Review of Kororipna - WiiTalk

lordofthepants · 21-05-2007, 12:58 PM

As far as I can tell there has been next to zero comment on the game "Kororinpa" on this forum. That could be because no-one cares, but since I recently had chance to play it, thanks to the wonders of online rental, I thought I'd give it a little review for anyone curious.

Main thought: A challenging, frustrating and ultimately unrewarding game that may please puzzle fans, but not many others.

I have to admit I wasn't particulary keen on playing this, but was curious to see what it was like. The basic point of the game is to guide various novelty balls around various mazes, all the while collecting coloured gems. This is achieved by tilting the maze (using the Wiimote) and avoiding falling off the edges. The reward for a successful level is to unlock the next level, and those that also find the special green gems unlock secret levels as well.

In terms of graphics and gameplay I can't really fault Kororinpa. It certainly looks nice enough within the restrictions of the Wii, and the game feels highly realistic in responding to your movements.

Fine, but the problem is that this is the ONLY point of the game. Manage your way round the maze and you get another maze to manage, then another, and so it goes on. The game does reward good play with unlockable balls such as a small round penguin that "makes cute noises", but, as a macho macho man I didn't find that all too exciting.

I think your experience of this game would depend on the kind of game you like. If you like challenging puzzles that may require going over ond over again to get right, then this will be for you. For such a person, completing levels is its own reward, and there are high score tallies on each level so you can try and better yourself. For me, however, I tried for a couple of hours and then just got totally fed up with seeing my mini basketball plummet to a grizley (off screen) death.

Dare I say it, I suspect Kororinpa is really one for the girls. That and the Japanese, who seem to have a fixation with little balls making their way through bizarre mazes. That, and driving trains.

Personally then I'd give it 6/10 - not one to try unless you really enjoy this sort of thing or can get it free!

TheKeyboardDemon · 12-09-2007, 11:33 PM

I have been playing this game for a while now, and I do in part agree with you about the only rewards seem to be moving on to the next level. However there is more to the game than you make out. I'm not sure how far through you got, but I can see each level getting progressively harder and I suspect that real progress in the game can only come after having unlocked more of the special balls and then going back and repeating earlier levels to beat your times and get all gold cups. I also supsect that all gold finishes will result in more features being unlocked, though I doubt there would be any big surprises other than more levels or balls.

I think in all 6/10 is still a reasonable apraisal of the game though.

Ricksta7 · 12-09-2007, 11:41 PM

My Fiancee wanted this game, we saw a few reviews on it and opted to look around for something else. If it goes down to about £15 I would consider it.

Wiinter · 12-09-2007, 11:43 PM

Well based on your reviews guys i can say that i amnot surprised that there hasnt been a discussion on this game so far. I hate this type of game. I remember playing the minigame in Rayman Raving Rabbids and it was damn frustrating.

ms sparkle · 13-09-2007, 09:24 AM

oh no im glad this came up as i was going to get it from virgin with the bogof that they have, glad i left it, so will now save my money for something else.

OogieBoogie · 13-09-2007, 10:24 AM

I'm ok with this game. I find it quite relaxing, and when I've completed a level I'll try it with one of the more difficult balls. And there's a bit of a fight going on as to who has the quickest time on each level. It's hardly the most taxing of games, but it's ok.

bootnut · 21-09-2007, 10:47 AM

i disagree, i think the game is brilliant. Iv been raving about it since the day i picked it up. the only thing that let it done was the amount of mazes, you can press 2 or press and hold 2 to flip the mazes, to get up the hidden mazes and also flip these hidden mazes into mirror mode.

Winning music was a bit of a dead area for me, since i play most games to my own music cds.

Winning balls was good, the panda ball is great if your new to the game, the charlie ball presents a whole new challenge for the experts.

Trying to break your records and win the gold medals was great fun too, since it doesn't give you a target time, you have to go as fast as you can, maybe only win silver, then work out where you can shave seconds off to get that gold.

I think it deserved a point or more, as said before the only thing missing was the lack of mazes, would of been nice to have a couple of hundred or something.

Im no good at reviews, but i think i summed up that some boys do like it, i cant wait for a second game. I think it works so well on wii, much better than monkeys balls

TheKeyboardDemon · 22-09-2007, 05:17 AM

I was playing this last night, and played some of the Road levels, these are incredibly well designed levels which are both fun and addictively challenging. I think I'm getting more into this game, particularly as it's 1 of those games that you can just pick up and play.

bootnut · 24-09-2007, 02:19 PM

Wait untill you try the final space level (i think its the last one) its epic!

wii_man76 · 24-09-2007, 04:07 PM

I've not heard much about this game either, now that I have read your review I can see why!

It's not my sort of game so I wont be trying it, but it was great to read a review so we can all see if this game is any good or not.

Great review, shame the game isn't as good!