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Welcome to Lexy's Labyrinth, an open source puzzle game that emulates beloved classic Chip's Challenge®¹ and its long-delayed sequel, Chip's Challenge® 2. It's been lovingly crafted from scratch with completely new art, sounds, and music; it lets you undo your mistakes; and it's the only way to play Chip's Challenge 2 levels on Linux, Mac, or a phone!
A good place to dive in is one of these two packs:
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Lexy's Lessons is a custom-made set for Lexy's Labyrinth that gives you a whirlwind tour of every mechanic in Chip's Challenge 2. It's a little dense, but forgiving and relatively short, and it should teach you everything you need to play any other Chip's Challenge levels.
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Level Pack 1 is a community-made level pack intended for new players. It was made for Chip's Challenge 1, which means it uses a much smaller set of mechanics, so there's less stuff to remember. On the other hand, it's much longer, at just shy of 150 levels.
The goal of every level is to reach the exit! Most levels also contain a heart socket, which you can only pass after collecting enough hearts.
Along the way, you'll have to dodge monsters, push blocks, avoid stepping directly into deep water, and be mindful of the occasional time limit.
Bear in mind that Lexy's Labyrinth has done a bit of rebranding, so the hints embedded in levels may refer to some unfamiliar names:
- "Chip" is the main character, now Lexy the fox
- "Melinda" is the secondary main character, now Cerise the gelbeast
- "chips" are the thing you collect, now hearts
- the "chip socket" is the barrier before the exit, now a heart socket
The other differences are more minor, but see Aesthetic Differences for a complete list.
Chip's Challenge has a rocky history. The original game was made for the ill-fated Atari lynx handheld, largely forgotten by history. It was better known by its Microsoft Windows port, which is nostalgic for a great number of us who grew up with it — but that port was clumsy to control, poorly implemented the game rules, and no longer runs on modern Windows. A sequel was made in the early 2000's, but it became entangled in ownership issues and wasn't published until 2015 — and doesn't work in Wine (or very well on Windows). A huge backlog of user-created levels for Chip's Challenge 1 exist, but they can't be loaded by the modern Steam version of Chip's Challenge 1, leaving them in an awkward limbo. And it seems unlikely there will ever be another installment.
Lexy's Labyrinth is a fan-made attempt to breathe life back into the series by bridging some of these gaps.
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It emulates the rules of Chip's Challenge 2 and fixes some frustrating bugs — but it also supports stricter adherence to the Steam rules, the original Lynx rules, or a rough attempt at the Microsoft rules.
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It can play the vast majority of existing user-created levels and even comes with the best of them built in, right in a web browser, anywhere, on any platform.
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And it has its own level editor, so you can try designing your own levels, playtest them with a click, and share them with a link.
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Oh, and you can rewind/undo, so no need to worry about fat-fingering ten minutes into an excruciatingly long level.
If I may be so bold — it's the ZDoom of Chip's Challenge.
I hope you enjoy! See Features for more.
Because Lexy's Labyrinth tries to paper over the difference between several versions of the game, it's possible that some levels won't function correctly under the default rules. Sorry! See Known Broken Levels for known issues with the official levels and CCLPs.
The Microsoft port was incredibly buggy in ways that are very difficult to replicate, so it's unlikely the MS emulation will ever be faithful. It mostly focuses on overt functional differences, like monsters running into fire.
The community does not currently consider Lexy's Labyrinth to be scoreboard legal for speedrunning purposes.
Chip's Challenge 2 is a complex game, and weird things may happen that nonetheless are correct behavior. Sorry! The default rules fix bugs, but I try not to outright change existing CC2 behavior.
If you want to play — you might want to know How To Play, read about Loading Levels, or peruse the full list of Tiles.
If you want to design levels — you should get to know the Editor.
If you're a speedrunner or advanced player — still not scoreboard legal, but check out the Compatibility options or Extensions.
If you want to support the original games (or, at least, play the original levels), Chip's Challenge 1 is free on Steam, and Chip's Challenge 2 is $5 last time I checked. Lexy's Labyrinth can load and play the levels from the commercial releases, if you prefer playing them that way.
The original games are published by a tiny studio called Niffler, and also have a spiritual sequel Chuck's Challenge 3D, named for the original designer, Chuck Sommerville. (Lexy's Labyrinth does not emulate CC3D, but it does have experimental support for some tiles similar to ones in that game.)
Lexy's Labyrinth is an independent project with absolutely no connection to any of these rightsholders.
- The original original Chip's Challenge on Steam
- Chip's Challenge 1 on Steam
- Chip's Challenge 2 on Steam
- The Bit Buster's Club fansite, whose extensive wiki and Discord have been absolutely indispensable
¹ Chip's Challenge is a registered trademark of Bridgestone Media Group LLC, and is used here for purposes of identification only. Not affiliated with, sponsored, or endorsed by Bridgestone Media Group LLC.