Umihara Kawase - Michika's Challenge! (GameandMaim)
8Originally Published on Jul 22, 2016
Here I am re-uploading the series 'Michika's Challenge!' where Michika and I took on a series of classic games. These were all originally posted on the GameandMaim channel which an be found here: http://ow.ly/SJVG30dlNi8
Original description:
"Michika goes head to head with the unique puzzle platformer Umihara Kawase! Can she get all the fish in her backpack before she's turned to fish food? Watch and find out!
Have a game you'd like to see us try? Leave your suggestions in the comments below!
Come check out my Tumblr as well for more game, manga and anime related things! http://letsgameuploads.tumblr.com/
Umihara Kawase (海腹川背) is a series of platform games, starring a nineteen-year-old Japanese school girl, Kawase Umihara (海腹 川背 Umihara Kawase), who has somehow become lost in a world of mutated salt-water and fresh-water creatures. She wears her school uniform along with a bright pink rucksack. The Umihara Kawase games' main distinction are their tranquil fish and bird infested worlds and the rope physics, which defines the gameplay.
The name is written as four kanji characters: umi, hara, kawa, se meaning sea, belly, river, back. This is an extraction from a Japanese kitchen idiom "Sea fish are fat in the belly; river fish are fat in the back.".
The protagonist was first seen in the eponymous Super Famicom release of 1994 and later the sequel and re-release of Umihara Kawase Shun for the PlayStation in 1997 and 2000.
The game world of Umihara Kawase is constructed from a set of interconnected levels known as fields. Each field connects to one or more fields deeper within the game via doors.
Fields are enclosed areas containing a number of static and moving platforms, ladders, spikes, enemy sea-life and one or more exit doors. The doors are often positioned in hard to reach places and it is the player's goal to plan a safe route to one. Each exit door in a field takes the player to a different field, and the goal is to find a safe route through the fields and arrive at a final exit door (at which point the credits scroll and the game is over). Each of the Umihara Kawase games contains multiple routes through the fields and multiple final exits. Using shortcuts and optimised door routes can allow the game to be completed within minutes in the hands of a skilled player; however, enjoyment of the game typically lies not in merely making it to the first or easiest final exit door, but in exploring the game's many routes and mastering the challenging rope physics.
The Umihara Kawase games have simple controls. The protagonist is able to run, jump, climb onto ledges, climb ladders and, crucially, throw her fishing line. When thrown, the fishing line will hook onto nearly all surfaces within the games. When the line is firmly hooked onto a surface or an enemy fish the line is able to take her weight. From here Umihara is able to swing between platforms, lower herself down to other ledges and swing herself up to higher ledges. Due to the flexible nature of her line she can also catapult herself great distances by stretching the line to breaking point. The line can also be used to stun fish and reel them in, and once reeled in Umihara will store them in her rucksack and score points in doing so.
While the controls are simple and responsive, an uncompromising physics model means that graceful control of the game's swinging techniques will not come immediately. Out of this, though, comes great scope for advanced techniques through full utilization of the physics. Perfect execution of techniques such as the one- and two-step rocket jump are required both in later fields and for those who intend to improve their field completion times.
The games contain 1ups in the shape of Umihara's pink rucksack but no other collectibles are present.
Umihara Kawase is the first game in the series released in 1994 for the Super Famicom. Umihara Kawase contains a total of 49 fields of which four are exit fields and six are boss fields. The game makes good use of the SFC's colour palette for digitized photographic backgrounds. The rope physics sometimes strain the Super Famicom's CPU, leading to slowdown, but this is rare. The game permits saving speedruns, establishing such play as a principle feature of the series."
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At present, wageofsins has 159 views spread across 1 video for Umihara Kawase, with his channel publishing less than an hour of Umihara Kawase content. This makes up less than 0.18% of the total overall content on wageofsins's YouTube channel.