Chulip - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

Chulip received mostly poor to average critical scores upon its release in North America. The game currently holds a 57% on the aggregate websites GameRankings and Metacritic. The ambitious gameplay of Chulip has been almost universally criticized. Ray Barnholt of 1UP.com, Ryan Davis of GameStop, 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. 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." Barnholt, Davis, and Seff did positively credit Natsume for the inclusion of the mini-strategy guide. 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." 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. In January 2008, Game Informer listed Chulip one of the worst games of 2007.

Reviewers have praised Chulip for a charming presentation, quirky characters, and absurd, Japanese humor. 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 asethetically pleasing. 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. Davis was amused by the script and the townsfolk's gibberish speech, and was satisfied with largely a cappella soundtrack. Seff was unimpressed by the game's audio, remarking the music as "entirely boring".

According to Media Create information, Chulip sold only 6,645 units during its first week of release in Japan. 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. Many of Chulip's key development members and their design philosophies were carried over to the 2009 Wii game Little King's Story. That year, Kimura stated that he would like to make a sequel to Chulip. 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 other ethnicity.