14th July 2014, 8:27 PM
Game Boy Advance
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Kururin Paradise (J) - beat the game (finished all levels). This is the second Kururin game, and the last one on the GBA -- the third and final game in the franchise is on the Gamecube. Of course, none of them released in the US because Nintendo is incredibly stupid, but these games are amazing and some of my favorite action/puzzle games around! I played the first game years ago in emulation, but held off on the second game then, and finally was able to play it now on a real cart. I'm a little disappointed that this game isn't any longer than the first one -- both of the GBA games are pretty short -- but at least there's a significant amount of replay value if you want to try to beat all the levels without ever touching the walls. If you beat a level without touching the sides ever you get a star on the map replacing that stages' dot, so there is a little reward for it. But yeah, these games are fantastic. They're topdown maze games where you have to maneuver a spinning line ('helicopter' supposedly) through a complex environment without touching anything. Hard, compelling, and great fun! I'll need a Freeloader to play the GC game of course, but I'll finally have to get one for this game... there aren't all that many import-only GC games worth getting, I think, but Kururin Squash is definitely at the top of that list for me.
Digidrive - I beat the hard computer opponent and saw the credits, so I guess that counts as "beating" this game, even though the main mode is endless. Digidrive is part of what later became known as the Art Style series, and also has a US DSiWare release, but I got the original GBA cart version, and this game is amazing -- this is a really, really good puzzle game! It gets brutally hard very fast, and my best score is only in the 6000s, but this twitch-response action/puzzle game is great fun even when I lose quickly. In the game you try to get points to keep yourself alive by sending three different colors of 'cars' different ways at the intersection of the games' + shaped map. Basically all you do in the game is use the dpad to tell the 'car' at the center which way to turn. If five of the same color go down one path without one of another color breaking the chain they form a shape that you can start filling by putting more of the same color on that path. Get shapes on all four paths and it goes into a faster bonus game, and the 'timer' chasing you on the score/progress meter on the right side stops moving as well, so you can't lose until messing it up (by sending one down a path of the wrong color); this will happen though, as the game gets very fast. There's a bit more to the game than that -- if you get one of those bonus-modes, when you end it you'll get a ship, and then if you hit A you'll send it out. These can be sent down a path, to send that shape to that score/progress meter, to get you points and keep you alive. These ships will also occasionally appear on their own, but you can't always rely on them so high scores will depend on being good at getting into, and staying in, the bonus mode. So yeah, it's hard, hard game, but compelling and addictive. Definitely look it up for either import GBA or DSiWare, where it goes by the title Art Style: INTERSECT.
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Kururin Paradise (J) - beat the game (finished all levels). This is the second Kururin game, and the last one on the GBA -- the third and final game in the franchise is on the Gamecube. Of course, none of them released in the US because Nintendo is incredibly stupid, but these games are amazing and some of my favorite action/puzzle games around! I played the first game years ago in emulation, but held off on the second game then, and finally was able to play it now on a real cart. I'm a little disappointed that this game isn't any longer than the first one -- both of the GBA games are pretty short -- but at least there's a significant amount of replay value if you want to try to beat all the levels without ever touching the walls. If you beat a level without touching the sides ever you get a star on the map replacing that stages' dot, so there is a little reward for it. But yeah, these games are fantastic. They're topdown maze games where you have to maneuver a spinning line ('helicopter' supposedly) through a complex environment without touching anything. Hard, compelling, and great fun! I'll need a Freeloader to play the GC game of course, but I'll finally have to get one for this game... there aren't all that many import-only GC games worth getting, I think, but Kururin Squash is definitely at the top of that list for me.
Digidrive - I beat the hard computer opponent and saw the credits, so I guess that counts as "beating" this game, even though the main mode is endless. Digidrive is part of what later became known as the Art Style series, and also has a US DSiWare release, but I got the original GBA cart version, and this game is amazing -- this is a really, really good puzzle game! It gets brutally hard very fast, and my best score is only in the 6000s, but this twitch-response action/puzzle game is great fun even when I lose quickly. In the game you try to get points to keep yourself alive by sending three different colors of 'cars' different ways at the intersection of the games' + shaped map. Basically all you do in the game is use the dpad to tell the 'car' at the center which way to turn. If five of the same color go down one path without one of another color breaking the chain they form a shape that you can start filling by putting more of the same color on that path. Get shapes on all four paths and it goes into a faster bonus game, and the 'timer' chasing you on the score/progress meter on the right side stops moving as well, so you can't lose until messing it up (by sending one down a path of the wrong color); this will happen though, as the game gets very fast. There's a bit more to the game than that -- if you get one of those bonus-modes, when you end it you'll get a ship, and then if you hit A you'll send it out. These can be sent down a path, to send that shape to that score/progress meter, to get you points and keep you alive. These ships will also occasionally appear on their own, but you can't always rely on them so high scores will depend on being good at getting into, and staying in, the bonus mode. So yeah, it's hard, hard game, but compelling and addictive. Definitely look it up for either import GBA or DSiWare, where it goes by the title Art Style: INTERSECT.