Animal Kororo Review

There are an abundance of puzzle games on the Nintendo DS, so it's easy for a new one to fall under the radar. Animal Kororo though, is a new game that's rather quirky and it's been brought to Europe by Rising Star Games. Does it manage to stick out from the crowd?

The premise in Animal Kororo is essentially really simple. A huge hole has appeared in the Kororo Kingdom and all the Kororo have fallen through it. Players are asked to choose between a Piggy or Bunny Kororo and are then tasked with aiding them in returning all the Kororo to their home. The task is very simple - a number appears on the upper screen which starts at 0% and when it has reached 100% all the Kororo have been returned safely.

The game has three play modes, one of which is based purely on wi-fi multiplayer. There is a helpful tutorial section as well which explains how the game works, however, most of the features only apply to the Challenge mode. The game is played through the simple use of a rolling mechanic, with several Kororo appearing on the screen in equal pairs. Players must then collide two of the same kind to make them "return" or disappear back to the Kingdom. There is a catch though; rolling Kororo will only stop when they hit the side or another Kororo and players can only move in the order dictated by the right side of the screen. This order follows the set pattern of Left, Up, Right, Down and there is no deviation to this. So the puzzles do actually require some logic to get the Kororo to match up.

Don't be fooled by how simplistic it all sounds though, as all the modes can be played with multiple difficulties and Hard Mode literally borders on being impossible. Time limits are imposed and can be reduced by each pair matched, however, on Hard this really does nothing to the time limit and having lightning reflexes is a necessity. As the stages progress, players are expected to cope with three different objects as well as about 10 different kinds of Kororo. The objects are walls, balls and thorns. The walls when touched will just act as barriers, balls will roll when a Kororo collides with them and thorns result in an instant game over if touched. The game isn't totally unfair to players as each stage can be attempted multiple times if failed and there is no limit to how many attempts a player can make. But by the time a player reaches the later stages of Normal Mode it's quite clear that the game does have a very challenging aspect to it.