[1] Umihara Kawase started as one of the demos on the X68000, which the programmer Kiyoshi Sakai created to pitch it to the character designer Toshinobu Kondo.

While Sakai had worked on plenty of high-profile video games – including Euphory (1987), Boomer's Adventure in ASMIK World (1989), the home port of Cameltry (1989), and Mamono Hunter Yōko: Dai 7 no Keishō (1991) – Umihara Kawase was his first top-to-bottom project.

[5] Umihara Kawase was inspired by arcade platformers like Donkey Kong (1981) and Roc'n Rope (1983), where the player can see the whole stage in one screen.

[9][10] In January 2016, every game in the trilogy was delisted from Steam after Agatsuma Entertainment closed its doors the previous month.

Reviewers compared it to the Family Computer game Hitler's Resurrection: Top Secret (released for the Nintendo Entertainment System as Bionic Commando) and praised its complex utility of fishing line in gameplay.

[7] The Super Famicom version of the game was not released in North America and Europe at the time, having remained obscure in the west since.