Game: Charlie Chaplin

Year: 1988

Publisher: US Gold

Let’s get one thing straight - I love Charlie Chaplin. His Little Tramp warms my heart so much that I’m pretty sure I would probably be making babies with him right now if I could.

…Not after playing this game though. If he was still alive, I’d murder him.

The Script

I have to say, the idea of this game is actually kind of cute. You have to film movies starring Charlie Chaplin, edit them, screen them and then hopefully make some money off of them. It all sounds pretty good.

Well, you pick the script, sign the last page that you’re going to film it and start shooting your scenes. Don’t worry, every film has 3 scenes - you’re not going to be filming the “Titanic” of silent films. Every scene consists Charlie and 2 people or 1 person and a dog - all of which were very clearly hired to punch, kick, jump on and knock you over. To counter this, as Charlie, you are able to punch, kick and occasionally kiss the people or dog to hit them first.
This gets irritating really, REALLY fast as you repeated get knocked on your ass as you frantically try to kick your “co-stars”.

I’m pretty sure they make  Charlie a half a step above being functionally retarded because out of about 25 times of hitting “5″ to kick, I land one. It’s as if Charlie has no legs at all and I know that he does, because I am controlling them!.

Anyway,  you make it through the scene and you can now edit the scene. I’ll admit, I have no idea what you are supposed to do here. You can speed it up, or slow it down and stop it. There is no right or wrong way, and no instructions. You’re on your own here, kid.

I'M KICKING YOU WITH MY POWERFUL LEGS!

After you “edit” all your scenes, by just haphazardly choosing speeds, you get to screen the movie. This is kinda okay. You get to watch your little film and see the audience watching it. I wanted so badly for people to get up and walk out, however I don’t think they do. Although the game does blatantly put those two big “EXIT” doors to scare you.

After you have your screening, you’ll get some reviews of your own on the front page of the newspaper.

I can’t tell you what to do right, because I never got a good result. In fact, I think it’s almost impossible to. That or the audiences clearly can’t appreciate me falling down and repeatedly kicking nothing - which I think is funny.  I didn’t know they only let the snooty upper-class in my 1920’s Silent Epic.

F You 1920's Siskel & Ebert! You don't know comedy!

Overall analysis: It’s alright for awhile - mostly just to kill some time. Good concept. Chaplin = Cripple-ish. It’s fun to watch the clips of you falling down repeatedly at like, 4x speed. If you’re bored - try it out.

Charlie Chaplin | Movie Games | Legs