Cheesy (video game)

Cheesy is a platform game developed by British studio CTA Developments and published by Ocean Software for the PlayStation. It was released in Europe in 1996 and Japan in July 1997, by Jaleco. The game follows an anthropomorphic mouse of the same name, who's captured by Doctor Chem, a mad scientist for the expriments on him, at rock castle. After been unintentionally freed by ailen and UFO, a rodent starts a goal of escaping the place. The game's goal is to collect ingredients for a teleportation spell to escape the castle, by navigating it, battling against monsters and all sorts of creatures that will come in his way.

Cheesy
European cover art
Developer(s)	CTA Developments
Publisher(s)	EU: Ocean Software JP: Jaleco
Producer(s)	Gina Jackson
Designer(s)	Richard Cheek
Programmer(s)	John Scott
Composer(s)	Dave Newman James Veal
Platform(s)	PlayStation
Release	EU: October 25, 1996 JP: July 24, 1997 [1]
Genre(s)	Platform
Mode(s)	Single-player

Initially Cheesy was developed for the Atari Jaguar, as one of the system's upcoming titles. The project was moved to the PlayStation, due to a number of factors relating to the difficulty of developing on the Atari's console and its failure both commercially and critically, alongwith a false advertisement of been a powerful 64-bit console. The game received mixed reviews from critics since its release. Been cited for its controls, graphics and inconsistent game design, but praised for the music. The game gained more negative reviews in retrospect.

Cheesy was the last game to be developed by CTA Developments, as studio was disbanded a few months after release of the game. With many members including both founders, have moved on to other projects.^[2]

Gameplay

Gameplay of the first level in Cheesy, where a titular character must navigate through the shelves.

Cheesy is a platform game with 3D and 2.5D gameplay styles. The player controls the a mouse, who was captured and imprisoned by a mad scientist inside a dark castle. Until alien appear and try to attack him, with the main objective of the game being to escape from the castle by collecting ingredients for a special teleportation spell. While battling against aliens and all sorts of creatures that come in his way.^[3]

Game's plot and events are presented through an animated FMV movie clips (cutscences).^[4] They can be turned off in the options menu.^[5]

Plot

Two days before events of the game, in a dark night in silent moon. At the rock castle of the mad scientist called Doctor Chem caught the mouse named Cheesy who's thrown into the cage, for the subsequent experiments on the rodent that doctor prepares. Since them a mouse have laid in the cage tired hears about the spells, specificlly a special teleportation spell alongwith it's mystic ingredients. Eventually when Cheesy was about to get sleep unexpectentlly an ailen with UFO appeared, for its "secret mission". Shortly after its appearance the cage have shooked and Chessy have been freed,^[6] as of result of conflict between ailen and UFO.^[2]

After Cheesy was freed, he witness an aftermath of a batlle between ailen and UFO, where ailen loses and drops his robotic arm gun that shoots a laser beams, Cheesy picks it up.^[2] Mouse soon begins to scavenger hunt for ingredients, after he found a book of spells. When he finds them all he throws them into the pot, Cheesy jumps into it to find that after been teleported and landing the floor is filled with mouse traps around him. Activating one after another, presumebly killing the rodent.

Development and release

Cheesy was developed by British studio CTA Developments. Originally Cheesy started as a project intended for the Atari Jaguar, which was first announced in May 1994 as one of the upcoming titles for the Jaguar by Ocean Software and was originally scheduled to be released around the fourth quarter of 1995,^[7][8] but the game was moved to the PlayStation, after becoming a commercial and critical failure, and partly due to system's limitations.^[9] The game was first showcased to the public at various trade shows such as E3 1996,^[10] before being released in Europe by Ocean on 25 October 1996,^[11][a] and was later published in Japan by Jaleco on 24 July 1997.^[1]

The music was done by Zero-5 composers Dave Newman and James Veal.^[12]

Reception

Review scores

Publication	Score
Consoles +	85%[13]
Joypad	84%[14]
Mega Fun	42%[15]
Player One	75%[16]
Video Games	35%[17]

Reception

Cheesy received mixed to negative reviews from critics since its release. The game was cited for its controls, graphics and inconsistent game design, but the soundtrack received praise.^[18]

In a retrospective review of The Boar Reece Goodall criticized game's controls as "both sluggish and over-responsive in equal measure" comparing it to Super Mario 64. Along with constant game mode shifting design of the game from 2D to 3D style, alongside its "claustrophobic level design". Critic has also panned the game's depressing atmosphere that match with soundtrack, thinking "Presumably the developers weren’t aiming for such a bleak atmosphere".^[19]