Hopping Girl KOHANE Jumping Kingdom: Princess of the Black Rabbit [ホッピングガールこはね JK -黒兎の姫-] - NS

So... I came across a series of games that has virtually no presence outside of Japan: "Hopping Girl Kohane". Originally released in 2015 for mobile phones, it saw two games before making its way to Nintendo's eShop four years later as an upgraded semi-remake / sequel under the LONG name of "Hopping girl KOHANE Jumping Kingdom: Princess of the Black Rabbit" (aka Hopping girl KOHANE JK -Kurosagi no Hime-). Created by the relatively new outfit at "D.O. Co., Ltd." (who are NOT affiliated with the old eroge studio from back in the early 90s, but a team who emerged around the last ten years) that is comprised of some former Atlus staff and specialize in parlor games (Pachislot, gambling, etc.), they started branching out into console games with this title. It was a modest success in Japan and is seeing another update later this year (Hopping Girl Kohane EX). Why am I bringing all this up? Because despite its obscurity, this is a game that YOU MAY HAVE SEEN before. In fact, it actually came out about 15 years prior to the first HGK. HGK is, for lack of better words, a spiritual successor to the unusual action / racing game, "Monster Farm Jump", better known outside Japan as "Monster Rancher Hop-A-Bout". Monster Rancher was very popular during the late 90s to mid 2000s in the U.S. and Japan (it had very limited exposure in Europe) and had numerous spin-offs, but HaB was more obscure than most as it had a more limited release and seems like it was meant to be a different game earlier in development before inserting MR/MF characters into the mix at the last minute for marketing reasons (it actually released in the U.S. first before it made its way to Japan) and if there is a precursor to it that both MR/MF and HGK share, I haven't found it yet. I even dug deeper and looked into the staffing for both games and found no significant matches, so either this game was made with no prior knowledge of HaB (unlikely), the rights to the game expired or privately swapped hands (plausible) or the game knowingly expanded on HaB with enough differences to avoid copyright infringement (also plausible). Regardless of the circumstances, I'm glad that this game exists. The story is brief and total machine-translated gibberish, so I'll just summarize everything so far. Kohane Momono, a whimsical 12-year-old adventurer and treasure hunter, stumbles upon a frog prince named Hop and accidently kisses him, which grants magic powers to her and those around her (due to a curse by King Hebi). Along with Tobio, a frog and travelling merchant who gains the power to speak from Kohane (and also falls in love with her), she explores the Jumping Kingdom for treasure and magic jewels to help restore Prince Hop's glory and to live a comfortable life. This goes on for four years until a new conflict arises -- Kohane, now 16, runs into a rabbit named Bani who implores her to help Princess Rabi, who has been cursed by the "wicked" King Wani, and is now corrupting magical stamps across the Jumping Kingdom. Being bored, Kohane happily assists. HGK for the Switch is a marriage of the first two games (with EX migrating even more features) while advancing the story and upgrading the game further. Players only need the analog to move around and adhere to momentum physics while jumping on magical stamps to advance through each stage. Many of the core systems were lifted wholesale from HaB but combos are easier to execute and the game has a larger variety of tiles / stamps (about three dozen) in addition to level hazards. The game has about as many levels as HaB (a little over 100) with no level editor, but it still retains versus battles and it expands on HaB's core with greater level designs and the awesome "Floor" mechanic where you can get catapulted one or two stories high to take more alternate routes through stages. There are also crazy difficult "Championship" levels to push your skills to the limit. In lieu of multiple characters or the Rucksack, HGK has hundreds of items to find which will aid you and aren't just for cosmetics. Kohane can gain a bunch of different outfits which alter her starting stats (Life, Speed, Jump and Time) or buy (From Tobio) / find items to improve your level runs. Treasures, outfits or items can also be found based on your skill on clearing levels (with ranks from D-S, lower ranks have lower chances of getting rare goods) and getting enough treasures or secret medals (3 per level) can also unlock higher-grade costumes. The game, to its credit, was optimized for the Switch and looks and runs great even during split-screen (local) multiplayer with better controls than mobile. The soundtrack is fairly small but upbeat and enjoyable. The game is $20 bucks, but you get a good bit of game here and it's fun (albeit VERY challenging at times). You can get the game at:
This video illustrates many things. Enjoy.