As one of the few big fans of Kuru Kuru Kururin on the entire planet. I was pretty happy when I stumbled upon this game and immediatelyAs one of the few big fans of Kuru Kuru Kururin on the entire planet. I was pretty happy when I stumbled upon this game and immediately purchased it. And...well, it's almost amazing but it falls short in a few ways. I'll talk about the good first.
The game is oozing with charm. Fun characters, amazing music, great visuals. It all blends together perfectly. There's a ton of levels and a decent variety of themes. The level design for the most part is solid. The game really does feel like a 4th Kuru Kuru Kururin game. Combining the precision levels of the first two games, with the occasional gimmick from Squash! It's the best of both worlds in a way.
However, onto the bad. The game is kinda frustrating. And not in a "git gud" kind of way. Look, I've finished every Kuru Kuru Kururin 100%. I consider myself very good at this type of game. And even I found this a bit overly difficult. That wouldn't be a problem in itself, but the problem is, it's very inconsistent and it feels like the game is working against you sometimes.
The main issue is judging the hit boxes of the walls. In the original GBA games, the view was directly from above and it was incredibly obvious when you hit a wall. This game is more 3d and the view angle is tilted slightly, because of this it's much harder to really tell when you're gonna hit a wall or not. Sometimes it just feels truly impossible. The level geometry will sometimes block the view of the path so it's just too difficult to see make precise movements. For example, the level "Colourful Bunting" has this problem towards the top of the stage. Narrow paths are fine when you can see them, otherwise...no. And I heard they made the hit boxes smaller in a recent update so I can only imagine how hard it was before that update. The difficulty is also inconsistent. You'll have a level with multiple pixel perfect pathways to take. Then the next level will be substantially easier with none of that. It's weird and feels unintentionally difficult at times.
Another issue is, there's no difficulty options. Let's be honest, not many people are going to be going into this game experienced with Kuru Kuru Kururin. But that game did a lot to make the game more accessible. You could change the length of your copter. You could speed up and slow down movement separate from your copter rotation. And, the levels marked on the floor which areas are safe without hitting any walls.
This game just throws you in the deep end. It's like this cute little charming game but the gameplay seems targeted towards people who have played Kuru Kuru Kururin 100 times and are looking for a challenge. The game is kind of at odds with itself.
I think if they tweaked some level design to be more forgiving (especially in the second world, that's way too hard to be that early in the game), gave you more movement options, and put in some accessibility/difficulty settings for less skilled players, it'll be a solid game. A dream game even for me personally.… Expand
