Ufouria is on the Wii U virtual console (RIP) and your friendly neighborhood Famicom emulator. It will be getting a cross platform rerelease soon ahead of the release of its unlikely sequel Ufouria 2 next month, but probably not in time for this play along unfortunately.
ufouria/hebereke is a great game! i was surprised how close it comes to the current conception of a metroidvania, when most similar games of the era are further off (though still good!). the idea of switching between characters with different abilities and tradeoffs is also a nice diversion from the now-common accumulation of many skills by a single character.
i might replay the game with this patch, which claims to be a more accurate translation of the game than the nes localization (i do love those bop-louie sprites, though).
i'm surprised a game i nominated got picked twice in a row... is this thing secretly rigged in my favor?
Spent a very pleasant couple hours beating this game today. Feels good to move around, it‘s got Mickey-style butt stomps, and I only had to refer to a longplay twice (I couldn’t find the light switch or figure out how to move the boulder lol).
It's wild that the "Metroid-like" was basically codified at this point. I'm always so impressed by how playable these late-'80s/early-'90s RPG-lite platformers are.
YEAH DUDE. I will at least pop into this in bed this month and see if I can get further than I‘ve ever gotten. Still need to explore some of last month’s Druagas right quick, I got completely sidetracked by the PC Engine version (but hey, the book club led me to loving an unexpected game)
I finished this one last year but I‘ve been meaning to do a replay at some point, so I’ll hop later in the month!
This game rocks, it's left a lasting impression on me and is one of the 10 best Famicom games imo (I played 27 last year, and this one was absolutely one of my favourites)
I gave it a whirl, and what a super charming little metroidvania!! I love the animations and the character designs feel ahead of their time! I love just laying the character on their back and scooting around.
i forgot to put this in my first post, but some prototype builds of the game have shown up, which you can check out at hidden palace and the cutting room floor.
>!apparently, they were gonna include a pyramid, at one point!!<
I'm not the biggest fan of Metroidvania style platformers, hate getting lost, hate back tracking, etc, and this game certainly has a few points where I went, welp, took a wrong turn, guess I need to go to the other end of the map….
_BUT_
Game is pretty forgiving in shortcuts and having a nice central death warp spawn point that saves all your progress. The health is also pretty generous for when you need to fight a tough boss. There's still some points where I'm resorting to save states to either get past some rather gross platforming (||the damn 3 ghost hop into the door||) or gross bosses (||the damn invisible teletubby motherfucker||). Also the momentum just feels a bit off, the hold down to attack while jumping and also hold down while on the ground to just own yourself completely combo is real bad feeling...
_BUT_
Game has vibes for days. Sunsoft really were the unsung kings of the Famicom, and the music, spritework, and level designs here are all superb. The bosses for the most part are really fun. The official localization seems strange and staid but the fan translation seems a bit better.
This is a fantastically breezy and fun game to kick off the year. Very interesting to see a completely modern implementation of the metroidvania formula in a game from 1991. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or does anything particularly amazing with the design, but provides the missing link between the precursor stuff like Xanadu and the "canonical" games such as Super Metroid.
This a game that wins you over with its colorful aesthetic, fun sprites and cozy gameplay. The game sticks to its guns and provides a solid, uncomplicated experience that encapsulates the definition of short & sweet. Very enjoyable despite the familiarity and lack of bite, specially by modern standards.
This was a great excuse to finally play this game. Realllly loved it. it had me from that first dangling-spit-platform. I definitely abused save states this time around, but i agree that it all seems pretty fair especially once you get the hang of things. Maybe ill try to do an honest play through in the future.
Strange they changed the character designs for the western release, tho i do have to say i kind of prefer them.
Does anyone know anything about the other hebereke games? Are there any other interesting ones?
I did the same thing. Spent the first forty-five minutes avoiding enemies cuz I couldn’t figure it out. I remember thinking “it’ll be so nice when I unlock the ability to kill these guys” lol
