The only American-made title in Japan's WiiWare launch lineup, Critter Round-Up will be making its way to the U.S. WiiWare service next Monday. The game has players doing exactly what the title suggests -- rounding up critters. Since the game's already out in Japan and is due in the U.S. shortly, 1UP spent some hands-on time with the finished product on display at last night's Konami press event.
Eurogamer writes: "It's always nice to be surprised (unless the surprise involves a clown shining a torch in your face in the middle of the night) and MaBoShi is a very surprising game. It's a quiet, unassuming little thing, sitting there on the Wii Shop shelf and doing very little to alert you to the evil genius lurking behind its obscure title.
It's a compound word, you see, made up of the abbreviated Japanese words for Ball (maru), Stick (bou) and Square (shikaku), and these are the geometric shapes around which the three mini-games within revolve. Often literally. As the suffix suggests, this is a game made up of three parts - one game for each shape, all using minimal controls. The Ball game involves a constantly rotating sphere trapped in a wooden circle. Pressing the A button reverses the direction of the rotation, and you must use this basic Newtonian concept to manoeuvre the ball around the play area, hitting tiny enemies before they can escape."
A teeth-grindingly stupid premise belies a few okay gameplay ideas. But you're better off getting your animal/puzzle fix from Toki Tori.
You'll love:
- Animals have behavioral quirks
- Powerups add a little depth
- "Funny" premise
You'll hate:
- Killer chickens... yeah
- Mostly just Qix, plus fluff
- Irritating herding-work
1UP writes: "Don't expect many surprises with Critter Round-Up -- its delightfully literal title delivers the long and short of this WiiWare animal-wrangling venture, which owes an unexpected debt to 1981 arcade classic Qix. Instead of claiming territory on a playfield (like in that Taito hit), Critter Round-Up has your unnamed protagonist fencing in various animals without mixing species, all the while avoiding contact with said critters. The ability to produce fences at a rapid pace hardly tops my wish list of fantastical videogame powers, but Critter Round-Up parlays that odd premise into a pretty traditional arcade-style experience, with power-ups, a cumulative score, and a limited number of lives."
