Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle

<p><em>Ninja Usagimaru&colon; The Mysterious Karakuri Castle<&sol;em> for the Nintendo 3DS is a pleasant game that features a bit of Japanese lore and plenty of challenging puzzles&period; Usagimaru has been away on a journey in the previous game&comma; <em>The Gem of Blessings<&sol;em>&comma; and is heading home when he finds out that all of his villagers have been captured by Mononoke&period; Graciously&comma; he sets out to find them and rescue each of his fellow usagi &lpar;rabbits&rpar;&period; There are sixty stages in the game and each one requires quite a bit of brain power&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114069" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114069" style&equals;"width&colon; 400px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114069 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;06211118&sol;3DS&lowbar;NinjaUsagimaruTheMysteriousKarakuriCastle&lowbar;03&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ninja Usagimaru&colon; The Mysterious Karakumi Castle &sol; AKSYS Games " width&equals;"400" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114069" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Ninja Usagimaru&colon; The Mysterious Karakul Castle<&sol;em>&comma; Aksys Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It seems that the developers wanted to push the player into thinking things through and figuring out the stages by a trial and error method&period; The first few stages are fairly easy to solve but after those the real challenges begin&period; <em>The Mysterious Karakuri Castle<&sol;em> dishes out easily 10 or more hours of gameplay with the baffling puzzles&period; This game could have benefited from having a hint option or a help section besides from the control list&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A helpful feature that is included in <em>Karakuri Castle<&sol;em> is the pinwheel&period; This pinwheel can be placed at any time while playing through a single stage and acts as a save point&period; If Usagimaru or the villager in distress is hurt&comma; the player may start the stage from the pinwheel save point instead of starting the whole stage over again&period; Although I play and enjoy a great deal of puzzle games&comma; I still consider myself at the intermediate level compared to the greater minds of advanced puzzle solvers&period; And I must admit that on several occasions I was completely stumped&period; After the frustration passed and a break&comma; I could then solve the stage&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;114068" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-114068" style&equals;"width&colon; 400px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-114068 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;10&sol;06211020&sol;3DS&lowbar;NinjaUsagimaruTheMysteriousKarakuriCastle&lowbar;02&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Ninja Usagimaru&colon; The Mysterious Karakumi Castle &sol; AKSYS Games " width&equals;"400" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-114068" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Ninja Usagimaru&colon; The Mysterious Karakul Castle<&sol;em>&comma; Aksys Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>These stages are as pleasing to the eye as they are difficult to solve&period; The Japanese brush style is reminiscent of Capcom&&num;8217&semi;s legendary <em>Okami<&sol;em> title&period; The lovely artwork helps take away the sting of messing up a stage and having to restart&comma; as does the music&period; Although repetitive&comma; the soundtrack is beautifully befitting the art style and folklore plot&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s even soothing and helps calm the brain while struggling through a challenge&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Ninja Usagimaru&colon; The Mysterious Karakuri Castle<&sol;em> pushes the player into thinking carefully and reworking a stage until it is complete&period; This title is quite unique in its own right by using the same set of tools &&num;8211&semi; the grappling hook&comma; pinwheel&comma; kite and kana &&num;8211&semi; throughout the entire game and by including such intense puzzles&period; Yet&comma; <em>Karakuri Castle<&sol;em> has no specific features that make it unique to the 3DS&period; Sadly&comma; the touchpad and 3DS features are not utilized&period; However&comma; the 3DS distinct features are not missed all that much while being memorized by the art and music&period; Available on the Nintendo 3DS eShop&comma; <em>Ninja Usagimaru&colon; The Mysterious Karakuri Castle<&sol;em> is a wonderfully charming puzzle game to add to your digital library&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A PC Review Code was provided by Aksys Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;