Dom Robinson reviews

Price: £29.99 Players: 1-4 Kuru what? Kurukuru Kururin, that's what. The first word is a phrase to describe the sound of something spinning and the second is the name of the character who control piloting a special helicopter represented by a spinning stick. It's a maze game in which you have to guide a spinning stick round one getting from A to B, avoiding the sides, changing direction with the use of strategically-placed springs and topping up your energy (that lost by hitting the sides) by guiding it over big patterned areas as shown in the screenshots. I've only taken part in the one-player game, but up to four Gameboy Advances can be linked together with only one gamepak in use, which makes a welcome change from games used in previous consoles that always required a gamepak in every handheld just so they could make some extra money.

Basic but colourful is the best way to describe the graphics here and they move with great fluidity as you move your stick around, although at times when I'm going around a bend I get the feeling that it would be easier with an analogue joystick instead of a D-pad. The backing music is a bit of the plinkety-plonk variety but can be catchy with it. It's best heard through headphones as opposed to the standard speakers. Sound FX don't amount to much more than bashing against the sides and the voice that says "Start" when you set off.

If you don't want to keep running round the numerous levels, whether in the usual 'adventure' mode or a practice, you can try the 'challenge', made up of ten levels with five mini-courses each, collecting prizes as you go, but most of the courses need a fair bit of lateral planning. Overall, it's one of those games that infuriate you at first, making you put your GBA down in frustration because you can't complete the levels. Then you pick it up and try it again... and again, until you crack it.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.