Kuru Kuru Kururin
One of the strangest -- but also the most innovative -- GBA games on display at Spaceworld 2000 was Kuru Kuru Kururin. In Japanese, "Kuru Kuru" is a way to describe the sound made by something spinning, and Kururin is the name of the hero. The game is developed by Eighting and will be one of the Nintendo-published launch titles in Japan. The version at Spaceworld was 60% complete and already had at least a dozen levels available.
The objective is to move a rotating stick throughout a track without touching the walls. If a wall is touched, one of the three heart containers will be emptied. Luckily, there are areas throughout the tracks that will fill up the energy. As the tracks become more and more difficult, those areas will be harder to find. On the tracks are also blue resting areas where the stick's center can be placed without fear of touching a wall. The stick rotates clockwise, but in some level it needs to rotate the other way, so springs are placed out where needed.
It's not easy to classify this game. It looks like a puzzle game but can also be considered a racing game because you have to move from one end of the level to the other as fast as you can. The developers of the game call it a "simple action game." It might look complicated at first sight but once you try it out you will understand exactly what the designers had in mind. Kuru Kuru Kururin can be played just by using the control pad, although the stick moves faster if a button is held down.
Apart from Mario Kart Advance, this was my favorite GBA game of the Spaceworld show. I even played it more than any of the other GBA games, simply because it was so addictive I couldn't resist. Unfortunately, the four-player mode wasn't available on the version I played, and I'm curious as to how it will be implemented. Kuru Kuru Kururin is definitely one of the games I will consider buying when the GBA launches later this year.