Umihara Kawase
1994
- platform
- puzzle
- indie
- action
- single player
The story
Umihara Kawase is a girl who uses a fishing hook as a grappling hook. You’ll need quick reflexes to swing your way through the branching surreal environments. Use your brains to figure out the best way through. They say fish is brain food—you’re going to need it!
What it’s like
Bright, flat, cel-shaded backdrops in saturated pastels, with the stage layouts drawn as strange tiled rooms, conveyor belts, and fleshy industrial gaps that feel more like a dream of a factory than a real place. The look is clean and a little uncanny, and the constant motion of the hook line snapping out and reeling back gives the screen a restless, elastic rhythm. Sound is quirky and chiptune-leaning, with bouncy little loops that turn tense whenever the physics start punishing a bad swing. Tone is playful but abstract, a mix of cheerful and unsettling that suits a sharp, focused session, perhaps at a desk with headphones or a late evening when you want something that rewards concentration. Pacing is fast and reflexive in the moment but built around repeated attempts, with a slow accumulation of route knowledge that feels like solving a puzzle with your hands. Intensity is low: there is no gore or graphic violence, and the danger is falling into a pit or missing a grapple, with brief surreal oddness but nothing frightening. Best for players who enjoy precise, physics-driven platforming, puzzle-minded exploration, and hunting for hidden endings in an odd, quietly eccentric world.
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