Virtually Overlooked: Clu Clu Land
Clu Clu Land is one of Nintendo's most mysteriously underused franchises. Some of the company's early Famicom/NES games never became long-running series because nobody wanted any more -- Urban Champion, for example, or Donkey Kong Jr. Math; some were designed for the R.O.B. robot and died with it (Stack-Up) and some were too generic to really even count as franchises anyway (Baseball). But Clu Clu Land was an original puzzle game that just never reappeared.
Except for that one time! And those other times, kind of!
Released in 1985, Clu Clu Land can best be described as Nintendo's alternate-universe take on Pac-Man (or their other alternate-universe take on Pac-Man, considering the equally bizarre Devil World). In the world pre-Super Mario Bros., there were plenty of Pac-Man variations as well as Space Invaders variations, and Nintendo did both. Clu Clu Land was at least a really weird single-screen maze game: as a circular fish named Bubbles, you zoomed around a grid made up of pegs in order to move over empty spaces, to reveal a cute shape made out of gold ingots. Bubbles could only move straight forward unless she hung a fin or claw or something out to one side, hooked onto a peg, and swung to turn. Kurukuru, from which the game gets its name, is Japanese for "turning around."
Clu Clu Land actually did get one sequel, but it stayed in Japan until 2002, at which point its worldwide release was actually a secret. Clu Clu Land Disku-ban was the Famicom Disk System followup to the first game, which encompasses all the content from the Famicom original, but adds a difficulty selection, more levels, and new bosses. This revamped version was included, as Clu Clu Land D, among the NES games in Animal Crossing, which meant that only total Animal Crossing obsessives, Game Shark owners, and universal item code downloaders ever got to play it. As a representative of all three of those categories, I immediately got all the NES games and then quickly forgot about my weeds or bank loan or whatever.
It's not as if Nintendo forgot about the game. Bubbles as a trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and the Unira enemy in Brawl. Another Nintendo games served as a sort-of continuation of Clu Clu Land. Paon's DK: King of Swing for the Game Boy Advance took the basic gameplay and overlaid a Donkey Kong Country theme. Bubbles even appeared as a secret playable character! But, rather than a single-screen maze game, King of Swing is more of a scrolling adventure game. The Clu Clu Land gameplay, in my opinion, is best suited for enclosed spaces. And, most importantly, it doesn't need a story. No game, for that matter, needs a story about Donkey Kong.
Virtually Overlooked is a weekly feature that spotlights games that aren't yet on the Virtual Console, but should be. Want more Virtually Overlooked? Check out the first year!
