Reviews from

in the past


BANGER simple puzzle(ish) game with tons of play time for the relatively small content. classic nintendo simple-cute premise with gameplay first attitude - every adventure level teaches you more about how the spinner can be moved and operated in complex and precise ways, all culminating in a final world requiring confidence, speed, and precision comfortably hugging walls alongside kururin's circular pod as the only way to save your final sibling!

the challenge levels provide a lovely, quick minded break to the sometimes frustrating monotanaity of the main story. quick paced, speed emphasized challenge runs that push the limits of your precise finger movement and knowledge of game mechanics. incredibly addictive and hard to leave uncompleted.

unfortunately unable to complete the vs mode. maybe ill return to finish this review! for now - im more than happy with my full-star completion of all 11 challenge worlds, and gathering every single costume!! the customization in this game is a surprise and a treat UGH such a cute game -- from soundtrack to visual aesthetic the game oozes notable charm.

Surprisingly addicting GBA game. It doesn't overstay it's welcome (unless you go for 100%) and it introduces enough ideas on this spinning puzzle gameplay to stay fun. Nothing extraordinary, but enjoyable.

amazing gameplay concept, but I have a feeling it will play better on the Gamecube (with analog controls and less screen crunch)

Chinese torture as it may be: it's still so satisfying to beat levels in this unique puzzle game. Never understood why they never released in U.S., but lucky us europeans I guess.

It gets as much as possible out of its simple "Irritating Stick" gameplay premise, but it feels kind of lacking in variety or modes. Has old-school SNES game spirit without the actual content. Cute, though! I would've bought phone charms of every character in 2001.


Don't sleep on this one! While the premise of rotating a paddle is simple enough, I found myself surprised by the difficulty of the puzzles and thought/precision required for each. Great game!

My god what an actual bastard of a video game I could NOT beat this scoundral without the use of the rewind feature on the switch I just actually cannot fathom beating this game without it. No wonder this shit didn't make it to the west 😭😭😭 Nintendo of America knew we weren't pussies they just knew we weren't capable of inhumane activity 😭😭😭😭😭😭 I expected some sort of grand reward for beating it but lmao no why would they give you anything you've just gotta move on in life 🤬🤬 yeah this took you hours on end so what 🤬🤬🤬

Who knew a game with just a rotating stick would be so fun, some of the last few levels were pure evil. Great game.

Really addictive and charming puzzle game that I’m sad wasn’t revisited again after the 2000s because the concept is so simple yet full of potential, it’d be an instant hit if they did a 99-style game for the Nintendo Switch Online service. The level design gets pretty damn tricky too by the end, you’ve no idea how much of an anxiety-inducing experience it is trying to get through the tightest of corners with a long propeller that’s constantly turning left or right.

It’s short and sweet, go play it if you have the NSO Expansion Pack, it’s one of GBA’s finest games they have in offer there.

I don't know how more people aren't talking about this. This will be the next big thing!

Oh god. My attention was grabbed by the fact that I never got to play this game because I’m pretty sure it never came out in the US? It’s definitely very charming, with very cute character designs and aesthetics. The music was pretty good, and I kind of dug it for most of its gameplay… but then it got a little too crazy for me, and I don’t really have the patience to deal with Machine Land.

Kururin buddy I feel like you could stand to have a helicopter that doesn’t control like this, especially when there are cannons shooting at you. I don’t know why they’re shooting at you. Why is your sibling here…

I did really like collecting the customization features, though. It’d be neat to see this come back at some point. You know, for the people who gel with this kind of game better than I do.

The movement gimmick allows for unusually quick skill improvements during the first hour of play or so. Unwieldy turns become smooth, which is satisfying. Some of the later levels were a bit messy though.

This game is adorable and has a unique premise, I played it for a little while on Game Boy Advance - Nintendo Switch Online. As I will be cancelling my NSO subscription again soon, I will not be returning to this game, but I can still recommend it.

AHAHAHAHAHA I BEAT IT AT LAST. that's my review. and no i didn't pick up all the bonus stuff on all the levels for 100% completion because i want to keep my sanity, clearing every level on normal is ENOUGH. i'm sure those baby chicks can find their way home somehow, birds have compasses for brains i've heard

anyway this game is cute and designed by the devil. i like it.

Very neat game made from a very small concept. I’m not good enough to beat the levels organically but it was still a fairly satisfying experience and difficulty curve.

An obscure but fun puzzle game from Nintendo. It’s extremely simple. You control what is basically an always rotating stick through maze-like stages while trying to avoid ever touching the walls. Odds are that you probably already played something exactly like this in the form of a flash game or mobile game. Still, it’s cute addictive fun. I would love to see its sequels release outside of Japan someday.

This game is deceptively simple. You spin continuously, certain surfaces will switch your rotation and your goal is to make it to the end of each level mostly unscathed.

While I can't go into too much depth about what worked and what didn't, what I can attest to is that I entered into a fugue state while playing Kuru Kuru Kururin. What was supposed to kill half an hour ended up swallowing up my night, as I noticed the clock had ticked past midnight and my partner was readying up for bed while I grappled with the final level. It only took me 2 hours, yet felt much shorter than that even. The pace is brisk and the game never wears out its ideas, so I suppose you can take that as the highest praise imaginable.

The truth is that, while fun, the game will likely leave your thoughts almost as quickly as it entered them. A perfectly fine 7 out of 10. Quintessentially so, even! I'll definitely give the rest of the series a go too.

Incredibly rewarding game that asks so much executional precision by the end, but is always fair.

(warning most of this review is actually about the Souls games, coming from someone who hasn't liked them so far and who also hasn't put more than like 4 hours total into the whole series lol)

When it comes to these sorts of skill games, I feel like I'm always going to prefer visually clean games that let you get immediately back into the action on a failure. Your obstacles are always 100% clear and every single mistake is immediately obvious and understood. There's no bloat, no wasted space or time, just pure execution.

I like to write them off a lot as a joke, but I do really think my tastes are just fundamentally incompatible with the Souls games as they currently exist. I am never going to enjoy a game that asks a lot of me, and then punishes failure with even as little as 2 seconds of waiting before I'm allowed to try again. When you're locked in, 2 seconds is a long fucking time and it will almost always knock you out of the zone.

And I feel like once you put these execution games into 3D, there's a million more things that can go wrong as far as visual clarity is concerned, and when every boss has different animations and attack patterns, it stops feeling like a challenge you can chip away at and slowly improve with. My go-to examples of mechanically challenging games that I actually like are usually Katana Zero and Celeste, but playing this I realize that it's not just the fast respawn, it's the clarity and total control that 2D offers (and also some 3D shooters, my explanation for including these would just be the same as this part of this Matthewmatosis video that explains why shooters got big during the switch to 3d so just watch that if you're interested).

Back to the topic, trying a level 40 times in Kurukuru Kururin is hardly out of the ordinary. Trying a boss in a souls game 40 times is, from what I understand, a nightmare and something you only get to if you're really having trouble with something. In Kurukuru Kururin, trying something 40 times and seeing that slow, incremental progress, getting just a bit further in the level each time, culminating in beating it? That's perfect, that's exactly what I want from games that ask me to "get good". I just don't see that happening for me with the souls games--given the time length of bosses, the actual mechanical difficulty is going to have to go down, and so the maneuvers feel less satisfying to pull off, and when you're getting knocked out of the zone every time you do make a mistake. Nightmare. "Get good" games should, ideally, maximize the amount of time spent on getting good at them, a loss is punishment enough. Kurukuru Kururin trims every single piece of fat, you're controlling a spinning rod in a maze, nothing more, nothing less, and in its simplicity it's definitely one of the best skill-based games I've played so far.

So simple to pick up, so easy to understand, so hard to actually master. The aesthetic mix of cuteness and extreme difficulty (especially on a real handheld) makes the game pop: Hello Kitty goes to purgatory.

This is a game that requires a steady hand and extreme patience. I have neither.

Kuru Kuru Kururin looks like a fun enough game from a distance, but whose main appeal reveals itself once you actually start playing. It's a great arcade-style game with a single core mechanic; navigate through a variety of obstacle courses while controlling the movement of a constantly spinning rod. There's plenty of variety across the Adventure mode, which offers a lengthy series of more involved courses, and the Challenge mode which offers more bite-sized courses.

The number of interesting courses already add plenty of depth to the main mechanic, but Kuru Kuru Kururin shines when it becomes clear that each Adventure mode course and Challenge course has a time attack element to it. There are a few tiers of course times that you can aim to beat by continuously honing your skills. An addicting feedback loop emerges as you work to best the different times because of how quickly you are able to load back into a course. It becomes a hard game to put down as you keep telling yourself, "Just one more run".

But you also don't need to engage with the Time Attack elements if you don't want to! There are multiple off-ramp points for the game depending on what you find fun about it. You can work through just the Adventure mode, just the challenge mode, or progress through as much of the time attack tiers as you wish. You'll get as much out of the game as you put into it.

Favorite Tracks:

Grasslands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22j0a2dBeHU&list=PLC1B69F7C3882D9FC&index=6

Cave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSC47hGikY0&list=PLC1B69F7C3882D9FC&index=10

A fun and adorable yet challenging puzzle game from when Nintendo would try unique things that weren't sure fire to succeed

The birds have my heart

Kuru Kuru Kururin is a delightful game where you play as a constantly spinning rod that takes damage if you touch walls or projectiles, thus making the levels play like short obstacle courses. It's a pretty quick game to get through, but optional objectives such as speedrun goals, no damage goals, and cosmetic pickups add a bit more extra taste. If I had any complaint, it would be that the very final level feels completely overboard in difficulty to the rest, with the first segment having way more tight turns and the last feeling like complete nonsense with turret spam.

Overall, definitely a fun arcade-style game worth checking out, it'll have you spinning around!

A novelty arcade title that is sure to frustrate as much as it entertains, this Game Boy Advance oddity still holds up today as a great time waster and a ridiculously challenging skill game.

Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2023/02/28/now-playing-february-2023-edition/


It's a cute game with a neat gimmick as the main mechanic, but Christ, I am terrible at this game. Fun for about the hour or so that the Adventure mode is, but if the rewind feature on the GBA NSO app didn't exist, I don't think I could've gotten through this one. Cute little characters and neat setpieces and it's cool to finally have this available after so long, but the later levels become such bullshit with absolutely zero checkpoints and constant trial-and-error that it becomes frustrating. Check out the early levels and see if you like it, but I don't really recommend the latter half unless you really love the concept or gameplay.

Kuru Kuru Kururin (2001): Una premisa súper original a la que se le acaba la mecha demasiado rápido. Es divertido, y plantea todas las situaciones en que esta idea puede molar, pero es demasiado corto y aún así le sobra tiempo. Arcade en su máxima esencia (6,80)

Un concept de casse-tête toute simple et très efficace.
Ya de la difficulté à revendre dans les derniers niveaux et le mode challenge, et tout l'enrobage avec des petits oiseaux à retrouver c'est tout meugnon.
Assez court mais très cool.

Cool gimmick! Some of the last levels were kind of a pain to get through but it was honestly real fun!