For my first, proper post, I'll be talking about the first in my favorite platformer series, Umihara Kawase, originally for Super Famicom. Despite the publicity it's been getting recently, the series remained rather obscure, heck if I'm not mistaken, I'm the only one who has done 100% let's plays of the first and third game. The game gained a cult following owing to its swinging mechanics, crushing difficulty, and surreal art style.
The gameplay relies on a fishing hook which latches onto any hard surfaces like a grappling hook, and you can shorten and extend the line by holding down and up on the d-pad. Comparisons has been made with Bionic Commando, but the two don't work the same way; the line has rubbery physics which is largely capable of propelling Umihara in crazy angles. This is in part what makes the difficulty, and is the main appeal of the series, you need to master the technique of pendulum-like swings and release the button at the right timing to get accross large gaps, scale up walls, and even take shortcuts.
The levels are riddled with murderous, giant fish, as Umihara is searching for ingredients for making sushi, quite the dedicated chef. While they can be stunned by hooking onto them, and can be reeled into the backpack to defeat them permanently, most can instant-kill you by contact, and they can be located in places causing big hindrances, such as the eels throwing nuts at you, stunning you off the edge, and the snails crawling around key platforms, so this again means you need to master the fishing hook to properly avoid their attacks. Defeating them may make more fish to spawn randomly, but sometimes they may appear right in your face, which is kind of lame right here. There are even multiple levels where the key is to NOT defeat enemies, otherwise clams have the room to spawn in, they are easily the worst enemies in the game, even the sharks won't approach them. There are also boss fights, but a few of them are about dodging an even bigger enemy until the path is cleared, which I'd say is not an highlight since it gets kind of tedious.
Most of the levels have a squarish design, and while they may have a linear path, they can be approached in any ways you may imagine. Above is Field 10; you start on the lower left, the door to the right, and there are multiple ladders to take, with enemies to worry about, but what I always do is grabbing onto the underside of the platforms above the water, skipping all of the above, and in about 10 seconds, reach for the door. The game really doesn't care which method you take, all for the better, it just shows how much depth the gameplay has.
The game is set in an expansive labyrinth of sort; it's not that you can take a wrong turn and go in circles, but instead a good portion of the levels have multiple doors (level exits) to take, leading to different levels. You always boot the game in Field 0, with 10 lives, and you'll need all of them as the levels become even harder, and a game over puts you back at the beginning. There are extra lives to collect, but the multiple paths help diversify your playthroughs, and while they may cross at certain levels, you always have a mean towards one of the three main endings, but taking an easy-to-reach door may prep you for a much more arduous level.
While I don't mind that setup in concept, and I do like the survival aspect, this mechanic still makes it so that you have to redo the same levels multiple times if you wish to see everything in the game. The first few levels are quickly done with practice, but the worst offender has to be the Tadpole in Field 8, this boss just takes so long to beat as you need to survive for about 3 minutes, and many of the levels has you take that specific path.
As it may have been insinuated by the above statements, there are no way to save your progress. The difficulty is not the problem, but rather, like Kid Chameleon on Genesis, part of the fun is trying to see every levels since they become even crazier as you go on, but since there are no means to record them, it's kind of a wasted opportunity. Still though, it's perfectly playable the way it is.
As for what I previously said about "games having their own distinct identity", not only does Umihara Kawase has super fun physics to master, but the aesthetics are very unique; this is a case where, if I would see a screenshot even without the characters, I could say "I know what this is from". Already the whole water theme with the freshwater and salt water fish and backgrounds representing either a riverbank or a port appeal to me, but the levels have weird features like giant vegetables, school supplies, and the checkered platforms. I've been told that the cheerful soundtrack pairing with the theme gets redundant at times, but there were a good couple of songs that stuck to me. Compared to the many Nintendo platformers of the time, this is such a breath of fresh air to see something as wildly different as this.
Umihara Kawase also has a replay feature where you can record your best performances, and albeit the memory was limited, from what I've heard, it was quite a novelty back in the day.
The Steam version expands upon the game; first, there's a practice mode, where you can play any of the levels you've unlocked, showcasing every doors and backpacks found. It still means you have to go through the game normally to unlock them, but this is what I meant by getting the most out of the game. The replay feature also has been simplified, there's more room to save drafts, and you can even upload them in the Workshop.
Another of Umihara Kawase's appeal is its speedcentric elements, with the replay feature it encourages you to go for the best times in each levels, and doors do have their own best times. Seeing the performance of veterans is quite a sight to behold.
Really, this game deserves even more love than it's already getting, its gameplay is very unique in itself, and the challenge is surely there. It's a game requiring a lot of practice, but the commitment is well worth it.
If it wasn't for its cult following, it could've just faded in obscurity. There was even a point where the trilogy on Steam got de-listed, only 2-3 months after release, due to Agatsuma Entertainment having closed its doors. These games eventually came back, thanks to Degica, but it's a reminder that, in this era of downloadable games, something could very well just go away, any day, and it's all the more reason why I'd keep on promoting these types of games.
I admit this was quite lengthy, but I truly do care about this game, might as well do a good first article about it.
Source
Field map by Naulahauta: http://kawasefan.net/umihara-kawase-field-maps
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