Chariot (Wii U) Second Opinion Review

Chariot takes off as the princess and her fiancé are looking for a resting place fitting of the old king. However, the king was anything but happy about the first one and now forces them to drag around his coffin through ancient catacombs to search for a resting place that is more suitable of his glory, and so the humorous and whimsical adventures in the catacombs begin.

The gameplay in Chariot is very cleverly designed, extremely creative and testing of skill, while it still has it all on a manageable level and with a fair difficulty curve. It starts off slow and simple with few mechanics to keep in mind. However, as Chariot goes on, the mechanics increase in both numbers and complexity and, before it is over, it turns into a really demanding game, but for all the right reasons, promoting skilful and creative play.

The most interesting aspect and the biggest reason behind the game's creative and skill demanding gameplay is how the princess and her fiancé have to carry around the chariot as they travel around the catacombs and how it is used during gameplay. As there are many mechanics in Chariot that optimise the king's chariot, this creates a fun and unique gameplay style that offers several interesting and creative puzzles that demand development of the understanding of the physics.

Another extremely well-designed aspect of Chariot is the overworld and progression. The way the world and levels are designed is simply ingenious and quickly takes the mind to the great genre classic Wario Land 3. The young couple has to travel through different worlds to collect money, schemes so they can design power-ups in the store, and skull tokens. A lot of the levels also offer several different exits that connect the world together in sometimes unpredictable ways, which encourages further exploration of the catacombs.

There is, however, one issue here, and that is the fact that the levels are far too long at times. Later on in Chariot, it is not uncommon that one stage can take over half an hour, and that is not even if trying to achieve 100% exploration, since then that time can easily be doubled. This is problematic as it demands longer sittings to truly enjoy the game in a genre that is usually designed and best enjoyed in shorter sittings. To top that off, to 100% the game playing through a lot of the stages several times is required, taking different paths. This is usually not a problem but here, due to the length of the levels, it all grows tedious and chore-like. It is, however, a minor world issue in a game that is otherwise beautifully crafted and truly one of the better designs in the genre. However, the developer could easily have cut some stages, especially those later on, into smaller versions without it hurting the overall experience in any way.

A really great feature in Chariot is that it has, and is built around, co-operative gameplay. Just grab a friend and let the shenanigans start! The levels are possible with one player, but it is clear that at some points it is designed to have two players tackle it together and there are even specific areas that can only be reached if two friends work together. How can puzzles that are built around having a friend be solved alone, though? Well, it is simple: there is a power-up that is earned quite early in the game that allows a peg with a rope to be placed into the ground to act as a second player holding the Chariot if it is required to use the chariot for jumping up to those hard to reach places. Using this properly becomes very important later on.

One complaint can be levelled at the story-demanded power-ups of the chariot. Early on in each world, gamers reach obstacles in their way that need to be overcome by using power-ups obtained throughout the world to reach the next location. The issue is that these are heavily underplayed and rather boring, seldom changing the gameplay much. One of them is winter wheels to transport as normal through snow. Why did the developer not just make them into keys that demand money to buy in the first place, as that is basically all they are. This is even implied by the game itself in the end, with a cruel joke put upon the player.

Overall, Chariot is an extremely fun and creative puzzle platformer that takes the mind to some of the highlights in the genre's history and manages to create a fresh experience in a genre that too often takes a little too much inspiration from old hits. Also, it should be said that Chariot is a must have for anyone who likes games like the Wario Land franchise.