Genre : Puzzle
Publisher: Konami
Developer: Hudson Soft
Release Date: Spring 2007
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In many ways, Kororinpa: Marble Mania is the quinessential Wii game. It’s got bright, shiny graphics; it’s deceptively simple; it takes about thirty seconds to learn how to play, as long as you have a functioning hand in which to hold the Wii Remote; and it’s strangely addictive. This is another Wii game made for people who don’t ordinarily play video games, although die-hard gamers (like the members of the gaming press who played it at Konami Gamers’ Day) will find a lot to like about it as well.
It’s vaguely reminiscent of Marble Madness, if you happen to remember that game. At the beginning of a level of Kororinpa, a marble’s dropped at the start of a maze. By tilting the Wii Remote to the sides or forward, you can rotate the maze around the marble, guiding it around corners, over gaps, through holes, and finally to the level’s exit. Some corners will require you to turn the maze on its side, or completely upside down.
Along the way, in order to get the exit to work, you have to collect a series of jewels. Some of them are easy to get to. Others… aren’t.
In a way, this is a little like a physics-defying game of pachinko. Kororinpa has enough physics in its engine to make things interesting, so you’ll need serious hand-eye coordination to scoot your marble around all of the available corners. If you screw up and bounce your marble out of the maze, though, you’ll just get dropped back at the beginning of the level with all of your jewels in hand. Kororinpa runs off of a timer, rather than lives or continues, so the only real competition is how fast you can roll through the maze.
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There are twenty different kinds of marbles to choose from, from various kinds of balls to super-deformed penguins, and more than forty stages to play through. I’ve seen a bizarre candyland maze, a few stages based off of highway construction, a cityscape, and a forest, each of which had its own unique challenges.
If the singleplayer mode wears thin, you can play Kororinpa in a two-player racing mode. This wasn’t shown at the event, so it’s anyone’s guess whether it’ll be splitscreen or online, although I think we’re all obviously hoping for the latter.
Kororinpa is another one of those Nintendo games that people tend to hold up as an example of what’s on the system. It’s cutesy as hell, but it has the challenge and intuitive gameplay to attract and keep older players rolling. It’s slated to be out this spring.
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