One of the first game I ever have the memory playing was DK: King of Swing for the GBA. A Donkey kong apinoff that takes the gameplay formula of CLu Clu Land and kind of expands upon it.
So it was my main curiosity to check out the OG and.... yeah it is kind of a divisve title for a reason.
Don't get me wrong: I ADORE how Bubbles moves. Once you get the hang of the weird movement and grabs, you feels like a young fish swimming in the sea at high speed.
The main issue is that the map is less than a sea and more of a tiny fishbowl: the maps feels a little too cramped, full of invisible bouncing walls, claustrophobic wall, and 2 spiny enemies that are Items in Smash for some reason... I feel I was able to enjoy the fast and weird movement only on bonus stages, where you don't have all of these hazards to think about.
Not to mention that, compared to other arcade games like Pacman, the objective of each stage is kinda wierd: basically you gotta "draw" specific things by passing through certains zones of the map, that will glow once you pass through them..... the issue is that you never know what picutre you gotta "draw", and the images themselves don't even have a certain theme. SOmetimes you gotta draw a bird, or a submarine, or a smile.... and other times it's just a bunch of squares that don't really form anything "concrete"
I dunno, I hadn't the wost of times, but I can see why many peeps are not really into the Clu Clu Land..... at least some of its elements were able to survive in other games.
So it was my main curiosity to check out the OG and.... yeah it is kind of a divisve title for a reason.
Don't get me wrong: I ADORE how Bubbles moves. Once you get the hang of the weird movement and grabs, you feels like a young fish swimming in the sea at high speed.
The main issue is that the map is less than a sea and more of a tiny fishbowl: the maps feels a little too cramped, full of invisible bouncing walls, claustrophobic wall, and 2 spiny enemies that are Items in Smash for some reason... I feel I was able to enjoy the fast and weird movement only on bonus stages, where you don't have all of these hazards to think about.
Not to mention that, compared to other arcade games like Pacman, the objective of each stage is kinda wierd: basically you gotta "draw" specific things by passing through certains zones of the map, that will glow once you pass through them..... the issue is that you never know what picutre you gotta "draw", and the images themselves don't even have a certain theme. SOmetimes you gotta draw a bird, or a submarine, or a smile.... and other times it's just a bunch of squares that don't really form anything "concrete"
I dunno, I hadn't the wost of times, but I can see why many peeps are not really into the Clu Clu Land..... at least some of its elements were able to survive in other games.
Clu Clu Land is interesting. I like the underlying concept of trying to reveal a design by navigating a maze and avoiding enemies, but the turning controls don't really work for me as well as I would've liked. I get what the designers were going for, but it's pretty awkward in my experience. The game does at least have a few nice touches of bouncy animation, and some catchy music. In other words, a decent but not amazing game.