Umihara Kawase is a bizarre sport to clarify, however I’m going to attempt to anyway. It seems and feels like an newbie manufacturing put out by some unknown writer and created by some unknown developer, and possibly it’s. But it surely’s additionally among the finest video games on the Tremendous Famicom.

I first heard about it on GameCenter CX (season 5, episode 1), and that was across the time that the sequence was lastly making it stateside with Yumi’s Odd Odyssey (Sayonara Umihara Kawase). I lastly jumped into the sequence in 2020 with Umihara Kawase Contemporary, which was the subject of my second overview ever written right here at Destructoid. I completely beloved it, which made me return and eventually play the sooner titles.

And you need to, too.

Rubber banding

Umihara Kawase is a sport that’s constructed totally round its central mechanic, type of like, er, the Kuru Kuru Kururin sequence, possibly. I’m drawing a clean, however I don’t imply it’s like Bubble Bobble, the place you blow plenty of bubbles however it’s nonetheless motion platforming; Umihara Kawase’s total id is predicated round its core distinctive thought.

And its core thought is a fishing line. The eponymous Umihara can barely bounce, however she will forged a line like an skilled angler. Or Batman. Most likely extra like Batman. You utilize it as a grappling hook, sinking your lure right into a stable object after which utilizing it to swing throughout gaps and over hazards. And but, this isn’t Bionic Commando. Umihara is as graceless as a fish out of water, and the fishing line seems to be manufactured from rubber, so she bounces and slingshots round.

It’s tempting to say that Umihara Kawase is simple to be taught and troublesome to grasp, however it actually isn’t that very first thing. Getting used to the physics so you’ll be able to carry out even the best of duties will in all probability take some time, and attending to the purpose the place it turns into second nature is a protracted journey. Even then, the extra superior maneuvers that the sport permits could also be out of attain until you actually get sucked in.

Legged fish

Nonetheless, it doesn’t make issues snug. Regardless of its cute look of just a little schoolgirl working her method throughout summary labyrinths, it’s an especially brutal sport, and there are layers to its brutality.

Past the unconventional motion system, there aren’t any continues, and all loss of life is prompt. There are enemies within the type of numerous sea creatures that hang-out the degrees, and gently brushing towards most of them will immediately drop Umihara to the ground. Apart from lives, there aren’t any power-ups that will help you. It’s simply you and your fishing line.

The precise guidelines of the sport are equally troublesome to get a grasp on. There are 57 ranges, however they don’t progress in a strictly linear style. Some ranges have a number of exits that can take you ahead or backward to totally different fields. There are bosses, that are moderately cryptic puzzles on their very own, however working into them is neither a assure or requirement. However extra mysteriously, it’s additionally unclear the place the top of the sport actually occurs.

Within the GameCenter CX episode I discussed, Arino reaches the top credit moderately early. However then, his workers explains to him that, after half-hour, the sport will simply skip you forward to the final degree. They counsel that he wants to succeed in subject 57 in below half-hour to get the sport’s good ending, which, even understanding the quickest route, he fails to do.

Nonetheless, after the present, the workers members go to work and truly handle to finish Umihara Kawase in below half-hour, at which level they get the identical non-ending that Arino bought. So, even the sport doesn’t have any recognition for whether or not you took too lengthy and bought shunted to the top or when you beat it earlier than its timer ran out. It simply ends both method. So, what’s even thought-about “profitable” right here?

Youngster’s play

I suppose it’s actually as much as you to problem your self. Umihara Kawase is extra of a playground. A sequence of challenges so that you can overcome, however opposite to its preliminary issue, it’s easygoing about the way you strategy it.

Perhaps, as an alternative, you simply problem your self to see each subject. Or possibly, just like the GameCenter CX workers, you attempt to beat it earlier than half-hour are up. That’s sort of disappointing in its personal method. I prefer to be advised I did a superb job. However, high-level play simply seems unimaginable.

The truth that there isn’t actually a set aim is among the methods Umihara Kawase feels type of newbie. Past that, the graphics look thrown collectively. The background is only a {photograph} of the ocean, which supplies it the sensation of a uncared for arcade sport. The ice rink the place I lived rising up had just a few arcade cupboards, and considered one of them was Buster Bros. or Pang!, which did the identical factor. In lieu of a background, they only slapped unrelated pictures of, like, the Taj Mahal behind the motion. It at all times appeared uncomfortably bizarre to me after I was a child, and that’s the sensation I get right here.

So as to add to that, all of the platforms within the sport are simply summary blocks of various colours. Each infrequently, you get one thing with just a little extra effort to it, like platforms manufactured from pencils or large eggplants, however they’re moderately sparse. Primarily, you’re simply blocks that appear to be placeholders. In a method, this provides the sport an ethereal, dream-like (if not totally monotonous) high quality. The truth that all of the exits are simply fashionable Japanese-style entrance doorways simply provides to this.

In the meantime, the music sounds just like the soundtrack to a sequence of journey promo movies.

And, by the best way, the HUD being so near the center of the display screen is the way it’s alleged to look. That isn’t a glitch on my model of the sport or one thing.

Fish hooks

I don’t have any laborious information, however I don’t assume Umihara Kawase did all that properly throughout its 1995 launch in Japan. That’s sort of unsurprising as a result of I don’t know the way you draw consideration to a sport like this. In a market stuffed with jump-guys and shoot-guys, just a little lady with a backpack and fishing rod isn’t what folks are likely to search for. The developer, TNN, appears to have solely executed one different sport earlier than ceasing to exist. At that time, the important thing workers members fashioned Studio Saizensen, who’re maybe greatest identified over right here for Code of Princess.

Umihara Kawase would proceed on with Studio Saizensen, first following up with Umihara Kawase Shun in 1997 on PS1, then Sayonara Umihara Kawase in 2013 on 3DS, with Umihara Kawase Contemporary being the newest launch in 2020. Whereas, once more, I don’t have any gross sales information, I’m assuming that the sequence is being saved alive by a cult following and the studio’s personal ardour.

And whereas no writer was courageous sufficient to launch the video games in North America till Yumi’s Odd Odyssey in 2013, all of the titles are actually accessible on PC through Steam. The unique Umihara Kawase even made it to the Change’s On-line service, however solely in Japan. Contemplating the sport is totally playable with no need a translation, it’s just a little unusual that it hasn’t made it to different areas, however possibly Nintendo will repair that sooner or later as a result of extra folks have to play this weird sport.

Actually, although, when you’re within the sequence, both Sayonara Umihara Kawase or Umihara Kawase Contemporary are higher beginning factors. The rubber-band physics don’t change an entire lot throughout the sequence, however each these video games supply higher development. You’ll be able to be taught the fundamentals from these friendlier experiences earlier than your fish grappling expertise are put to the check.

For different retro titles you could have missed, click on proper right here!