Blast Annual


Gruniozerca 3
By Lucasz Kur
Nintendo (US Version)

 
Published in Blast Annual 2020 Volume 1

Gruniozerca 3: The Great Cavy Clean-Up

Following on from the rather excellent Gruniozerca 2 comes yet more Guinea Pig puzzling antics, but unlike the previous game, this one is a top-down navigational affair.

Gameplay

The plot basically revolves around two guinea pigs (Grunio and Dzidzia) who need to clean up their belongings before their owners come home. Thing is, they are not allowed to touch the carpet, so playing as Grunio you have to hop from toy to toy around the house to destroy them and reach the exit - all without touching the floor.

What this actually means in reality is planning your route from the start position to the exit working out how to touch every item the correct number of times to destroy it. Oh yes, some things need to be stepped on more than once!

Likes

Gruniozerca 3: The Great Cavy Clean-Up

Basically - everything! The game has excellent bright and colourful visuals, several funky tunes, tight and precise gameplay and loads of content to keep players well and truly busy. The story mode has many stages, once those are complete there is the survival mode for those looking for additional challenge (which you play as Dzidzia).

The game has simple-to-understand logic, but working out how to do each stage is a real mind bender, especially on later levels. The game also features a simple password system for continuing your game, along with the ability to restart your current stage if you mess up.

Dislikes

I'm struggling to think of any real flaws with this title quite honestly.

Gruniozerca 3: The Great Cavy Clean-Up

These are really just general nitpicks that aren't a big deal, but sometimes it can be difficult to tell the difference between the numbered blocks, perhaps they should look slightly different in addition to having a number at the front.

I also think the game would have benefited from having an 'instant restart' button – having to go through two screens to restart the stage is a bit tiresome when restarting the level repeatedly through error.

Verdict

Gruniozerca 3 is a brilliant game that deservedly won the NES DEV 2018 competition. It looks great, sounds great and most importantly plays superbly. All the best games are easy to pick up but hard to master, and this falls nicely into that category.

Not only is this one of the best homebrew games I have played, but it is one of the best games available for the NES in general. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Gruniozerca 4, anyone?

Andy O'Flaherty

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