So yeah the movement in this game is absolutely insane and feels like trying to steer a car with your feet. Booting it up for the first time was such a shock that I just started laughing and muttering “what the fuck is this”.

That said this is still an enjoyable game that’s dramatically enhanced by the weird movement scheme - that’s basically what makes this game fun. Without it this would be an incredibly easy and boring little maze game.

Biggest critique is that the gameplay gets boring relatively quickly. Each level is pretty much the same with incredibly slow and gradual difficulty progression after approx level 4. Before this, Bubbles - the player character, who is constantly moving - gets faster each level, which ramps up the difficulty very quickly. After this point, however, the game is basically just the same thing over and over again. There are only four level layouts and having a different picture to reveal each time doesn’t do much to change the experience of the levels. I think it’s a testament to the brilliant design of games like Pac Man or Space Invaders or Tetris that they can give the player the same thing over and over again and still remain incredibly fun and addictive. I’m not sure why this isn’t the case with Clu Clu Land, but it just isn’t - not for me at least. Would recommend this to basically anyone to play once if it’s readily available e.g if you have Nintendo Switch Online or already own it. It’s honestly a hilarious experience and one of the most joyfully unhinged movement schemes I’ve ever seen in a game. Would probably make for a good laugh if you play it with a friend.

CLU CLU LAND is an arcade game where you control a little red fella who is looking for a hidden pattern of gold coins. This lil guy auto-moves, and it is the player's job to stick out one of his arms to kind of spin off of pegs to change direction, all while avoiding enemies and traps. I played the NES version emulated on my Steam Deck.

I think this game is so neat. It has the Pac-Man style of "Here's a maze, you have a goal", but instead of making things go away, you are making things APPEAR. I find it incredibly addictive. The second I get GAME OVER, I want to turn it right back on to see if I can get farther, which I think is the sign of a good arcade game. This would've been a great palate cleanser with SUPER MARIO BROS. when the NES was released.

This was Nintendo's answer to the pacmania mazelike craze.
That's right, the 'soulslike' phenomenon is hardly a new thing.

a lot of people just view this as a mid entry to that pile. but honestly, I love it.

I find it super satisfying to play, and can easily jump into it anytime I want an arcadey game to play for 5 minutes.

It genuinely innovates on the mazelike formula and can be decently challenging without going overboard like 90% of games from its era.

For reasons I can't quite explain, I love Clu Clu Land. My best guess is Animal Crossing - this was the first NES game I got in-game, so it follows that I'd have some fondness for it. But this love held even after I (used codes to get) all the other NES games. So even given the options of Excitebike, Balloon Fight, Super Mario Bros., and The Legend of Zelda, I always found my way back to Clu Clu Land.

But I don't think the love is misplaced. This is probably the closest Nintendo came to developing their own Pac-Man. From that perspective, I like the twist on the formula - switching the focus from stealth (kinda) to puzzle as the player focuses on building shapes makes moment-to-moment decisions more impactful on lower-skill play. I love how Bubbles moves, too - looping around poles and bounding off walls always feels like a deliberate choice the player has to make, and she always glides around the level so smoothly. That Sound Wave attack is pretty nifty, too - stunning the Unira and mashing them into walls feels pretty great, since you do have to plan that out a bit. And it's hardly a gimme, since it's easy to run out of time or fail to plot out your route and careen into a hazard. There's a lot going on, but it doesn't feel like the game is asking anything unfair of the player, just challenging 'em to be a little better. Plus, even if you lose, you get that fun Game Over jingle and get to see Bubbles dance while the game calculates your score. What's not to love?

Question - is Bubbles Nintendo's first leading lady? All the more reason to revive Clu Clu Land. It's not too late to make it in time for the 40th anniversary!

Played on Nintendo Switch.

This is an interesting take on the Pac-Man formula conceived 4 years prior but unfortunately it falls flat on its face. The movement is clunky and frustrating, the enemies are bland and inconsistent, the protagonist is neither cute nor charming, nothing about this game is done well and it's simply bad.

+ the multiplayer is somehow less fun.

👎40%
The premise for this is absolutely fine. It's actually a really good idea for an NES game. The idea of finding the pattern through the gold pieces and figuring out which spaces have the pieces is great. The graphics are even fine and I felt like the look was great. Even the soundtrack isn't too terrible and it sounds like a refreshing retro soundtrack. Where it went wrong was the gameplay and the controls. The gameplay isn't very great with how there are invisible obstacles you randomly come across and then you have the black holes on TOP of the enemies. I think the idea is fine, but with how you move around with swinging around poles, it becomes a chore to maneuver around the map. This isn't coming from a difficulty standpoint, it's more of the way you move and where the obstacles are placed and go around the map is stupid. I also felt like the controls were pathetic. There isn't a set direction for the d-pad, so at times I felt like I was aimlessly roaming around the map. It also feels a bit stiff too. In the end, the premise is fantastic and if done way better, this could've been one of my favorites of the NES. But with how clunky the controls were and how bad the gameplay was, I just couldn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped to.