One of the obscure titles released in Japan - and got a bit of cult following in the US via import - is Umihara Kawase. Marvelous Interactive has announced that a handheld version for the PSP will be the next installment in the series which dates back to 1994 on the Super Famicom, and became even more popular when the PSOne version got released.
For those who've never heard of Umihara Kawase (designed and illustrated by one Toshinobu Kondo), it's a platformer game that's split into various levels - in this game, they're called "fields". Your goal is basically to head to the door in each field to progress further in.
The interesting part of the game play comes in the form of your fishing line that you can use to dispatch enemies and more importantly swing from platform to platform. Yeah, think Tarzan, only... it's a little school girl with a reddish pink rucksack.
From what we can see in the screens for the upcoming PSP version of Umihara Kawase, the gameplay element seems to be intact. Here's to hoping that North Americagets a port of this gem in the future. As for Japan, the release is scheduled sometime next year.
The game became pretty popular, especially for those who were into speedruns. To give you an idea of the gameplay, we've posted a YouTube vid of badlose's play through of the SNES version of the game.
You can check out Marvelous Interactive's official website for the PSP version here.
