How did you get into this series?

[youhavethewrong]

I don't think it's a surprise to any of us that this game is practically 100% unknown on the west. So my question is, how did you get to know/get into this series?

My personal answer: From the 1st episode of Game Center CX, in which they challenged the game. It didn't only look fun, but I was quite surprised to see that the illustrator of the game was also a big fan of the show itself! Throughout the episode he sent various illustrations of Kawase to motivate the host. Here's the one he sent in case he lost:



So to repeat my question: How did you get to know this game? 

[KawaseFan]

I happened to find a discussion about it around mid-2013 and thought it sounded great, so then I decided to check it out and it quickly became a favourite.

[gori.sh]

About 20 years ago. Last goes first heard about shun. Taught college classmates. 

[texh]

I just randomly stumbled upon the first Umihara when looking up "obscure SNES games" on Google. Remember getting stuck on the first field because I didn't even know you could retract the fishing line and had to search Youtube to get further...

It was unlike anything I've seen before and fell in love immediately. Really one of those timeless gems that I can see myself still playing in the next 20 years.

[Alc]

I vaguely remember emulating Shun on Dreamcast way back when the bleem beta leaked. Didn't make much of an impression. Played it much later on a proper PSX and finally "got it". Didn't get particularly good at it, but good enough to complete most of the exits, I think.

Then I bought the SFC cart. I originally played it on my PAL Super Nintendo with a converter, meaning it ran at 50Hz... if you try this you'll notice incredibly distracting screen flickering if you're in the top 75% of the level, but somehow I persevered like this for quite a while, on a tiny little 1970s "goldfish bowl" CRT TV... student life. (About the only plus side of playing in 50Hz is that the game ran ~17% slower, so it was actually noticeably easier.) This would've been about 2004 or 2005 I guess.

Finally bought myself a SFC and that's when the addiction really got going. It was (and probably still is) really hard to find information about this game in English, but if anything I think that drove me harder - there was always the possibility of digging something up online on a Japanese site.

[youhavethewrong]

Woah, I must say I'm surprised! To be honest, since Game Center CX is so immensely popular, I thought that every story would be the same. So glad to know I was wrong! 

It's amazing how easy is to get hooked to this game. No pun intended.

[Piku]

I've discovered the game through Game Center CX (great show BTW!) few years ago, but didn't get hooked until Sayonara came out on 3DS. Lovin' it.

[Naulahauta]

When Morimoto released one of the first Tool-Assisted Speedruns in 2003(?) it led me to nesvideos (now called tasvideos.org) from where I found the Umihara Kawase TAS in 2004(?).
The game looked very fun and the admin had left a note on the publication "For extra fun, get your hands on this game and try playing it. You'll quickly learn what "almost impossible maneuvers" means "
Played it every now and then ever since.

[matt]

Early 2000s a friend dropped the name and I bought the SNES and PSX versions, along with a DVD and a book.

[sol-alpha]

Hmm... I mentioned I first discovered it on the 3DS eshop...well technically I browse NeoGAF so I saw someone talk about Sayonara Umihara Kawase because I think it came out in US long before releasing in Europe/Aus so I at least heard of it before I saw gameplay on the 3DS eshop.

Otherwise, if I happened to miss all that, I would have seen the original game for the first time from seeing it at Awesome Games Done Quick 2015 I believe it was.

[Princess Rescuer]

I am Princess Rescuer, one of the most accomplished and influential Umihara Kawase players. However, my initial experiences with the game were not love at fist sight. I had a lot of trouble getting into pretty much all three of the games I love so much now. It started back in 2010 when I first figured out how to use emulators. One of the first games I downloaded was Umihara Kawase. And my experience wasn't good. That game is terrible with a keyboard.

Two years later, I would have the game on Super Famicom. Again, the respawning enemies (which would one day become my best friend) were bothering me too much. I couldn't get the hang of the mechanics. I wrote it off as a game that just wasn't for me.

On the Super Famicom, I was running out of Pilotwings and Mega Man & Bass to get good at. So I returned to Umihara and gave it another shot. I practiced much more, getting into the mood where I wouldn't mind losing a lot and not making progress. I found Siousatou's videos and gained the whole encyclopedia of techniques that would help me save myself from bad jumps and complete fields quicker. Practicing this was difficult on the Super Famicom due to the lack of a Stage Select. In 2013, I had finally completed every single exit on every single field, and I was on top of the world. I was also being introduced to Shun and Sayonara that same year on the PS1 and 3DS, which I played quite a bit and got very good at. I never enjoyed them nearly as much as the first game though.

In 2015, things really kicked off when the Vita version came out. Although it lacked Shun (should have had all three) it had the first game and a vastly improved version of Sayonara, and I played both passionately on both the Vita and Vita TV, developing challenges I would later work to presentability and introduce to the playerbase at large. I would join KawaseFan in 2016 and learn how to record videos, both under the name "Princess Rescuer" which is the main name I'm sticking to (I used other ones before). In 2017, the work I did on High Scores came to fruition- I scored an impressive 352,708 points shortly after beginning attempts. 2018 was when things got really serious with the High Score being 402,115 and the much-fabled "all exits" run, which I got a 1:37:38 in. These remain the high score and best time today and not even Japanese players have challenged them. I would appreciate it if anyone did though.

To think that just a scant three years ago, the influence and expertise on the game was almost entirely Japanese- they were getting the best times, they were discovering all the strategies, and nobody on the outside could touch them. I could though- and no Japanese player has yet taken the challenge (Seriously. I've asked them.). Before I joined, there wasn't much activity on this forum and most of it was just opinions, with the only strategy portion being things like "Help how do I get past this field". My goal was to give fans more reasons to PLAY a series of relatively short and small games with new ways to keep them interesting. It was mainly high-level endgame content, but you can't just get people started- you need to keep them going.

I fell out with the series when Fresh came out. Even a year later, I still don't like Fresh. It's not just a bad game to me, it's one that I don't understand the existence of. After playing the demo of Bazooka, which was dismal, my interest in the series is pretty much dormant. The only thing that would keep me going is re-releases of the first three games on popular current consoles (such as the PS4 and Switch).

KawaseFan has been a good website to me though. I still enjoy posting Pro Tips to it. I feel that I can promote the games that I want on here without them being obscured by the bigger ones. It's a nice and simple forum without much drama, and other members have been very supportive. It was enough to maintain my interest in the series.

[summer kawase]

im into fighting games and shovel knight, i wanted blade strangers and was watching the developer interveiws,
he seemed more excited to talk about kawase then shovel knight or gunvolt ect,

i ask myself '' what in the name of all things weeb is an umihara kawase''
check it out tuns out its a cute as hell, sureal game built on similar grappling  mechanics to the worms games.
now i loved me some worms armagedon and grappling is my faveorit thing in the game.
so i get blade strangers, main aban kawase and summer kawase . then steam sale had whole franchise for like £5
now im here and kind of obssesed with kawase