthly (Ziff Davis) (183). ISSN 1058-918X. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-121575351/chulip-natsume-brief-article.html. Retrieved 2011-03-27. 
  12. ↑ Wyrdwad. "RPGFan Soundtracks - Chulip OST". RPGFan. http://www.rpgfan.com/soundtracks/chulip/index.html. 
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Dunham, Jeremy (March 15, 2005). "Chulip Still Coming". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/596/596094p1.html. 
  14. ↑ jkdmedia (May 14, 2004). "Chulip - PS2 - Preview". GameZone. http://ps2.gamezone.com/previews/item/chulip_ps2_preview. 
  15. ↑ Spencer (January 24, 2007). "Chulip only at Gamestop, but they have plenty of copies". Siliconera. http://www.siliconera.com/2007/01/24/chulip-only-at-gamestop-but-they-have-plenty-of-copies/. 
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Chulip for PlayStation 2". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. http://www.gamerankings.com/ps2/582366-chulip/index.html. 
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Chulip for PlayStation 2". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. https://www.metacritic.com/game/chulip/critic-reviews/?platform=playstation-2. 
  18. ↑ Famitsu staff (September 27, 2002). "Cross Review: Chulip" (in Japanese). Weekly Famitsu (Enterbrain) (721). 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Reeves, Ben (April 2007). "Reviews: Chulip". Game Informer (GameStop Corporation) (168). ISSN 1067-6392. http://www.gameinformer.com/NR/exeres/2F15723A-86AB-43F1-844D-494F96A888A5.htm. 
  20. ↑ PSM staff (May 2007). "Reviews: Chulip". PSM (Future US) (123): 85. ISSN 1095-4163. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 Mastrapa, Gus. "Chulip Review Videos - G4tv.com". G4. http://www.g4tv.com/games/ps2/15846/chulip/review/. 
  22. ↑ Game Informer staff (January 2008). "Top 10 of Worst Games of 2007". Game Informer (GameStop Corporation) (177). ISSN 1067-6392. 
  23. ↑ "Victor the Best チュウリップ" (in Japanese). https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B00008IDLM/. 
  24. ↑ "チュウリップ (Super Best Collection)" (in Japanese). https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B000FMPQ48/. 
  25. ↑ Spencer (July 17, 2009). "Marvelous Updates Us About Their Future Projects". Siliconera. http://www.siliconera.com/2009/07/17/marvelous-updates-us-about-their-future-projects/. 
  26. ↑ Sheffield, Brandon (July 24, 2009). "Yoshiro Kimura's Strange Journeys". Gamasutra. UBM plc. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/yoshiro-kimura-s-strange-journeys. 
  27. ↑ Hacham, Chris (2020-04-17). "My Forbidden Love of Chulip and the Weirdness of Mundanity". https://www.destructoid.com/my-forbidden-love-of-chulip-and-the-weirdness-of-mundanity/. 
  • Official website (in Japanese)
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
  • No URL found. Please specify a URL here or add one to Wikidata.

Template:Atari




Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Software:Chulip&oldid=4143692"