And here, I was fearing I was running low on strange anime licenses for these little
Friday sessions of ours. Almost had to start digging into the bargain bins for copies of
Yu-Gi-Oh or some Inu-Yasha nonsense. But our eternal benefactress of interestingly odd
stuff, Felicity in Worcestershire, posted in yet another shipment of consolidated awesome,
allowing me to share with you Doraemon: Aruke Aruke Labyrinth! Which is kinda like a Lemmings-ish
puzzle-ish, wibbly wobbly, anime licensey, substance. Awright, it�s rather difficult
to describe, but damn if it isn�t pretty darn FUN. Watch some footage, and you�ll
get the picture. Hopefully.
This is one of those games that starts with a really nifty idea, and I kinda just want
to dig in, but let�s get some plot out of the way. Nobita and Doraemon obtained a Genie
somehow, it got mad, absconded with Shizuka, you have to rescue her, etc. ON TO THE GAMEPLAY.
In the tradition of Mario & Wario, Rocko�s Modern Life: Spunky�s Dangerous Day, and
any number of other escort-the-dumb-walker-type games, you control a cursor capable of interacting
with your dumb-walker there as well as his immediate surroundings. Each level gives you
the choice of Suneo, Nobita, or Jaiyan, each with a different movement speed. Your only
direct influence over their action is to turn �em around with the A button or speed �em
up with B... the rest of the challenge consists of manipulating the environment to get said
dumb-walker to the goalpost. Along the way, various hazards like weird zombie-looking
things and weird bug-flying-looking things lumber about, but can be summarily swatted
through use of the cursor. Unfortunately, certain enemies like these UFO-looking things
are impervious to your actions and can only be eliminated by MAGIC LIGHTNING FROM THE
HEAVENS. Oh, but watch out for the strange, completely static lightning patches, as you
can�t really do anything about those.
So it�s a little bit Lemmings, a little bit Krusty�s Fun House, a little bit cool
soundtrack and a lotta bit fun to play... if you can get comfortable with the controls.
As you have no control over the camera outside of making your dude walk to a particular place,
part of the challenge comes from being able to quickly and efficiently figure out a path,
deal with any obstacles, and make sure you maintain control... while the frustration
comes from the difficulty of doing all of this on a simple D-Pad. Fortunately, the screen�s
movement doesn�t affect the cursor�s position, so if you have to move three clicks to the
left, it�ll take three clicks despite any movement in the meanwhile. If ever there was
an application for a Game Boy Color Mouse, this would certainly be it. (Just like Lemmings
or Mario & Wario had.) Still, despite some input frustration, the game itself is easy
to pick up and very engaging, especially if you want to go the extra mile and collect
the dorayaki in each stage. Doraemon: Aruke Aruke Labyrinth shines as one of the stars
of Strange Anime License Friday, at least until I get my hands on a copy of Ranma � Ougi
Janken. SOON.