Kurupoto: Cool Cool Stars - Nintendo DS

Kids loved it.

I bought this game mostly because the characters were drawn in a cute chibi style and nobody seemed to know it existed. There have been a bunch of good, quirky puzzle games for the DS this year, and Kurupoto was cheap enough that it was worth a chance. I am somewhat sad to report that it's not very good.There's a very short story mode (with some of the lamest translation you're likely to encounter this year) and five tiers of puzzles to solve (there are about 200 puzzles in all, none of which will take more than five minutes to solve if you've ever played a puzzle game before), all with a simple gameplay mechanic somewhere between the old marble-in-labyrinth puzzles and the old Tomy puzzles where you have to get the metal balls into the dimples in the bottom of the box. Theoretically, the game is about restoring the stars to their original places in the sky, and there's a astronomical and astrological component to the game, but it's unclear why a given constellation belongs to a given set of puzzles, and the difficulty level at any point seems to be set more or less randomly. About the only thing the game has going for it is that there are a lot of puzzles to solve, and the gameplay is smooth and snappy, once you tweak the settings a little bit. That said, I made it all the way through in under 4 hours.The whole thing feels phoned in, from the endlessly recycled background graphics to the generic music. There are also a few glitches and bugs, but nothing bad enough to impede the flow of the game -- just enough to remind you that the game's not fully baked. Nobody on the project ever sat down to think about how the whole thing was supposed to hang together, which would be fine if the gameplay were sufficient on its own (nobody plays Tetris for its plot), but as it is, it almost feels like the designers didn't have enough respect for anyone playing the game to think through what the were doing.I spent some time rooting around on the Japanese website for the original developer of the game (Starfish SD) and got the feeling that this was a quickly thrown together game targeted at a younger audience. The results show the danger of thinking of kid gamers as less sophisticated, because they're just as likely -- if not more -- to get bored with this cheesy piece of shovelware. If you've got a young kid who's new to video games, he or she is probably better off with something like Disney Meteos (or the original); if you're a grownup, you'll probably have much more fun with something like Puzzle Quest or Puzzle Challenge World League (or Meteos, for that matter), where you can play with friends and add a little strategy to the mix.

I picked up this game the other day, and I have to say, it's adorable! The images are cute and I love that there is not a time on the puzzles. I hate timed puzzles. As for music, personally, I don't care to think much about the music in games since I usually have the sound off and I'm listening to my own :/Though I will agree, the puzzles are easy. If you want something that will take a lot of thought, this isn't the game for you. If you're looking for a cute and fun game that you can play without thought, this is a good choice. Very kiddish, bright colors, cute short story mode, but loads of extra puzzles. I found this game enjoyable overall and I'd recommend it for younger children or if you're looking for something to do when bored :)

What a wonderful puzzle game. It's simple to play, and has no time limit so it's very relaxing. The storyline was poorly translated to English, but that's part of the appeal of the game. It adds another layer of cute for the little cube Kurupoto guys. I highly recommend this to puzzle fans.