- May 28, 2020
- Studio Saizensen
Umihara Kawase BaZooKa!
A fun arcade-like party game in the Umihara Kawase series, the fishing rod and lure are back, but crazy knockback animations and underwhelming boss battles make the game drag in parts.
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Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! is a single player and multiplayer action game. It was developed by Studio Saizensen and was released on May 28, 2020. It received neutral reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.
At its core, Umihara Kawase Bazooka!! is a fixed screen action game. Perform combos with the new “Bazooka” action and aim for the high score. With over 40 stages (planned), plenty of challenge awaits. Up to four players can play together in local cooperative or hindrance play. The game also offers a versus battle mode. Up to four players can play against each other, locally or online, and aim for…
- The game features colorful visuals and a great soundtrack, enhancing the overall arcade experience.
- Playing with friends in co-op mode significantly increases the fun factor, making it a recommended experience for multiplayer.
- The character roster is diverse, with interesting abilities, and the game adapts the Umihara Kawase gameplay into a unique format.
- The gameplay can be confusing and difficult to master, especially for beginners, leading to frustration.
- The single-player content is short and repetitive, with levels feeling copy-pasted and lacking depth.
- The PC port has significant issues, including being locked at 720p with no resolution options, and the online multiplayer is often dead or laggy.
- gameplay9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
Gameplay has received mixed reviews, with some players finding it confusing and difficult to adapt to, particularly criticizing the reliance on less favorable mechanics from previous titles. However, others appreciate the adaptation of Umihara Kawase's gameplay into a smash-like format, highlighting its action-oriented focus combined with puzzle elements in fixed arena stages. Overall, while it may not be groundbreaking, fans of arcade-style action-platformers may find it enjoyable despite the high launch price.
“My personal favorite is 'Umihara Kawase Fresh', and 'Bazooka' carries the same art styles, graphics, models, controls, gameplay, and all other kinds of aspects from 'Fresh'.”
“+ It adapts the gameplay of the Umihara Kawase games to a Smash-like game pretty well.”
“Gameplay focuses on action, but also includes some puzzle elements.”
“Gameplay is a bit confusing and kind of hard to get used to.”
“They took the worst mechanic from the original games and made a whole game around it.”
“As for the gameplay itself, it is nothing to write home about - what you see in the trailer is exactly what you get.”
Umihara Kawase BaZooka Review
A fun arcade-like party game in the Umihara Kawase series, the fishing rod and lure are back, but crazy knockback animations and underwhelming boss battles make the game drag in parts.
60%Umihara Kawase Bazooka! Review
Umihara Kawase Bazooka! is a niche title in a niche genre featuring a niche franchise. As arcade-style single-screen action-platformers go, this is a good one with a unique gameplay so fans of that sort of thing should go for it if they can swallow the steep launch price. Anyone else though, including fans of said franchise may have reason enough to be on the fence as this is definitely way different from the rest of the series. This is a rather unique game that will appeal most to score chasers and not the core speedrunning fanbase of the series, although one could imagine speedrunning this all the same of course. There is a demo available but, at time of writing, only on the Japanese eShop for some reason. Players still on the fence with a Japanese eShop account may check it out and decide for themselves.
70%Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! Review
Is Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! fun to play? Sure, a little. It's inoffensive, but it never grabbed us. Even though it's a short game, we never felt that burning desire to get to the end that is typically present in other titles. There are many characters, but none of them was really interesting. Cute, yeah. But not enough to mitigate the central problem that this isn't an interesting game. We're not sure why this is the direction the series has gone in, but could it go back to the lovingly-crafted, intricate rope courses, please? Far be it for us to call for a regression, but sometimes going back to the well is a good idea.
40%
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Frequently Asked Questions
Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! is a action game.
Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and others.
Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! was released on May 28, 2020.
Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! was developed by Studio Saizensen.
Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its graphics but disliked it for its gameplay.
Umihara Kawase BaZooKa! is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.
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