Lock N' Chase (Game Boy)

North American box art.

Lock N' Chase is a maze traversal game developed and published by Data East for the Game Boy on 1990-05-11. The game is a heavily-modified port of the original arcade game. In the game, you play a bank robber trying to steal money and gems from various banks while the police try to catch you. You are able to temporarily lock doors behind you in order to impede the cops, and there are various other doors, gates, and other map objects to complicate the process. Once you collect all the money in the bank, you will proceed to the next level.

I saw this game being reviewed on Game Boy Works, and, even though I didn't think it looked all that great, I wanted to try it out. Not being very good at arcade maze games, I quickly lost all my lives, but, after discovering the game gave infinite continues, I decided to knuckle down and beat the game which I did on 2020-02-16.

Status

I don't own the game, but I have beaten both the normal and extra modes.

Review

4	4	5	5	3

Best Version: Game Boy

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The cartoon graphics are cute and quirky, especially during the cut-scenes.
• The jazzy music is decent and fitting for the game.
• Because the concept game is so basic, pretty much anyone can pick it up and play it.
• The bonus game slot machine is fun, and the ending Sokoban level is an interesting change up.
• "Extra" mode is a nice way to get a little more life out of the game, but really, why not just make the standard game longer?

Bad

• The small display window makes it very difficult to see where the police are. Most of the time I died it was because I trapped myself between a chasing cop and an unseen cop.
• The game is pretty repetitive. Enemies are pretty much all the same, and there are only a handful of unique map objects to interact with.
• The invisible walk-though walls are annoying to have to find.
• Without a password system (other than the the unlock code for "Extra" mode), there isn't a way to save your progress. This is pretty annoying for a portable title.
• Having unlimited continues pretty much guarantees you'll beat the game, even if you're not that good, as long as you're persistent.

Ugly

• The game doesn't really add all that much to the formula of Pac-Man released ten years earlier.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The Japanese box has a very Pac-Man-esque character stealing treasure from police. The art is quite descriptive, but it was clearly made to capitalize on Namco's brand.

• 

  The North American art, painted by Marc Ericksen, has a rather creepy looking orange ball thief running from blue ball officers. It's just as descriptive, but rather unsettling.

• 

  The Asian box uses the same art as the original, but changes the location of the title and includes a Chinese sub-title.

Videos

• youtube.com/watch?v=dZzb-W6xi24 - Review, Game Boy Works.
• youtube.com/watch?v=UU5GtFgGgRQ - Longplay.

Credits

Role	Staff
Director	Tomochan
Producers	A. Kawai, Y. Nakamura
Game Design	N. Nakazawa
Programmers	Y. Nakamura, Fukuchan, Seyzi
Graphics	Yamachan
Music and Sound	Shogo Sakai, Takafumi Miura, Yusuke Takahama, Yuji Suzuki
Special Thanks	Miss Honda, Miss Hirane
US Cover	Marc William Ericksen

Credits

Special Thanks

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English	Lock N' Chase
Japanese	Lock 'N' Chase ロックンチェイス	Rokku N Cheisu	Lock N Chase

Links