Spin, spin, spin. That’s the motto behind Ys developer Falcom’s latest action platform game for the PSP. Originally a PC-only release, the game’s now been ported by Falcom themselves (as opposed to Ys VI, which was handled by Konami) to ensure a high quality transition and given a few topical extras for the portable system. Highly cute and highly praised when released on PC, does the magic carry over for the PSP version?

The plot or game structure behind Gurumin is that players take control of a nameless little girl who comes into possession of a legendary drill (kind of like Screwbreaker/Drill Dozer). Using this legendary drill, she must traverse a world map that’s sort of like Super Mario World and beat the levels scattered around it in order to recover lost items belonging to the ghosts in the town she hangs out at. As she recovers items for the ghosts, new areas on the map open up and players can continue forward. In terms of length, running at around 7-15 hours like most of Falcom’s other games it’s filled with just enough levels and bosses to satisfy.

As players progress through the game they’ll find all sorts of add-ons for their drill such as elemental additions that shoot fire/ice/lightning/etc…, as well as upgrades that give new special attacks. While the battle system isn’t as deep as say, Devil May Cry 3 or Ninja Gaiden, the game does try to give players enough moves to keep them from doing the same attacks over and over. One neat aspect of the battle system is that just like the 3D Sonic the Hedgehog games, the main character can leap from enemy to enemy in mid-air so as to never touch the ground during battle if the players are skilled enough.

One of the main parts of the battle system is the drill system. As the lead character takes damage from enemies, her drill meter will drop. If it drops too far, her drill “levels down” causing her stats to drop. To fix this, she must raise her drill meter by drilling into nearby objects or finding a level up pit which instantly raises the drill by a single level. Drilling is also important as many areas have hidden locations that can only be accessed by cleverly drilling through walls and many enemies have armor that can only be pierced by drilling (which then leaves the armor on the ground, so it can be collected and used as scrap to upgrade weapons and equipment).