Keroro Gunsou is a very popular franchise in Japan who invaded the world of animes, mangas and has a huge merchandising around the country. It received a game for Nintendo DS (which was released in 2009) by Namco Bandai Games. It is a platform/action game featuring all the main characters of the show on a very exciting level design!Basic Gameplay
The game let the player choose from 5 characters to play throughout the level, each one with its exclusive abilities:
- Keroro: the green frog, who can catch and throw objects with a ray, which remember the game Klonoa a lot.
- Kururu: the yellow frog, who can glide after jumping, paralyze enemies and (this is very cool!) confuse enemies and control them with the directional.
- Tamama: the gray frog, who resembles a lot the alex-kid gameplay (with punches, destroying everything). He can also break the ground and punch enemies up.
- Giroro: the red frog, who uses a double shoot pistol and grenades (the gameplay feels like metal slug).
- Dororo: the blue frog, who can hang in the walls and (this is also cool!) clone himself in 2 shadows (one on the left and other on the right).
- Keroro: the green frog, who can catch and throw objects with a ray, which remember the game Klonoa a lot.
- Kururu: the yellow frog, who can glide after jumping, paralyze enemies and (this is very cool!) confuse enemies and control them with the directional.
- Tamama: the gray frog, who resembles a lot the alex-kid gameplay (with punches, destroying everything). He can also break the ground and punch enemies up.
- Giroro: the red frog, who uses a double shoot pistol and grenades (the gameplay feels like metal slug).
- Dororo: the blue frog, who can hang in the walls and (this is also cool!) clone himself in 2 shadows (one on the left and other on the right).
Each one has its own special power, activated by using a badge that is a collectable item, but you will never use it (laughs). There are levels that may require a single character, others that let you choose between 2 or 3, and others that are suited for all the characters. The layout of the world map let you get cutscenes/optional sub-boss fights and extra levels in a very flexible/non-linear way.
Level Design
This game is a lot fast-paced: there are loads of short goals that are very simple and fast to accomplish, you are always busy with something fun and it is difficult to stop playing! Consider this example: you are walking, then you are asked to kill 3 enemies, after that a door opens, you jump through the platforms and press two switches at the same time, this will unveil a flag, you get that flag, then you see a box, get it and drop it to reach the higher platform in which you attach your flag in the slot. You never stop, and you urge to get to the next level, what feels very good. The main goal of the level is to catch all the flags and put them on the indicated slots.
The levels not only make great use of the character abilities but also include a good amount of item interactions, which are trivial to the genre but necessary to keep the flow nice (boxes, switches, bombs and everything else you already know). The designers also did a great job on the level metrics: distances, item positioning and challenge positioning are very well balanced. These challenges are most about timing (e.g.: a platform is moving around thunder rays, you have to press the switch to power it off before you get a shock).
The annoying thing is the enemy respawn timing. After you kill an enemy , it will respawn in a matter of 4-5 seconds, which can be totally irritating when trying to climb platforms full of enemies (you jump, get a hit, and fall so that you have to restart). But it is a necessary mechanics since keroro needs to use them to get impulse on jump and so on. There are more than 100 levels, and 30% of them takes more than 10 minutes to finish, so you have a great life span there.
Mini-games
There are some tricky and fun mini-games like shooting enemies to make them step back and not reach your base and a traditional space shooter game involving both screens. They add good value to the game, but unfortunately they do not appear so often.
Bosses
The sub-boss fights are easy and fast, which is good to take a break from the levels' freakness. But they can become very repetitive as well. Boss fights involve a good use of timing and infiltration strategies that are very fun to deal with.
They also provide a good number of intuitive visual feedbacks so that you can react accordingly and have more control over the fight (yes, the game let you give your best).
Graphics
Great in-game animations, great pixel-art in the cutscenes (loyal to the anime) and well-done visual effects (mainly during boss fights).
The annoying thing is the enemy respawn timing. After you kill an enemy , it will respawn in a matter of 4-5 seconds, which can be totally irritating when trying to climb platforms full of enemies (you jump, get a hit, and fall so that you have to restart). But it is a necessary mechanics since keroro needs to use them to get impulse on jump and so on. There are more than 100 levels, and 30% of them takes more than 10 minutes to finish, so you have a great life span there.
Mini-games
There are some tricky and fun mini-games like shooting enemies to make them step back and not reach your base and a traditional space shooter game involving both screens. They add good value to the game, but unfortunately they do not appear so often.
Bosses
The sub-boss fights are easy and fast, which is good to take a break from the levels' freakness. But they can become very repetitive as well. Boss fights involve a good use of timing and infiltration strategies that are very fun to deal with.
They also provide a good number of intuitive visual feedbacks so that you can react accordingly and have more control over the fight (yes, the game let you give your best).
Graphics
Great in-game animations, great pixel-art in the cutscenes (loyal to the anime) and well-done visual effects (mainly during boss fights).
Final Words
For platform/action game lovers it is a must-have. There are lots of short and long levels (so you can play in the bus and at home, respectivelly), very rewarding and non-stop gameplay. You will get angry sometimes but it is worth the perseverance. Sometimes you will get tired of the levels, but they get more varied with time as well.
For platform/action game lovers it is a must-have. There are lots of short and long levels (so you can play in the bus and at home, respectivelly), very rewarding and non-stop gameplay. You will get angry sometimes but it is worth the perseverance. Sometimes you will get tired of the levels, but they get more varied with time as well.
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