Foreign Treasures: Sutte Hakkun

Sutte Hakkun is an “action puzzle” game in which you play as “Hakkun”, a transparent creature that vaguely resembles a kiwi bird.  It doesn’t take long after booting it up to realize that there’s nothing quite like it!  Hakkun has the ability to suck and spit out ink and various objects.  Using this ability, you must help him reach the rainbow shard(s) in each stage.  The game’s levels are not based around hazards, as there are none aside from pits and ground spikes. Unlike many games that required fast reflexes, Sutte Hakkun is a more relaxed puzzler that pushes your thinking power to the limit to succeed.

The first version of Sutte Hakkun launched as a downloadable game for Nintendo’s “Satellaview”, an add-on for the Super Famicom which never received an English Super Nintendo counterpart.  Soon after, Sutte Hakkun 2 and Sutte Hakkun 98 were released, and they were basically the same game with a different set of puzzles.  The games were successful enough for Nintendo to compile the three games into one for a standard cartridge release, simply titled Sutte Hakkun.  This was well into the Nintendo 64′s lifetime, which meant that the game was doomed to stay in Japan.  Unfortunately, there have been no sequels or remakes aside from a Virtual Console release for Japanese Wii owners, making it appear unlikely that English-speaking gamers will be able to enjoy this gem without importing it.

The game’s tutorial is crucial for new players to get a grasp of all the game’s mechanics, because the puzzles you have to solve are various gameplay elements intricately woven together. Thankfully, every bit of the tutorial involves visual demonstrations which prevent the language barrier from posing a problem.  In addition to tutorials on the game’s mechanics, there are also sections of the tutorial which teach gameplay techniques and then provide a practice stage to assure that you understand them.  It’s a simple, easy, and effective tutorial that will prevent a few head scratches once you get into the meat of the game.

Once you’re done with the tutorial, you’ll get to pick which stage you want to tackle first. Most levels are a bit larger than the size of the screen, and the goal in each one is to collect the rainbow shard(s). The objects you’ll be using to reach them most often are transparent blocks. Hakkun can suck them up and place them wherever he can reach, including inside a wall. Creatures called “makkuns” inhabit most of the stages, and they can also be sucked up and placed.  Although makkuns look transparent, Hakkun cannot pass through them, and they cannot occupy the same space as walls and obstacles.

Nearly all of this game’s puzzles involve the use of ink. When injected with ink, blocks and makkuns will move or behave in a certain way depending on which color ink is inside of them. Hakkun can usually obtain ink from a limitless supply lying in a bottle somewhere on the stage, the color of which can sometimes be changed by hitting a certain switch.  If no ink bottles are present in the level, there will usually be a block or a makkun with ink already inside of it. Hakkun can only hold one glob of ink inside of him at any given time, making “ink management” a crucial part of the game’s puzzles. Red blocks move up and then down, blue blocks move left to right and back or vice-versa, and yellow blocks move diagonally. Red makkuns act as a spring for Hakkun, blue makkuns will walk back and forth on whatever platform they are on, and yellow makkuns will squat in place to hit ink switches on the floor.

Hakkun can influence the direction in which blocks travel depending on where he injects the ink.  For example, injecting a block with red ink from its left side will make it travel from left to right and back, while injecting it from the right side will make it travel from right to left and back. Here’s an example of a simple Sutte Hakkun puzzle:

This red block moves up and down, and this picture shows its peak position, but it’s not high enough for Hakkun to reach the top!

If Hakkun removes the ink at this position and then re-injects it…

…the block will rise from that position, allowing Hakkun to reach greater heights!

There are a few other things that Hakkun will have to deal with.  ”One-ways” are a huge part of the game.  They are sections of a wall or floor on which an arrow points in a certain direction.  Hakkun can only pass through the wall or floor in the direction the arrow points.  Another creature that Hakkun can suck up is the “Rockkun”.  Their only purpose is to be dropped on and break things such as glass floors, which cannot be disposed of otherwise.  Hakkun cannot pass a Rockkun, so it can be an obstacle if it’s in the way and there’s no obvious place to put it.  Sometimes Hakkun will come across fake paint bottles and blocks which cannot be sucked up or passed through, but can be pushed.

The best part of this game is the challenge it presents!  You won’t have much trouble in the first world, but as you progress, you’ll be pushing the limits of your thinking ability more and more.  The game offers hints to each puzzle, but looking at one will permanently halve any score you earn on that puzzle.  On top of that, there will always be an “X” next to each stage where you used a hint, almost as if the game is trying to rub it in your face.

Sutte Hakkun is a rare game.  If you want to acquire it legally but don’t want to break the bank, you might want to wait for a loose copy to show up on eBay so you can acquire it for around $50.  In order to play it on a North American SNES, you’ll need to use a pair of pliers to get rid of the plastic tabs which block the cartridge, which isn’t too hard or time-consuming.  Whether or not you’ve imported games in the past, I highly recommend giving this one a look.