Stream: Umihara Kawase fangames pt1
6The SNES cult classic Umihara Kawase has spawned several sequels and spinoffs over the years, but there's only a few indie games that are direct homages to it. In this stream I check out the main ones that I know about.
Tower of Wireaholic, 2022, Sabineko Punch. This recent PC game by longtime Kawase fan Waai takes the rubber-wire gameplay and makes a single, huge, continuous level. It's about mastering those mechanics just to climb to the top; if you're really good you can do it all in 3 minutes! After 40 minutes I was only half way up and not getting any closer so I moved on.
Kaban-chan Chirari, 2017, Sabineko Punch. Waai's earlier game moreso takes on the structure of a traditional Kawase game, but substitutes the characters for ones from Kemono Friends. This is mostly cosmetic but is occasionally used for some unique gameplay opportunities, like grappling onto non-hostile jumping or flying characters. Although it gets very hard at times (just like the official games) it's a very well-made Kawase clone! I showed off a few of the level "sets", including (I think) the freely distributed extra level pack.
Ganbare Natsuki-san, 2006, Alpha Secret Base. This indie game originally released on Xbox 360 apes the aesthetics of the classic UK games but comes up with a new novel traversal mechanic: the spring loaded, rotating anchor. Once you get the hang of it this works really well and there's some devious puzzle action throughout its 50 levels. I played a handful just to show it off.
Umihara Kawase Community Christmas Challenge, 2019, vervalkon. A romhack made by a small group of fans for the 25th anniversary of the series. It has five interesting new levels plus a stupidly hard boss fight that has a tendency to crash the game. With a lot of trial and error (plus savestates and rewinding, and a tipoff from Gibbon to a strategy in a playthrough video) I actually managed to beat it!
You can buy Tower of Wireaholic and Kaban-chan Chirari from Waai's Booth profile: https://sabinekopunch.booth.pm/
Get Ganbare Natsuki-san here: (archive link to a a direct download of 1.04 PC version): https://web.archive.org/web/201811051...
Get the Umihara Kawase Community Christmas Challenge hack here: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6355/
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