The instruction manual produced for the PlayStation game known as Loopop Cube: Lup ★ Salad (although I'm going to call it simply Loopop Cube from here on out in order to keep those pesky stars to a minimum) certainly gets things off to a rollicking start thanks to its cover art (below), don't you think?
The, er, rollicking continues on the manual's first few inside pages as well, with three rather adorable donning of the titular Salad (that would be the blond-coifed lass) a selection of her in-game costumes.
From there, we get what looks to be a pretty cool comic. I have absolutely no idea what's going on in it, of course, but I'm guessing it's telling Loopop Cube's backstory or something. (Seriously, there has to be a reason this girl is pushing colored blocks into one another from here to kingdom come.)
The next few pages of the Loopop Cube instruction manual may not be as interesting, but that's OK. Things perk up again quickly enough. Plus, you need to learn the rules of the game while reading such a booklet, right? Well, that's the focus of the next handful of pages.
With that out of the way, the folks who pieced together Loopop Cube's manual return to what I'm guessing pretty much everyone who's reading this right now is looking for: adorable illustrations of and semi-useful (if that) information about the star of this particular title, Salad, and, uh, the guy to her right. Sorry, I don't know who he is. Is he Salad's father? Is he Salad in drag? Hopefully someone who understands Japanese better than I do can solve this mystery and then share all of the (hopefully gory) details with the rest of us.
The next pair of pages are the best of the entire manual, if you ask me. Sure, the row of Salads seem more than a bit Stepford wife-ish, and the guy hovering above them is a tad creepy, too, but the illustration is so cheerful and colorful that those minor details are easy enough to overlook.
The rest of Loopop Cube's manual is dedicated to showing off the themes of each of the game's stages. Oh, and that text that's laid over the top of each thematic image? I'm pretty sure those are the lyrics to the tunes that play during the levels in question.
In the end, I doubt anyone's going to call the instruction manual that was packaged with each copy of this PlayStation-based puzzler one of the best ever, but I think it's certainly better than the majority of its peers.
If you'd like to see this game in action, by the way, check out this video. Also, a trailer that preceded the DS version's release can be viewed here. Loopop Cube received a PSP port, too, but I couldn't find any evidence of it on YouTube. Sorry about that.
See also: '12 import games I bought in 2012 but didn't tell you about until now: Loopop Cube: Lup ★ Salad (PlayStation)'
9 comments:
Lots of great pictures here, but my fave is "Salad in drag"! :D
Ha ha! I'm pretty sure he's actually *not* Salad in drag, but that's kind of how it looks, doesn't it?
It's way pretty! I love the background drawings!
Thanks, Justin! Yeah, the background images were the main reason I decided to highlight this game's manual in one of these posts :)
The comic appears to be about how the game was made and nothing about the story at all (except that they seems to have worked hard on it). In the panels that include Salad herself, all she says is "Loopupu Cube!"
The character in the second bio page is her grandfather. It says his job is unclear, it might be at a trading firm or he might own his own company, but whatever it is it is "poorly understood." More importantly, he loves to tell Salad stories while smoking his pipe. Age and blood type unknown, his favorite thing is his tobacco pipe and his hobby is stories.
For Salad herself, she is age 5, blood type O, her favorite food is apple pie and she dislikes fish. She feels wonder at everything in the world, for some reason she has no contact with her parents, but that's ok because she has her beloved grandfather, and he is "very knowledgeable."
Michael! Thanks so much for telling me this :)
How funny/weird that the opening comic is about the making of the game--and that Salad's only words are "Loopupu Cube!" That's just ... strange.
As is the grandfather's bio, of course.
I have to admit that I'm sad that the guy's actually a second character and not just Salad in drag :P
The really odd thing is that "loopupu cube" isn't even the name of the game! Where did the extra "pu" come from??
Have you played through the game yet? Maybe there's more to grandpa there than meets the eye, to be revealed at the end! :)
About the game's title: there's some controversy over what it should be called, actually. I've seen Rupupu Cube and other similar titles used elsewhere, but Loopop Cube seems to be the one that's used most places, so that's the one I used here.
Also, yes, I've played the game, but not through to the end. Also, the last time I played it was a few years ago, so my memory of it isn't stellar.
Anyway, I'll have to get back to it soon-ish so I can see exactly what ol' grandpa is up to/why he's in the game, etc.
To be honest I thought I would dislike this game, but when I watched a video of it the background songs won me over. I love that kind of thing.
Not sure if you've done a post on it yet, but the manual for Warioware: Mega Microgame$! is hands down the best manual I've seen for the US release of a game! Lots of stickers, art and Wario yelling at you.
Post a Comment