I recently discovered Chip’s Challenge and am hooked on it. It is absolutely perfect for me at work, because a lot of times I’ll have like five minutes to kill before my next appointment. I’ve played all the way through the original and the second pack of levels. The only thing I would change is the ability to save mid-level.
What games can you recommend that are similar to Chips- simple gameplay with levels that can usually be completed in five minutes or less?
Mahjongg certainly fits the bill…Microsoft packaged a Mahjongg game called “Taipei” in the same Entertainment Pack that included Chip’s Challenge and there are millions of versions of it out there.
There’s been a lot of level based action/puzzle games over the years but they seem to have fallen out of favor. The one that comes to mind off the top of my head is Solomon’s Key for the NES. If you’re willing to look to something more platform-esque then the Oddworld Abe games are mostly puzzle based (Abe’s Odyssey and Abe’s Exodus). They were available for the PC and original Playstation.
A lot of the concepts have been merged into the action/adventure genre but they don’t have the same tie to level structure that you’re looking for.
As I recall I managed to complete every level of the Epyx version of Chip’s Challenge (that’s the original one before Microsoft got it) but it took me months even as a game crazed teenager with too much time on their hands.
Oh yes, there’s also N which is freely available online. Might be a little too much action for you but it’s very close in concept.
Link?
ETA: Oh, I thought it might be a flash game… can’t find a OSX download…
It is a flash game. There’s quite a few places online you can get it via browser but I’ve got the flash applet local so I don’t have to bother with that. Here’s a convenient list of sites.