DONE BY: Hudson

IT’S FOR: Wii

YEAR: 2006

Kororinpa is a ball-rolling game, so of course commentators are quick to hang it on the Marble Madness family tree, with Super Monkey Ball, that indie computer game whose name I forget, and more Super Monkey Ball. And that’s fine! But personally, Kororinpa reminds me, very, very vividly, of the Kuru Kuru Kururin series for GBA and Gamecube.

The stylistic similarities were the first I noticed, of course: Both games feature a particular kind of gorgeously cute music, and matching cute environments, with themed worlds – Kororinpa’s candy and toy worlds struck me as especially Kururin-like. But beyond the happy noises and pretty colours, Kororinpa’s assorted round objects feel just as fragile and delicate as Kururin’s rotating sticks, as you steer them through dangerous mazes – sometimes slowly and timidly navigating a precarious pathway; sometimes waiting patiently, holding your breath, for the exact moment to bolt at full speed from one safe point to the next.

Like Kururin, Kororinpa’s controls are simple and wonderfully precise. I should say control, rather than controls – you just hold the Wii controller horizontally, and tilt it however you want to tilt the maze on your television screen, which of course makes your ball roll around. The game makes full use of the mind-fucking possibilities of this, and will eventually have you balancing your controller at the end of both sets of fingertips, ready to twist and rotate it in any direction. Mazes get turned sideways and upside-down and back again, and the emotional effect is very much like the few lingering seconds you spend at the crest of a rollercoaster, but longer.

Not too much longer though, as Kororinpa’s failing is that it ends just as you feel it’s getting started. Rest assured though that up until it does end, the fun never ends. Rolling around a tiny, round puppy that makes a noise like a bath toy every time it bounces is something I could (and did) do all day, and happily, no matter how many times you send the hapless little bugger falling to his doom, the game does nothing to interrupt your fun – as soon as you die, you’re playing again. It’s astonishing that this is so rare in videogames.

Everything about Kororinpa is friendly. It’s a friendly game. It seems to say, “I’m happy you’re playing me!” And when you meet someone so friendly, it’s hard not to like them back.

One more thing:

Japanese box art:

European box art:

Australian box art:

American box art:

I’m just sayin’.

FINAL SCORE: COOKIES

ALSO: The ‘graphics’ are perfectly lovely, and if you read anything that says otherwise, it was written by a twit.