Chip's Challenge 2

Great game that I played when I was a kid

Chip's Challenge 2. Electric boogaloo

Chip’s Challenge 2, developed and published by Niffler Ltd., is a long-awaited sequel that carries a unique legacy. For over two decades, it existed as an unreleased project—complete but trapped in licensing disputes—before finally emerging on Steam in 2015. This history alone gives the game a kind of mythical status among puzzle enthusiasts, especially those who grew up playing the original Chip’s Challenge on platforms like Windows 3.1 and Atari Lynx. When the sequel finally arrived, it was not reimagined or modernized, but presented almost exactly as it had been conceived in the 1990s—a pure continuation of its predecessor’s design philosophy. The result is a game that feels both nostalgic and timeless, retaining the intellectual charm and mechanical precision of the original while expanding upon its complexity with hundreds of new puzzles and elements. At its foundation, Chip’s Challenge 2 continues the grid-based puzzle structure that defined the original. Players guide Chip—or occasionally Melinda, his fellow puzzle solver—through intricate levels made up of tiles that represent terrain, traps, switches, and collectibles. The goal is simple in concept but devilishly layered …

this game is really really harder than the first if you got the brains.

I played the MS version of the original Chip's Challenge a lot as a kid. I'm 10 years late to the party on this sequel, but I feel like it's actually a stronger game. The greater variety of tools and traps may seem overwhelming at first, but they quickly become second nature, and offer greater complexity to the puzzles without making them too confusing. The puzzles in general are stronger here as well - gone are the long and monotonous rooms of the original, repeating the same task over and over, or dealing with blob RNG. Something about the way the levels are constructed feels like a more satisfying evolution, which is just what a good sequel should be

Graphics? Unchanged since 1990. Music? Ditto. (I have it muted at all times) Plot? Only the barest outline, basically nonexistent. This is a game that focuses purely on the puzzle gameplay to the exclusion of absolutely everything else you might care about in a game. I personally love it and don't care that it's so barebones on an aesthetic level, though I wouldn't question anyone who is put off by that. If you liked the original Chip's Challenge you'll certainly like this too. It expands on it in many different directions.