Lucle is a 1994 racing puzzle platformer game developed by Vic Tokai for the
Game Boy. The player controls a spaceship made of two discs connected together by a cable. One disc attaches itself to the ground as the other revolves around it. By swapping between them and controlling their rotation speed, the player must waddle towards the goal before the time limit runs out.
Tropes featured in this game include:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Flipping around at maximum speed is very difficult.
- Bait-and-Switch: The cutscenes usually play the song of the next level set, but the final one plays a different one to hide that the final level's theme is an extended version of the level start jingle.
- Continuing is Painful:
- The game only records progress on the beginning of each level set.
- Falling off a cliff means you have to lose several valuable seconds as the ship sets itself on solid ground again, but hiting a bomb outright sets you back to the beginning of the stage without reseting the timer. You might as well reload the file if that happens.
- Excuse Plot: Between each level set there are brief scenes of giant friendly aliens being utterly mystified at the protagonist's "clacker ship".
- Gainax Ending:
- The opening shows a human and some sort of robot piloting the spaceship's two discs, but once it comes back to the mothership during ending 1, a giant hand comes out of the cockpit and waves at the player.
- Ending 3 shows the clacker ship docking on a planet and two people setting foot on it. The ship then starts swinging back and forth as the two people lay down and spin around, giving the planet the appearance of a clock.
- Lost in Translation: "Lucle" is spelled "Rukuru" in japanese. "Kuru" is a sound effect for turning and spinning.
- Multiple Endings: You'll get one of three endings depending of
how much extra time you accumulated. -
Nintendo Hard: The level design can have harsh hazard setups and maze-like paths. If you don't play each stage seriously to earn spare time, the game can become nearly unwinnable. - Poison Mushroom: One item forces your ship into maximum speed for several seconds. Another one does the opposite.
- Race Against the Clock: Each course must be cleared under a certain amount of time that stacks with time left from previous levels.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The faster you spin, the worse it is to move on ice tiles. Some levels, however, have a item that negates the effect of this gimmick once collected.
