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Umihara Kawase, until 2015, was an "import only" title and I recently gave the original SNES version (simply titled Umihara Kawase, of course) a spin. I thought the concept was intriguing...the young Umihara is a sushi chef (despite looking like she's not a day over 10), and you go around platformers using a fishing pole that retracts and swings around (a bit like Super Metroid and similar titles except a lot more rubbery), but while it was an innovative arcade concept, it wasn't fun. The controls takes some getting used to (press down to retract the line, often to pull yourself up), the game is difficult to the point of being unfair (no saves, no password, no continues, and one shot kills you) as I spent time wandering the first level as elevator music played in the background...and in fact, it IS timed, so just screwing around with the fishing pole will cause you to die eventually even if Umihara doesn't get hurt.

The "sushi" part intrigued me. Cooking games aren't my thing since they tend to be on-rails (nor can you taste or smell your creation) or worse, time management games, but I was hoping that there would be some mechanics in what exactly your mutant fish turned out to be, like a higher value enemy meaning more points, or something. Sadly, the "sushi chef" angle is just a flimsy excuse as to the game's "plot".

I know that if you've heard of Umihara Kawase, you're probably a fan of it and the bad rating will cause you to be unhappy with me (who am I kidding, no one reads this site!) but at some point I might go into PlayStation emulation and give the sequel Umihara Kawase Shun a try since its more puzzle-platformer oriented but with such a bad taste in my mouth from the original I'm not sure.

Box art courtesy MobyGames...fair use.

FINAL RATING:   

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