Kororinpa is, without a doubt, the best example to date when it comes to showing the benefits of the Wii’s motion sensing abilities over an analog stick. Although it essentially controls in the same way as Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz does, it actually feels notably different. In Super Monkey Ball it tended to feel as if you were tilting the Wii remote to move the monkey rather than to manipulate the level itself. It gives you full control of the level too, not just tilting forwards and backwards. This opens up ideas for the kind of level design not possible in Super Monkey Ball. Because the maze can be twisted on its side, walls become platforms and platforms becomes walls just by tilting the remote 90 degrees.
With Kororinpa, holding the remote feels like you are holding the level in your hand. Most importantly, as the marble rolls, bounces and falls it moves exactly how physics intend it to. This is the biggest reason of all why Kororinpa works so well, the physics are accurate and believable enough that failure is always your mistake and not a fault of the game. It’s impossible to blame the controls either given how well the game detects every tiny movement you make, so don’t go playing this if you’ve not got a steady hand.
Does anyone else suddenly feel hungry?
Given the simple nature of the game you would hope that there are loads of options and unlockables to sink your teeth into. Unfortunately, Kororinpa falls short here. The main game is all there is if you’re playing alone, while the multiplayer just consists of a split screen race to the finish line. It’s still fun but it’s essentially the same stuff all over again. On the plus side, Kororinpa really makes the most of what it has got. There are 50 levels in total (45 + 5 unlockable), which is enough without feeling short changed and each of these levels have bronze, silver and gold times to aim for, the latter of which are often a real challenge to beat. Oh, and there are mirror version of each level too.
In each of the levels you’ll find a special green gem. Usually found in tricky to reach places, these are key to unlocking extras like new music and special marbles to use. The new marbles, of which there are 20 in total, are of importance as they each have different attributes making them useful for different situations. The alien ship marble for example moves very quickly which can help achieve those gold time trial awards while the cute pink pig is slower and heavier making it more suited in navigating the devilishly narrow ledges in some of the later stages.
Music is something that usually suffers when it comes to these kinds of low-budget games, but Kororinpa features an abundance of catchy tunes that you’ll often find yourself humming to without even meaning too. The laid-back vibe of the soundtrack is exactly what you need when you’re trying to calm your hand as you’re just a slender platform away from reaching the goal. The Wii remote speaker is used well too, replicating the sound of your glass marble whenever it bounces. Impressively, each of the special marbles have their own sound too. The pig ‘oinks’ the frog ‘croaks’ and the cat ‘meows’.
Spot the ball.
Visually, the game is pleasant to look at, if a little inconsistent. It’s packed full of colour and variety, with the theme of the environments changing frequently. Some of the stages look superb, especially the biscuit themed one which never fails to make you feel hungry as you see a line of pink wafers (you know the ones!) lined up alongside a Jammy Dodger. The different style of marbles is a nice touch too with cats, penguins and footballs ready to take the place of the standard marble if you feel the need. But the dull greys and boxy look of the skyscraper theme, amongst a couple of others, threaten to spoil what is a delightfully colourful game. The game doesn’t support 16:9 but there is a widescreen setting that adds borders like Resident Evil 4 if you want to zoom your TV to fill the screen without squashing things.
After the disappointment that was Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, it’s great to see Kororinpa getting things right. The controls show exactly how the Wii remote should be used for these types of games and is the biggest reason why you should give it a go if Sega’s game failed to impress - ever since Super Monkey Ball 2, the series has forgotten what made the first game so great in the first place. The original was test of skill, with each level packing an abundance of cleverly placed obstacles, narrow walkways and testing slopes as you battled with your controller to keep yourself from falling off. Now it’s basically a game of ‘find the goal’ with all kinds of unnecessary switch hitting, ball jumping and boss fighting thrown in.
Although, as stated earlier, both games do things slightly differently, Kororinpa contains none of this and is very much a skill-based game in the essence of the first Super Monkey Ball. It’s a little rough around the edges and there’s not much in the way of variety here, but what it does do it does well. It's biggest shortcoming is its length but as it's releasing at a lower price point it's easier to forgive. In fact this whole review can be summed up quite simply – if you like these kinds of games you will like this.
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