Last year I thought about doing a Kirby month. I thought that the little pink puffball deserved some attention. However, there were two things that stopped me. One was because I thought there were too many months featuring Nintendo properties. The other reason was the announcement of a new Kirby game. I thought that it had been too long since I played a Kirby game so I figured I would wait until the new game came out and see how I felt about it. That was the deciding factor and so now it is a surprise themed month. Yay! So to start today I will talk about one of the first games I came across in the franchise. Each Kirby game tends to have a unique selling point and or playstyle. Usually that typically has something to do with the copy ability. However, what sets this game apart is its level design. Unlike most games in the series this game isn’t level based. Rather it has a sprawling world map for you to explore and you go through different doors in each area to find new portals so you can access new areas. You can even team up with a few friends to try and cover more ground. Up to four players can participate and you can even warp to other players if you want using your in-game cell phone. Truth be told, I actually prefer this version of multiplayer because it doesn’t feel as cluttered as their usual style. Nintendo has this idea sometimes that the best way to do multiplayer is to put everything on the same screen. I have no idea why since this usually leads to absolute chaos. I’m thankful things were done like this instead.
Now let’s talk a bit about that whole exploration aspect. The main story basically is that you need to collect the mirror pieces scattered throughout the mirror world to complete the broken mirror and fight the final boss. In each area there is a boss you can fight that will give you a mirror shard. However, each area has multiple pathways to take and its own map to navigate so it can be easy to get lost. Not to mention that area exploration is in a sort of Metroidvania style, which means you need to explore all the branching pathways if you want to find the areas needed for game completion. And don’t expect to find each area in order either. I know I didn’t have that happen to me. Sometimes you might find a branching path, but sometimes it can just be a door leading into a solitary room with a chest in it. These chests mostly contain collectibles that don’t affect the game in any way. However, you do need to find all of the chests to get full completion. You don’t really gain anything from fully completing the game but it is simple enough to do if you have the time and patience for it. In that sense it might have been one of the easiest ones to fully complete, while also being one of the most time consuming to finish. You miss one pathway and then it could take forever to move forward or make any progress at all. Once you do get a lead though, man is it satisfying! You should all know by now I am a sucker for explorative games.
That is at least what makes things fun for me, but I have been neglecting something important. How it is as a Kirby game. After all, that is the reason we are playing it right? To answer this question I want to say that the game simply plays like any normal Kirby game. That means you can suck up and spit out enemies that you find and swallow certain ones to get special powerups. There are a wide range for Kirby to choose from with some being better suited for exploration and some better for combat. Although there is a fair bit of overlap. Typically, Kirby games now have some additional element other than the copy ability, but since this game sells itself on its level design unique to any other Kirby game, there is not much other than a relaxing game to play through. I enjoy that though. It is a pretty fun game to unwind with and the copy abilities are plentiful and all useful in their own ways. You don’t even have to stress too much about requiring certain powerups for some chests once you get the Master ability after clearing the game. Truthfully, if I were to some up my thoughts on Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, I would say that it is a fun little game to explore and probably one of the best multiplayer experiences a Kirby game has to offer. If you just want a laid back adventure with a cute game character, than give it a shot. Did I mention you can unlock different colors for your Kirby? That’s right, references to previous posts here everybody! Okay, I’ll stop for now. This post was a little more laid back than usual but I’m okay with that. Besides who would get that worked up over a Kirby game?
I’m probably going to regret saying that aren’t I? Oh well, see you next week!
That Casual Gamer Guy 