Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

The second game in the Ninja Usagimaru series, The Mysterious Karakuri Castle is a Puzzle-Platformer released on Nintendo 3DS in 2016. In this game, players must push, pull, lift and throw blocks to have them land on monsters and create a safe path for both the players and kidnapped maidens they need to rescue and bring back to a shrine.

This game reuses most of the gameplay and many presentation elements from the first Ninja Usagimaru game, and as such I will be copy-pasting much of my review of that game here. The main differences in this installment are more variety in enemy designs, as well as a few new items (a pinwheel you can use as a temporary save point and a rope you can use to cross gaps). Otherwise, this is a nearly-identical experience.

The core gameplay design and puzzle design here are fantastic, with some really fiendish levels that will have you thinking. Unfortunately, the difficulty curve is kinda’ messed up, with the puzzles being difficult pretty much right from the start. A part of this is due to the game’s control issues – your character seems sluggish to start moving when you press in a direction, and then often goes too far. When this game’s levels require a very specific solution, this can mean having to restart the entire level because the game messed up and had you overshooting on your movement.

The presentation here is charming, at the very least, featuring detailed 2D pixel art visuals backed by a traditional Japanese-inspired acoustic soundtrack. While there’s nothing technically impressive going on here, this game does a good job highlighting its theme.

Overall, I think that like the first game, The Mysterious Karakuri Castle has some excellent qualities, but it’s once again brought down by a slew of frustrations, with sharp difficulty spikes and frustrating controls. As a result, I think this is a game that may be enjoyed by the more patient fans of the genre, but most are probably better off looking elsewhere.

tl;dr – The Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle, like its predecessor, is a Puzzle-Platformer where players take on the role of a samurai saving village girls from malevolent spirits. Not much has changed in this sequel – once again, this game has excellent puzzle design, but is brought down by its difficulty spikes and poor controls. Overall, the game still has its positive qualities, but only more patient fans of the genre will likely enjoy it.

Grade: C

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