So... this is a bit of a tough one because I've already made a post raving about the first Umihara Kawase game. You can read it right here. In it, I wrote about how the SNES hidden gem expertly trains the player in its unique grapple hook mechanics and encourages them to speedrun, and how ahead of its time the game feels in that aspect. So instead of just restating everything I said in that post, I'll try to add on with some of the best aspects of Umihara Kawase that I haven't touched upon as much. I'd recommend reading my "How Umihara Kawase Teaches You To Speedrun" post before reading this to get all the context you need.
So, let's start with the elephant in the room. Umihara Kawase got a sequel on the PS1 called Umihara Kawase Shun, and it's just as good if not better than the original. While the rope physics in the original SFC game are undoubtedly a technical marvel, Shun improves the grapple physics further and makes them feel far more intuitive and easy to get a grasp on. As a result, Shun generally feels quite a bit easier and more forgiving than its predecessor without losing the series' distinctive sense of challenge. It also adds even more rooms and routes to explore, a bunch of preset high scores encouraging you to speedrun even more, and even introduces a Practice Mode to the series. It may not do anything particularly new, but Umihara Kawase Shun refines the great grapple hook gameplay that made the original SNES classic so fun, and surpasses it as a result. But the best thing is that there's actually a collection of both the original game and Shun on the Nintendo DS in the form of Umihara Kawase Shun - Second Edition - Kanzenban. This is the definitive way to play both games in my eyes, the physics are left completely untouched, but there's also a ton of additions like improved music for the SNES game, more stages in Shun, second screen support, and some cute art galleries.
I praised both Umihara Kawase games for how well they encourage you to speedrun, but I don't think I really hammered home just how fun their gameplay is on a base level. Something you should know about me is that I love grappling hooks in video games, and I especially love physics-based grappling hooks. And out of everything I've played, no game has a more realistic and weighty grappling hook than the Umihara Kawase games, they are the peak of this kind of gameplay in my eyes. There is no automation here, the movement is entirely player-driven. You need to shoot the grappling line at the right spot, you need to build up momentum any way you can, and you need to manually maneuver yourself to make it to your destination. And there's so many ways to use the grappling hook in Umihara Kawase, it's so versatile. You can plant the hook in the ground, reel back, and use it as a slingshot. You can swing around and up a ledge. You can even scale walls with the grappling hook with enough careful precision. Umihara Kawase is a tough game with a steep learning curve when it comes to the controls, but the sheer amount of movement options you get thanks to Umihara's fishing line is unparalleled.
But what really completes the Umihara Kawase games for me is the presentation. Umihara Kawase and Umihara Kawase Shun have these uniquely surrealist artstyles that feel almost like a collage of random items ranging from pencils to baskets to fish. It feels like a world that only a child would come up, and that's exactly the point! The Umihara Kawase is meant to encapsulate childhood wonder and innocence, and you can feel that philosophy in every aspect in its design. It's why the world feels so playful and toy-like, it's why you have so much freedom to use your grappling hook, and it's why the soundtrack is so comfy and laid-back. As I said in my previous post about these games, "My favorite trivia piece about Umihara Kawase is that some stage numbers are purposefully skipped to create the feeling that, even if you've seen everything the game has to offer, you still only feel like you've seen a piece of Umihara's vast world". And let's get back to that soundtrack for a bit, because it's genuinely fantastic. The Umihara Kawase games have incredibly upbeat, cozy, and heartwarming soundtracks composed by Pas De Chat, Shinji Tachikawa, and Atsuhiro Motoyama of Kuru Kuru Kururin fame. Pretty much every track is incredible, but special mention goes to Kawanabe, Taki, Hatoba, Tama River, and Beach.
Side tangent, but Umihara's development is also just utterly fascinating and I need to talk about it. Frankly, the whole series is chock-full of silly fun facts from behind the scenes. Did you know that Umihara Kawase got a PSP port so bad it was boycotted in Japan? Or that it featured in a GameCenter CX episode where the character designer sent Arino faxes of Umihara getting progressively more impatient with him? But anyway, the first two games were essentially indie projects before indie games were really a thing, solely made by a small team of developers and funded by a TV program. The original PS1 version of Shun even has actual advertisements in it, likely so the devs were able to even release it to begin with. Eventually, the series got passed around a bit before settling in at... ugh... Nicalis. Unfortunately, Nicalis do not have the best track record when it comes to their treatment of their IPs or employees, so I can't say I feel too comfortable with Umihara being in their hands. However, to give credit where credit is due, Umihara Kawase has never been this successful and prolific, at least outside of Japan. She got three more games (Sayonara, Fresh, Bazooka), the original game and Shun were released on Steam worldwide, and she got to be a part of crossovers with a bunch of other indie icons like Isaac, Quote and Curly, Gunvolt, and even freaking Shovel Knight. The coolest thing about Umihara Kawase right now is that it's pretty much become a sister series to cult classic cute-em-up Cotton, who also received a recent resurgence in popularity. As of right now, both Umihara's developer Studio Saizensen and Cotton's developer Success are pretty much connected by the hip and collaborate on games in both series, and as a fan of both Umihara Kawase and Cotton, that just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
Overall, I think I put it best in that first Umihara Kawase post when I said this: "Umihara Kawase for the Super Famicom might just be one of the best
pre-Ico pieces of proof for the "video games are art" argument.
Everything about the game is meant to evoke feelings of childlike
wonder, freedom, and expression, from the freeform grappling mechanics,
to the surreal fish enemies, to the smattering of random objects like
pencils around the stages, to that absolutely lovely soundtrack. It's a truly thoughtfully put together gem with a unique style and vibe unlike anything else on the console." And its sequel Shun is no exception, it feels just as lovingly crafted and serves as a perfect compliment to that original game. Combined, they make for two of my favorite indie gems of all time.
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