Kirby's Epic Yarn Review time!

So let's have some kind of a backstory here .. When I was younger, I really loved videogames but rarely did I play them myself, firstly because I had an older brother that claimed that our consoles were his, and secondly because, being older, he was obviously better than me and that was frustrating. So for the most part I only watched people playing videogames because I thought I sucked. Obviously that is no longer the case, thankfully. Still, there were two game series that I never, ever stopped playing in my entire life. The first one is Pokémon, and the second one is Kirby.

So, Kirby. I love those games to death, not a fan of platformers usually but the Kirby games are so bright and fun and overall, well, easier. [depends though, Sakurai likes having hard boss fights so while the stages are easy the bosses aren't always so] So yeah, I played pretty much every regular Kirby game [not the spin-offs, they kind of suck imo] and I loved them all. Obviously when I learned that there would be, finally, a Kirby game for the Wii, I was really excited. I was thinking they'd do a game similar to Kirby 64, in sorta half-3D, or a completely 3D game. So when I learned that it was going to be a regular platformer, I was kinda disappointed.

However the previews were promising. The graphic was extremely pleasing and original, and the guys at E3 that tried the game said it was good. And since it was a Kirby game and I'm a huge fan, I couldn't actually hate it. So here's my review of the game. I'll try to be objective but I'm not promising much, for all of the reasons stated above. Also bear in mind that I haven't finished the game yet so I haven't seen everything.

So the story starts with Kirby taking a stroll or whatever in peaceful Dreamland, when suddenly!! an evil wizard called Yin-Yarn [that transforms stuff into yarn] sends him into Patchland, which is a land made of Yarn and other various fabrics. There he meets Prince Fluffy, who is a blue kirby-like creature with brows and a crown. Prince Fluffy tells Kirby that Patchland has been torn a part by Yin-Yarn and Kirby, being Kirby, decides to help the Prince to stitch the kingdom back together.

As you can story, the story is, well .. childish, to say the least. However that's pretty much the case of every kirby game and honestly, who the hell plays these games for their stories? They're just there to form a sort of plot behind the gameplay, that's all. So while the backstory of the game is a little lacking, I don't think it's really that much of a problem.

Onto the main part [in my opinion] : the gameplay. It plays like any normal platformer : a d-pad, a button to jump and a button to attack. Simple and effective. Now my main concern with the gameplay, prior to actually playing the game, was the wiimote. You see, to play the game, you hold the wiimote sideways. I thought it would be weird and unpractical, but no. You don't actually use the A and B buttons, but the 1 and 2, so it feels like any other controller.

Also, in this game, Kirby lose his inhale/copy power ability. It's a bit of a shame because it was something that I really liked, exploring the different possibilities of the different powers and combos [like in Crystal Shards or the Dreamland serie with the animals] However this is replaced by some parts of the stages transforming Kirby into some kind of vehicle [like a firetruck or a sort of rally car]. You get transformed into a firetruck during a fire stage, for example, and then have to extinguish fires before they can burn you. I'm really explaining this badly, my english kinda sucks tonight.

Anyway, some of these transformations are rather nice and entertaining and others are just kinda annoying, but I guess it depends on everyone. Oh yeah, another change in the gameplay is that you no longer have ''hitpoints'. If you run out of beads, you don't actually die, there's no game over. The thing is that you get a score from how many beads you have when you finish the stage, so the less you get hit and the more you collect beads, the highest score you'll get. I think it's a good idea because that way, everyone can play the game and beat it without it being extremely frustrating. However, it alsos leaves place for challenge : you wanna have the highest score possible. So a gamer that wants some challenge will have some, since you lose a rather large amount of beads whenever you get hit.

Furthermore, each stage has 3 hidden items that you can find. Some of them are more hidden than others of course, and it's quite fun to try and get them all. Reminds me a bit of The Great Cave Offensive of Super Star. There are also some minigames but I'm not gonna talk about them since they aren't that relevant and I'm pretty sure you aren't obligated to them at all.

This review is getting way longer than I expected. Anyway, we're gonna talking about the graphics! Now, I'm not that much of a fan of the super-realistic graphics trend that's been going on lately. Sure, FFXIII looks really great and all, but I want my videogames to look like, well, videogames. Not reality. I also really love it when they try to find an interesting style for the game's graphics, instead of just being OH HEY LOOK HOW REALISTIC WE ARE [by the way guys you'll need a HD tv to fully appreciate this, lulz] To me, games with graphics like Okami, for instance, are just as breathtaking, if not more, than uber-realistic games. But I digress.

Like every other kirby game, the graphics are very colourful and cute. Everything looks like it's really made from cloth, and mostly everything is so imaginative. The ''fabric concept'' actually takes a part in the gameplay : you swing kirby accross pits by tying him to some buttons, etc. It's really nice. You can often interact with the background but pulling threads and unzipping things. Plus, like I said, some of the stages are just so damn cute! The Sweet Park one reminds me of an Angelic Pretty print, and I wish I could find pictures of it right now, dammit! Anyway, pretty much every stage is some kind of eye-candy, none of them are boring looking.

The only thing that I don't like so much about the game is the music. It's not bad, it's just not .. energetic enough for me. It fits well with the rest of the game though, I guess I was just expecting some cheery music like Green Greens.

So, for TL;DR people : if you like platformers or are a Kirby fan : this is for you! If you're unsure about the game, give it a try, it's a good one. Finally, if you do not like platformers at all, or if you think Kirby is cheesy, well, it will probably not be for you. I think it's still worth a try though, the game is pretty easy is you don't mind getting a high score so it's not frustrating, and hell, my brother and his bunch of friends love it! And they're all 20s something grown men! You won't be emasculated from playing this game I promise! And in any case, it will never be as bad as Robot Unicorn Attack.

Sooo that's about it. I apologize for the overly long review. I gotta say I write these mostly for myself, they're a great english practise I think. It's also rather fun to think about what I like and don't like about a game, a book or a movie. I prefer doing game reviews though, since I feel like I can comment better about the gameplay and all, as opposed to criticising someone's writing style or something. [Also lately I mostly read classics and I don't think I'm up to the challenge of making a review of War and Peace and Les Misérables haha]

FFf GOTTA STOP TYPIIIING I love typing on my netbook since I haven't fucked up the keyboard yet~ I somehow tend to fuck up beyond repair every keyboard I can lay my hands on for a while. It's because I type very fast and uh, furiously. I'm not always like this but when I'm having an interesting conversation with someone on msn you can literally hear me typing at the other side of the house. I'm not really conscious of this either, I'm not doing it on purpose. So yeah, beware, little keyboards .. :B

/kazumi