Sutte Hakkun


is a 1997 action puzzle game featuring a character of the same name developed by Indieszero with Nintendo R&D2 and published by Nintendo for the Super Famicom's add-on, the Satellaview, datacasting on November 2, 1997, and three sequels involving new puzzles were released from 1998 to 1999. The game was never released outside Japan.

Gameplay

Sutte Hakkun falls into the category of a side-scrolling, level-based action puzzle game; a genre best represented by the Lode Runner series. The player controls Hakkun, and attempts to gather up the rainbow shards distributed across each level. A level is completed when the player finds all of the shards hidden in the level. Levels are arranged simplistically at the start of the game, but become highly complex and difficult near the end. The final goal is to find all of the shards hidden in the game.
Hakkun's actions consist of three movements; running to the left or right, jumping, and absorbing or depositing blocks. A combination of these is required to complete each level. The player must restart the level if Hakkun falls into a hole or touches spike traps, but there are no other impediments, such as time limits or enemy characters, towards completing each level. There are also no lives or game over screens, and the more difficult later levels are completed by repeatedly searching the level for the solution to the puzzle. Completion of the game requires a combination of puzzle-solving ability and precise control of Hakkun by the player.
Several types of traps and characters are prepared in each level, some of which help Hakkun, and others which may obstruct his path. The most important of these are the red, blue, and yellow bottles and transparent blocks. Hakkun can suck out colors from each bottle, and insert them into the transparent blocks to make them move in different directions.

Series

Five versions of the game exist; four of which were released over Satellaview, and one in game cartridge format. Of the four games for Satellaview, the event version and BS version 2 were broadcast up until June, 2000, when Satellaview service ended permanently.
In response to the significant decrease in the number of original games presented over Satellaview's "Super Famicom Hour" data broadcast in 1996, Nintendo began the "Monthly Game Event" series in 1997, where a new game would be broadcast each month for the Super Famicom. However, many of these were rereleases of older games such as Dr. Mario and F-Zero. The intricate puzzles and user-friendly tutorial made Sutte Hakkun considered by most Satellaview consumers in Japan one of the most popular games ever released for the Satellaview. The game was produced by Masayuki Uemura, composed by Akito Nakatsuka, designed by Nobuaki Tanaka, directed by Masayu Nakata, and programmed by Keiji Hara. Software for the Famicom Disk System that the third stage participant of "Nintendo & Dentsu Game Seminar" had produced is assumed to be a prototype established by the graduate of Indiezero. This work became the debut work of Indieszero.
The positive response to the game led to a commercial release in 1998. The game was made available for Nintendo Power; a data writing service offered at Lawson convenience stores. Taking advantage of the larger memory of the Nintendo Power cartridge, the creators not only expanded the number of puzzles, but added a more in-depth tutorial, and additional hints towards completing the game. However, the decline of the Super Famicom and the lack of availability of Nintendo Power cartridges prevented the game from reaching a mainstream audience. The game was still well received among former Satellaview users and hardcore Nintendo fans. Points were recorded in a rankings system in the original Satellaview broadcast, and were posted on Nintendo's website until 2009.
The cartridge version was released in 1999 to counter this lack of availability, but many stores had already stopped importing Super Famicom games, and availability ended up being more limited than before. In the few stores where the game was sold, overstock caused the price to drop dramatically, and the game ended up with a lowered price around 1,000 yen. Because of these circumstances, the game's mainstream popularity remains extremely low.
In 2017 an English fan translation of the game was released.

Reception

Upon release, Famitsu gave the SFC version of the game a score of 28 out of 40.
In 2009, Nintendo Life gave the game a score of 9 out of 10.