physical media

chuck e cheese's has released physical media so fans can enjoy their songs and characters outside of the store, and be enticed to come back.

the first example of this is "chuck e cheese in the galaxy 5000." it was released directly to vhs in october 1999. it was sold in cec locations for $12.95, and for $6 on their website. the plot is this: charlie rockit, a friend of chuck and the gang, needs $50,000 to buy his family a new tractor so their farm doesn't get shut down. chuck and his friends don't have enough money so they partake in the "galaxy 5000," a race on "planet orion," where contestants race space jets to win the equivalent of $52,000. but their competition, the x-pilots, are cheating; it turns out that they go vega-2 speeds, which is normally very difficult bc it's hard to see, but they inhale "zoom gas" which allows them to see better. helen henny finds this out by going undercover. the x-pilots hold her prisoner, both to keep her from talking and to use her to make zoom gas, which uses the "extract of chicken." meanwhile, chuck flies his team's space jet, the songbird, alone to practice, but he crashes. he meets harry the hermit, who tells him that he struggles to go so fast bc he doesn't have any training. harry trains chuck and fixes the songbird while helen escapes, chuck goes back and wins the race, the x-pilots and their captain get arrested, and it ends happily ever after.

as someone who wasn't even an idea in 1999, this is a very 1999 movie. i watched it on call with my gf once, and she agrees lol. the plot is very clearly inspired by the star wars movie "the phantom menace," which came out in may of the same year. the d.a.r.e. (drug abuse resistance education) program was the most prominent in the 80s and 90s, so it makes sense that the zoom gas would be used as an allegory for drugs (probably steroids) to push the message that drugs are bad.

this is also clearly a low budget movie. i don't think the budget was ever disclosed but u can tell. most of it uses a greenscreen for the backgrounds (helen and mr. munch had their outfits modified bc of this) which feature low-quality cgi. the movie has a lot of inconsistencies. when chuck e and his friends land on planet orion, chuck and helen are lying on the ground in one shot, and in the next shot where helen gets up, helen is on top of chuck. the rest of the gang also change positions. u can also see the back of the chuck performer's head for a few seconds in this scene. the characters use articulated heads with moving eyes and mouths, but in background shots where these heads wouldn't work, they use normal heads; bc of this, the tragus in chuck's ears appears and disappears. in the scene with chuck on a hamster wheel, the background behind harry disappears for a second, and in a scene after chuck wins the race, a boom mic can be seen at the top of the screen.

some parts of the movie are kinda lazy. like they just teleport to planet orion instead of doing anything cool like taking a rocket ship or smth, and at the end we don't see charlie's family getting their tractor, or even the characters going back to earth. but it was made in 6th months at the most so i kinda get it. it has its flaws but i still like it, and i think it was fun to watch.

honestly i'm surprised this is the only chuck e cheese movie. i think they missed an opportunity by not making a movie featuring avenger chuck, in the style of the ads he appeared in. that would've been rly cool imo.

in sometime between 2002 and 2004, chuck e cheese's released a dvd called "chuck e cheese's video hits #1," featuring 10 songs that were made from september 2000 to january 2002, and 2 bonus videos. apparently, it was only released to employees. in 2009, they released a cd called "greatest hits volume 1," which had 5 songs on it. the names imply that there were going to be more, but this never happened.

website

the chuck e cheese website has been around since 1997, but featured cool chuck's design until 2002. the 1997 website had a dot to dot and crossword puzzle u could print out, a clickable pic of a chuck e cheese walkaround that would download an audio file welcoming u to the site, the results of a coloring contest that was held, and links to other kid's sites, as well as standard things like a list of locations, promos, info abt the company, and job opportunities. u could also get tokens for good grades; 3 tokens for every a, 2 for every b, and 1 for every c, for a maximum of 15 tokens. the 1998 version of the site was effectively the same, but with a new purple background, some sort of puzzle game, a word scramble, and a new coloring contest. the main page of the 1999 site was called "studio c," and had a promotion for chuck e cheese in the galaxy 5000. there were new sections of the site for e-cards and merch. in 2000, the home page linked to a sitemap for those who didn't have flash player. this also introduced the fanclub, which u could get chuck e merch for joining, nutritional info abt their food, and some more games. the 2001 site was the same.

sometime between january and november 2002, avenger chuck made his first appearance on the chuck e cheese's website to commemorate the store's 25th anniversary. there was a banner across the site that said "world.wide.party!" and sections for homework resources, toddler games, and a "webtoon" (no idea what that was, the archive.org page is broken). the 2003 version of the site was the same, but added a section for parents with parenting advice.

the site's next major redesign took place sometime in april or may 2004. it had the same things as previous iterations of the site but added: gift ideas for kids, inside a chuck e cheese's, "have fun, be cool" which seemed to be abt safety, and "fresh ideas" (no clue what this was abt other than that it was food-related). the games were removed. the entire site was in flash and doesn't work on archive.org so i can't tell u much abt it.

in april 2005, the site got an html-only version, with the only changes being cosmetic. but the archive is broken so idk what it looked like. the games returned.

the site got a full redesign sometime between october 2006 and july 2007 with a pastel purple theme. it had basic info abt their games and rides, food, prizes, parties, the kid check program, the characters, promotions, and the company. the site had games but they could only be accessed from the site map for some reason, tho this would later be fixed in october or november 2009. most of the games on the archive still work. the site used this design, with minimal changes, until november 2012.

video games

there is a wide amount of chuck e cheese video games. most of them were on the cec website, but some were released for consoles too.

the games added to the site in 2000 were chuck e-ball, bb roll, pizza jigsaw, joke studio, chuck e jigsaw, safety match, and paint studio. i couldn't find much info on these. all of them, with the exception of chuck e ball, bb roll, and paint studio, were removed sometime between then and the 2006/2007 redesign. paint studio is the only one on the archived site that works. it's a game where u can color in pics of chuck and his friends.

the games added with the 2006/2007 redesign were music jukebox, plinko, drop and pop, pizza blast, crab grab, skateboard, pizza panic, snowboard run, air hockey, golden gamer, memory match, rock show, and tic-tac-toe. music jukebox was a game where u could play a variety of chuck e cheese songs. drop and pop involves dropping and matching different-colored blocks. in pizza blast, u pilot a spaceship and have to shoot pizzas that are flying at u. in crab grab, u catch crabs that are coming out of holes on the beach; chuck e is relaxing in the background and sometimes crabs take him away. skateboard is an obstacle course game where chuck is on a skateboard. in pizza panic, chuck has to catch falling pizza slices. snowboard run is similar to skateboard but chuck is on a snowboard. in golden gamer, u collect matching cec tokens to get tickets. in rock show, u can play different music sounds. plinko, air hockey, and memory match don't work.

in 2007, pizza blast was removed from the site. in 2010, the ticket blaster game replaced plinko. it doesn't work but it was featured in ads at the time. it was basically just an online version of the ticket blaster in restaurants. in 2011, the ticket blaster was replaced with skee-ball, and chuck e ball was removed. skee-ball doesn't work.

in 2012, chuck e blocks, smash a munch, and balloon alphabet were added, and the ticket blaster returned. crab grab and bb roll were removed. chuck e blocks was a game where u could stack blocks with characters' faces on a paddle, and u could win free tickets from it. smash a munch is basically whack-a-mole with munch. in balloon alphabet, u pop letter balloons to spell words in a limited amount of time. smash a munch and balloon alphabet don't work.

as for console games, all of them were made by ufo interactive, and the first two were released in 2010 alongside each other. they were called chuck e cheese's gameroom and chuck e cheese's playhouse, respectively. the latter was targeted at girls but the former was made for more general audiences. in the beginning of each, u choose ur birthday and an avatar; the avatars are the same for both.

chuck e cheese's gameroom has 13 minigames: matching wheel, bowling, piano and organ, connect the dots, what's different, sound memorizing, sling shot, build a car, penalty kick, coloring book, picture puzzle, maze, and train. in matching wheel, parts of images scroll by and u have to match them. in sling shot, u have to knock down moving targets with a slingshot. penalty kick is a soccer game where u have to try to kick a ball past goalie chuck. in train, a train goes around a map and u can change what the train looks like and how fast it goes. the rest are self explanatory.

chuck e cheese's playhouse also has 13 minigames: dress up, what's different, maze, connect the dots, hair designer, picture puzzle, jewelry maker, matching wheel, sound memorizing, make a house, coloring book, bowling, and a 13th game i can't find anything abt. if i had to guess it's probably smth similar to what was included in chuck e cheese's gameroom.

chuck e cheese's party games was released in july 2010 for the wii, ds, and ios. this one actually has a plot: u, the player, see an ad for chuck e cheese's and want to go there, but u've spent all ur allowance money, and ur dad doesn't want to give u any more. later, u see a chuck e cheese's and try to play a game with a regular coin, but a staff member informs u that u need tokens to do so. u don't have enough money, so the staff member says u can make pizzas for tokens. chuck appears and gives u 3 tokens for the tutorial. he doesn't have any more so u make pizzas for pasqually to get tokens. then, chuck shows u the lucky wheel, which u use to unlock more arcade games. this also costs tokens. much like the real-world chuck e cheese's, u win tickets from arcade games, which u can use to get prizes. u can decorate ur room with said prizes. that's basically the entire point of the game.

the arcade games are as follows: air hockey, alley roller, balloon alphabet, basketball, connect the stars, counting 1 2 3, cowboy jasper, dance queen helen, galaxy shooter, jasper's racing, matching, mr munch's target practice, photo hunt, smash a munch, and the ticket blaster. alley roller is just skee ball, and connect the stars is just connect the dots. counting 1 2 3 is a game where u have to count how many of a certain character are on the screen. in cowboy jasper, u have to catch as many cows as u can before time runs out. dance queen helen is a timed dancing game. galaxy shooter is focused on shooting aliens. photo hunt is a spot the difference game. the rest are self explanatory.

the ds and ios versions are pretty different from the wii version. the ds version only has 9 games, and most of them have been renamed. the games are unlocked by doing challenges and the only locations are the game room and the lobby. the ios version only has 8 minigames and 4 of them were released as standalone titles for $0.99 each: air hockey, alley roller, basketball, and photo hunt.

the second cec wii game was chuck e cheese's sports games, released in march 2011. unlike the other games, it was exclusive to the wii, it was entirely in 3d, and it could be played in multiplayer. in chuck e cheese's sports games, u can play as chuck, helen, jasper, pasqually, or mr munch. mr munch has to be unlocked. the games u can play are baseball, tennis, ice hockey, golf, bowling, fishing, kart racing, water filling, and target practice. in water filling, u shoot water into a moving hole to make ur character move; again, the rest are self explanatory. target practice is unlocked by winning gold medals in the other games.

6 months later, chuck e cheese's super collection was released. it's just party games and sports games bundled together.

in december 2012, chuck e cheese's alien defense force was released for the dsi. the plot is that aliens from a planet called planet cheese stole all of the pizza from earth, so chuck and munch form the alien defense force to get the pizza back. u can play as chuck or mr munch. chuck has a water gun, which doesn't need to reload as much but needs more precision. munch's water balloons are the other way around. this was the last chuck e cheese's console game, the last cec game to feature avenger chuck, and the last cec game made by ufo interactive.

the console games are average cheap 2010s shovelware but i wanna try em out regardless cuz they look interesting.