Yes, I'd like an Alien Dictionary 3.   Mmm, Yoda this man must be.   Ok, this game is starting to weird me out a little bit...   Don't tell me I have to kiss that man...

First Look Preview 08/30/05 Mike Wilson

There's certainly no shortage of niche titles these days. With obscure games like Katamari Damacy, Stretch Panic, and Gitaroo Man filling niches left and right, we can only wonder what zany new ground the next game will break: creating food? The life of a remora fish? Or here's a good one: kissing people. In fact, the newest game from Punchline Studios, Chulip, has you doing just that; and it's even wackier than you think it is.

In the world of Chulip, society has a serious problem; people are afraid to leave their homes, and many have sought refuge underground. What could have caused such an awful depression, you ask? It's quite simple: there's not enough love. So, it's up to you, a young boy, to smooch everyone and bring the passion back into their lives. You'll be kissing people, cats, dogs, and anything else that moves in your quest to restore the peace. However, before you can start locking lips, you must lure people out of hiding by tricking them. The game is full of signs that clue you in on how to lure them out, which is done by completing a variety of puzzle-based sequences that require simple tasks to complete, such as proper timing or twirling of the analog stick.

Once you've lured a helpless citizen out of hiding, you can laugh with joy as your character smooches them to pieces. Every kiss is a new laugh, since the town is filled with tons of humorous looking characters. After kissing a citizen, their happiness increases, and so does the town's overall happiness.

Visually, the game draws parallels to Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life and Earthbound. The game’s free roaming play style makes it feel like the former, and its character models feel like 3D models of the latter. Suffice to say everything looks good, and while they don’t showcase the PS2’s graphical engine, they aren’t a pain to look at, either.

Chulip was developed by Punchline, a small developer that splintered from a larger company called Lovedelic, famous for strange games like "Moon" (not to be confused with Harvest Moon) and "Lack of Love." Yoshirou Kimura is the mastermind behind the game, and this is the first time one of his games is being released in America. If you're wondering how Kimura came up with such a strange game, he admitted in a recent interview that he got the idea at a party after having a few drinks, where he and his friends started saying "kiss me" in jest. Shortly afterwards, Chulip was born.

Chulip was originally slated to come out last year, but due to some problems, it was delayed to 2005. Fortunately, you’ll be able to start your kissing spree soon, as the game is scheduled to come out before the end of this year.