The second Funassyi game in around a month to hit 3DS and this time developed by Seventh Chord (who previously developed Kamen Rider and Tales of Innocence R) and published by Success where-as the first (Funassyi VS Dragons) was published by Rocket Company. As an action platformer Succes look to the likes of Super Mario Bros. for inspiration, as opposed to Funassyi VS Dragons which unsurprisingly from the title more than references Puzzle & Dragons.
Comprising fifty levels of ‘pear juice action’ (not my words!), Funassyi’s arch-enemy is here a witch. Success’s platformer totally makes up for the lack of storyline in Rocket Company’s puzzler as Nashijiru Action! Funassyi no Yukai na Ohanassyi (or NAFnYnO for ‘short’) has storyline content in abundance positioning Funassyi as somewhat of a cartoon superhero and his archnemesis (the witch) an evil crone.
Control of Funassyi is simple enough with the circle pad obviously for left to right, the ‘b’ button to jump and the ‘a’ button to shoot what I only can assume is pear juice (don’t ask!). Rather humanely, death isn’t an option in this Funassyi title (other than the pear hero falling hundreds of feet to his assumed death) as enemies just freeze for five seconds when squirted with Funassyi’s juice before once again attempting to hinder Funassyi’s progress.
The difficulty curve is solid with early levels ridiculously easy before the introduction of moving platforms, wind, more dastardly enemies and the necessity for timely jumps come about. The game is mostly pretty standard platform fare with a lot of the content seemingly borrowed from elsewhere although graphically and stylistically somewhat resembles a Master System game thus adding in a more untypical and with it a fresh approach.
Perhaps the biggest fault of the game lies in the inherent lack of much needed boss battles with every world ending in playing one of five mini-games (with a kind of spin-the-wheel-make-the-deal kinda stipulation) against the witch with none of them being anymore impactful than say the mini-games in Tomodachi Collection or the plethora of Tamagotchi games that have infiltrated bomba bins nationwide in Japan.
Criticising Nashijiru Action! Funassyi no Yukai na Ohanassyi is not to imply it is a bad game: just that it offers little new to the platforming genre nor does it offer much in the way of a serious challenge. However younger players are not only rewarded by the game’s (lack of) difficulty, the curve is ideal. Add in an adorable pear protagonist, great basic storytelling and a welcome lack of killing and you’ll find Funassyi is a great introductory level platform hero.
7/10
Review by Bri Bri. For more information on Nashijiru Action! Funassyi no Yukai na Ohanassyi please go to http://swninfo.success-corp.co.jp/3ds/funassyi
BUY New Nintendo 3DS and Nashijiru Action! Funassyi no Yukai na Ohanassyi
