Kurushi [PlayStation]

"Myself and my younger bro were addicted to this game when we got our first PS one Christmas. I've been hoping to track it down and even get an emulated version for my pc perhaps but your article seems to conform my thoughts that its very hard to come by. Strange it didn't have a major release- we would put it in the same longevity category as Tetris! "

"This games (and its sequel Kurushi Final) are two puzzle games that appeared without fanfare in the PS1's library. Also known as Intelligent Qube in the US, the 2nd game is basically a slightly improved remake of the first. They are notoriously hard to obtain in the UK, even more so complete - I have both of these disc only, and I have only ever seen 3 copies "in the wild" as it where (i.e. not on ebay). This game also appeared in partial form on some PS1 demo discs.

Gameplay
This is an old-school puzzle game that despite its slick 3D presentation is quite a basic game with only a few rules. However, it is beautifully implemented and presents a very high level of addictive challenge.

The player, represented by an animated person, is placed on a flat platform made up of a set number of rows, each row made up of cubes. This gives the platform a grid-like look and it is suspended in a black void by some invisible and unexplained means. The platform is presented with the short edge toward the screen giving the player a view along the length of the platform stretching off into the screen.

You may move freely around this platform, and the game prevents you from falling off it (at least not by walking off the edge).

The game is wave based. At the start of the wave, the player is placed onto the platform and a few seconds later an arrangement of cubes materialises onto the platform and then they start to move towards the player. All of the cubes move in formation, rolling over like dice to a strict tempo (which can be increased with differing difficulty levels). The player's task is to remove certain cubes and leave others letting them drop off the edge of the platform.

There are only 3 types of cube.

Type 1 : normal cubes that must be disposed of - you must not let these drop off the edge.
Type 2 : Black cubes are "forbidden" cubes. You must NOT dispose of these, instead you must let them drop off the edge.
Type 3 : Green cubes are advantage cubes. These must be treated the same way as the normal cubes - the difference will be explained later.

To dispose of a cube you mark a place on the platform floor by moving your character there and pressing the "MARK" button. This will turn the square on the floor blue. Only 1 square may be marked at a time in this way.

Press the button again when a cube is on this part of the floor and it will be disposed of - it sinks down into the platform and the square on which it stood is cleared. The mark is cleared too.

If the cube you have disposed of is black then a row will be removed from the end of the platform - making it shorter and giving you less time to clear the level.

If the cube you disposed is green then all squares surrounding , and including the square the cube stood on is marked green. Pressing the "ACTIVATE" button will activate those squares which will dispose of any cubes sitting on those squares.

If you let a cube roll onto your character you fail and the level is reset - but only after letting any remaining cubes quickly roll off the edge, perhaps shrinking the platform!

You lose a life if you are standing on the last row while it is taken away - it collapses and you see your poor avatar falling into the void amid a shower of cubes, yelling!

At the end of each level, If you make no mistakes you are given an extra row added to the end of the platform.

Every so often at the start of a level, the starting point of the cubes is moved down the platform shortening the play area. This is shown as a neat "wave effect" , pushing the player's character down towards the end of the platform if in the way.

Masters of the game worry about the par score for each level which is based on the number of cube rolls a player takes to clear a level. Beating this par score is not necessary to complete the game but is the path to big scores. The current level "par" and number of rolls completed is displayed on screen.

You can also unlock other characters - some which can move faster than the default character.

Despite this clumsy attempt to explain gameplay, it is in fact a simple game to pick up (tutorials in the game do it much better!) Sure, its repetitive but it has a hypnotic effect - much like the greats of the genre such as Tetris, Puyo Puyo and Mr Driller.

The original game has one mode consisting of a set of levels to get through, saving your progress at certain points. The 2 player game is quite limited presenting each player with a level at a time ,players taking turns - the winner being the 1st to clear 3 levels.

Kurushi Final has more modes. It has the original "score challenge" mode, a 100 stage "puzzle" mode allowing you to clear a special set of levels in blocks of ten (but having no score as such), and a special survival mode for 1 or 2 players. It also has a level editor expanding the replayability to the infinite.

Control is slick, configurable and presents no problems.

Graphics
I personally love the look and feel of this game - it is abstract in the extreme. The cubes are just basic coloured cubes, as is the platform (although this changes slightly as you progress through the levels with colour changes and some basic textures).

The camera is placed well and auto-moves in and out nicely, always ensuring you have a view to play correctly. The camera is not an issue at all in this game.

Your character is a nicely animated poly-rendered figure but has little detail.

The backgrounds? There aren't any. The game has a stark black background giving the look of a demo title, perhaps unfinished. However the polish applied to the gameplay tells us that this isn't so. Many puzzle games have backgrounds that sometimes actually get in the way of play while in others(e.g. Zoocube for the GC) an attempt is made to add a theme to a beautifully abstract game which cheapens the concept somewhat and is unnecessary.

Score, par, level number etc. are displayed clearly in plain font against the black background - it was a very bold move to release a game like this when Sony was no doubt looking for titles to wow players away from the Sega Saturn and N64, and this perhaps explains its rarity (it was released by Sony itself - and maybe this is why it saw the light of day at all).

This clean, minimalist theme is continued throughout the entire presentation of the game from the title screen through to the menus and high score screens.

Sound
Brilliant, simple and effective. You character moves around the platform with echoing footsteps while the cubes relentlessly advance with a menacing thud. Level start and end, "perfect" levels etc. are announced by a powerful echoing voice.

The action is accompanied by high quality orchestral music - almost like a film score. This music clashes with the simplistic display adding to the quirkiness and overall bizarre quality of this title.

Overall
This game will last you ages. It is a hardcore simple puzzle game with a very original (some might say high concept, almost "arty") style of presentation. It has lots of challenge (literally thousands of puzzles) and is highly recommended to fans of the genre.

It is a never ending source of bemusement to me that gems of this quality were so difficult to pick up during the PS1's entire life.

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