It's no secret that Nintendo keeps a lot of hidden gems to themselves in Japan. What I find interesting is how back in the 2000s, some of these Japanese games were localized exclusively in Europe. I can't tell if they wanted to use PAL regions as a testing ground, or if Nintendo of America simply turned their nose up at the prospect of releasing certain titles overseas. Nevertheless, we got Kuru Kuru Kururin in English out of this, so I can't really complain, now can I?
Kuru Kuru Kururin is a game about navigating an eternally-rotating pole through mazes. That's really all there is to it, and they push your ability to do so to the absolute limit. There's an occasional extra mechanic or two: springs that are safe to bounce off of and can reverse your rotation, or moving objects to dodge. Despite having no direct control over your steady rotation, you have three movement speeds (normal, A/B, and A+B), and it's really satisfying to manuever yourself through the intricately designed levels. The level designers were also kind enough to leave little marks on the ground to indicate it's safe to stop moving, which is good, because this game can be really unforgiving. The main stages can feel really long and drawn out, not helped by the fact that there are precisely zero checkpoints. You have to do each stage in a single run. There are "soft checkpoints" that refill your HP, but you'll still get booted out of a stage after touching a wall three times. I also feel like this game being on the GBA doesn't really do it any favors control-wise. your method of changing speeds feels like the best compromise they could make for the fact that you're using a d-pad. I can imagine a game like this controlling leagues better with an analog stick.
Confession time! I played through the first half of the game on normal difficulty, until I hit a roadblock at "Cave 3" (very creative level names) and made a new file so I could choose easy difficulty instead. Easy mode cuts your pole's length in half, and as a result, snaps the game's difficulty in half as well. It's a real overcorrection in my eyes; The whole game was designed with the full pole length in mind. In easy mode, you breeze past everything, and can even take shortcuts that would never be possible on normal difficulty.
The only thing left to comment on is the presentation, which is serviceable, I suppose. None of it really sticks out in my mind. The menus have a game show-like feel to them, but a lot of the visual design looks like pre-rendered models turned into GBA sprites, which is a look that I've never really been a fan of. Most of the areas you play through have cookie-cutter theming to them (cave, ocean, grass, etc). Story is as simple as it gets: One day Kururin's siblings hit the road and go missing, and you play through a buncha levels to go find them. An attempt was made, but a lot of it ends up feeling like an afterthought.
Overall, Kuru Kuru Kururin gets my award of "eh, good enough". It's a really neat idea executed well, despite the fact that nothing else really sticks out about it. I'd still say it's worth a shot though. Now, there's two more games that never left Japan, but I'm gonna have a seat for a bit.
Kuru Kuru Kururin is a game about navigating an eternally-rotating pole through mazes. That's really all there is to it, and they push your ability to do so to the absolute limit. There's an occasional extra mechanic or two: springs that are safe to bounce off of and can reverse your rotation, or moving objects to dodge. Despite having no direct control over your steady rotation, you have three movement speeds (normal, A/B, and A+B), and it's really satisfying to manuever yourself through the intricately designed levels. The level designers were also kind enough to leave little marks on the ground to indicate it's safe to stop moving, which is good, because this game can be really unforgiving. The main stages can feel really long and drawn out, not helped by the fact that there are precisely zero checkpoints. You have to do each stage in a single run. There are "soft checkpoints" that refill your HP, but you'll still get booted out of a stage after touching a wall three times. I also feel like this game being on the GBA doesn't really do it any favors control-wise. your method of changing speeds feels like the best compromise they could make for the fact that you're using a d-pad. I can imagine a game like this controlling leagues better with an analog stick.
Confession time! I played through the first half of the game on normal difficulty, until I hit a roadblock at "Cave 3" (very creative level names) and made a new file so I could choose easy difficulty instead. Easy mode cuts your pole's length in half, and as a result, snaps the game's difficulty in half as well. It's a real overcorrection in my eyes; The whole game was designed with the full pole length in mind. In easy mode, you breeze past everything, and can even take shortcuts that would never be possible on normal difficulty.
The only thing left to comment on is the presentation, which is serviceable, I suppose. None of it really sticks out in my mind. The menus have a game show-like feel to them, but a lot of the visual design looks like pre-rendered models turned into GBA sprites, which is a look that I've never really been a fan of. Most of the areas you play through have cookie-cutter theming to them (cave, ocean, grass, etc). Story is as simple as it gets: One day Kururin's siblings hit the road and go missing, and you play through a buncha levels to go find them. An attempt was made, but a lot of it ends up feeling like an afterthought.
Overall, Kuru Kuru Kururin gets my award of "eh, good enough". It's a really neat idea executed well, despite the fact that nothing else really sticks out about it. I'd still say it's worth a shot though. Now, there's two more games that never left Japan, but I'm gonna have a seat for a bit.
Hooblashooga
1 year ago